A little bit about:

Tom McDonald

Mills River, NC 28759

Tom learned electronics while serving in the US Air Force. After that he was employed by IBM for 24 years, working as a programmer on several interesting projects for large-scale computers, including:

	The U.S. Northern perimeter air defense system (SAGE) at Corvallis, OR,
	New York City Police Department 911 emergency call and response system,
	US Air Force classified projects including Cuban Missile Crisis, logistics and large-scale defense systems at Gaithersburg, MD and the Pentagon,
	NASA space program on the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions at the Houston Manned Spacecraft Center, and
	Several other significant but less dramatic projects.
	After that, he worked for a small non-profit school in San Jose, CA, which trained severely disabled people in computer programming. His work there was mentoring graduate students engaged in on-the-job training.

His experiences with the disabled caused him to change the focus of his life to helping others through volunteer efforts. He was the founder of CAWS2000 which provided computer and web support for nonprofit agencies.

Tom was born and raised in Minnesota, and has been in all 48 contiguous states of the U.S. (some say IBM stands for I've Been Moved). He has visited France, Italy, Jamaica, Canada and Mexico.

Tom moved to Denver, Colorado after taking early retirement in 1989.

After being widowed in 1995, he married Norma in 1999. He has two grown children and three grandchildren in addition to the two children and three grandchildren he inherited through Norma.

In March of 2002, Tom and Norma moved to Mills River, NC, where he founded Forge Mountain Webworks, a service providing pro bono website design and hosting for nonprofits. Unfortunately, CAWS2000 and Forge Mountain Webworks are no longer active as he now enjoys his retirement through other pursuits..