Leslie Houk - An Autobiographical Sketch

I was born in a log cabin that I helped my father build...

I've always wanted to use that line.  Actually, I was born on February 1, 1963, and spent the first sixteen years of my life in Horse Cave, Kentucky ("The Heart Of The Cave Region!").  Just over a year later, my younger brother, Dale, was born, and I proceeded to spend the next decade and a half picking on him.   (If you're reading this, bro, I officially and publicly apologize.)

After graduating from Caverna High School (Class of '80, 75 members) I was ready to move to the huge metropolis (well, it seemed like one at the time) of Bowling Green, Kentucky, to attend Western Kentucky University.  Four years later I earned my Bachelor's Degree with a double major in Computer Science and Biochemistry.

In December of 1984 I accepted my first real job at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas.  Except for a year in Washington, D.C. that I would just as soon forget, I spent the next six years in Galveston working on computers for various departments at UTMB.  I also married my first wife, Mary Anne, and had a daughter, Virginia, who was born on January 9, 1987.

In 1990 Mary Anne and I divorced amicably (and remain friends to this day), and I moved to Clear Lake, a subdivision of Houston, Texas, where I accepted a position with GE Government Services, a subcontractor for the Johnson Space Center.  GEGS became Martin Marietta Government Services, and then Lockheed-Martin Government Services, growing larger and more impersonal each time.  I decided enough was enough, and in February of 1996 took a position with another, smaller JSC subcontractor.  At about the same time, I moved to a larger home in the Bay Glen Subdivision of Clear Lake, and soon became the curator of their community association's website.

In January of 2001, I met Tammy Mancuso, fell in love, and six months later we were married.  Now we, her two sons Scott (17) and Zachary (14), and our four cats Booger, Whiskers, Dottie and Roxie all live together in Clear Lake.  In the summer of 2002, I began working for S & K Technologies, Inc.  In May of 2009, Virginia graduated with honors from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.