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Who is Scott Darpel?
From birth to age thirteen, I lived in Willoughby, Ohio, an eastern suburb of Cleveland. Our neighborhood was a great place to grow up, with a huge school yard (Grant Elementary) just behind our house. I guess I liked that old split-level so much that I ended up buying one myself! (Although, mine does NOT have gold shag carpeting, and mirror wall and Mediterranean (ugly) fake wrought iron fixtures - Sorry, Mom, I'm sure it was in style in the 70's.......the 1870's!)
At thirteen, we packed up our stuff (minus gold couch and mirror wall), and moved the Chardon, Ohio, a little further out from Cleveland. At first, I wasn't too keen on moving out near the Amish, but after guilting Mom & Dad into buying me a 5.25" Floppy drive & sweet Okidata color printer for the old Commodore 64, I got over it.
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| My first memory of Chardon was the guidance counselor at Chardon Middle School (Go Trojans!) telling me how conservative the school was. Of course, I was sitting at this meeting with long hair and a hippie shirt. I think it was a hint to cut the old mane. Ha! I held out until my third year of college when a bad mullet led to someone calling me Billy Ray. |
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Chardon wasn't too bad, with the annual Maple Festival, and all. Being in the middle of the country also had some advantages. We got days off from school during The Great Geauga County Fair (the oldest in Ohio), because many of the kids had to get their 4H animals ready for show. I made some good, life-long friends during high school that I am close to even to this day.
Some of those friends are not with us anymore, including the original Wiffle Ball Warrior, Dustin Klingbergs. Dusty, we all miss you, man. |
High School Buds,Nick Spring, Me,
Dave Hillis & Greg Hillis the night before my wedding |
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Scott & Tom embarking on the 9 hour death march in Yosemite
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During my life, there have been many people that have helped me become who I am. It was during my days at Chardon High (Go Hilltoppers!) that I began to know my Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom was actually my Dad's sister's husband's brother (Spaceballs moment...), and not my blood uncle. However, Tom (full name Tom Petrie) was as good to everyone in our extended family as anyone else I've known. Tom was the co-founder of a company in the Bay area named Thunderware, makers of inexpensive scanners for Apple IIGS' & Macs, at a time when there really wasn't anything like it. He actually gave me a IIGS so I could step out of the Commodore 64 world. Tom ended up helping me get through college, but, sadly, passed away before he could see me take the walk at commencement. He believed in me when even I didn't believe I could make it. |
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Eventually, I graduated from Chardon High and made my way to the University of Toledo. I started off majoring in Electrical Engineering, mainly due to my fondness for all things powered. After a few years, two times through Electromagnetics, and a run in with my Discrete & Continuous Signal Analysis (Yeah LaPlace Transforms!) professor over missing a midterm to go to a friends funeral, I and UT parted ways. I still look back at my time at UT with fondness, however, because I did learn allot, and made some more, life long friends. I rushed and joined Triangle Fraternity, a social fraternity for engineers, architects & scientists. It was through one of my Brothers, that I met Jen, a Finance major down the road at Bowling Green. |
Scott & Jen at Bermuda Triangle, our annual blow-out. (Like the mullet?) |
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At the same time I was leaving UT, Jen was graduating from BGSU and taking a job with Avery Dennison in Painesville, Ohio, on the eastern side of the Cleveland area. I decided to move back, and ended up going to Lakeland Community College for a year. I needed to figure out what major to take up. This year ended up being a pivotal time in my life. I met a teacher named Paul Mathews who taught me how cool statistics are (ok, laugh.....but they ARE cool!). I learned I had a real knack for experimental design and statistical analysis. A conversation about this with bud Nick Spring, who was a grad student at Cleveland State, ended up putting me solidly on the path to Industrial Engineering at CSU. |
Jen & I after my commencement from CSU with my BSIE |
By the time I got to Cleveland State, I really only had to take the actual IE courses. This meant about a year (well, it should have been two, but I took 20-26 credits per quarter). So, that whole bachelor's degree took my close to seven years (hey, plenty of people go to school for seven years...of course, they're called doctor's!). My undergraduate time at CSU was 100 times better than UT. The instruction I received in class, and the experience I got working the Advanced Manufacturing Center was invaluable. In fact, I was consulting to outside companies before I even graduated! I went right from college to a consulting firm. And, after a lackluster career at UT, I ended up graduating with honors (and somewhere around a 3.83) from CSU. I went on to get a Master's of Science in Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering (MSIE) from CSU. |
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I started my consulting career mostly in ISO 9000. I was a certified lead auditor, but quickly began to love the manufacturing engineering projects I worked on. I know now that I am not someone who can create new things from scratch. However, I relish the opportunity to improve things, and the processes that make them. I worked on projects at a wide variety of companies, all over the U.S., and even the world. I soon realized that I also thoroughly enjoyed teaching others how to improve. This is what led me into the realm of Six Sigma. Six Sigma led to Systems Engineering, and now a leadership position inside Cleveland State's new Center for Research in Electronics and Aerospace Technology (CREATE). If you want to see more of my work stuff, check out my work page. |
This picture was taken right after I proposed to Jen at Steve Webb's Halloween Party, October of 1998. We went as Marsha & Greg Brady. |
While I love what I do, there are much more important things in life. For me, the first of these was Jen. After making her wait a good long time, we finally got engaged on October of 1998. I snuck it into a game of pictionary at Steve Webb's Halloween party (It's not easy to draw "will you marry me"!).
We got married on August 14th, 1999 in Jen's home town of Napoleon, Ohio. I can honesty say it was a great wedding. Check out our wedding photos at photos.darpel.com. We now have two sons, photos of which are available only to members of photos.darpel.com, our family & friends only picture&sharing web site.
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| Well, that is about it for now.You can learn more about us as you browse through the site. Enjoy! |
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