<p>I’m a Cranbrook graduate, as is my brother, a nephew, and an uncle. My sister and mother are both Kingswood graduates. I did not have the personal discipline to see my way through four years of college, although I did attend the University of Wisconsin at Madison. I attribute my Cranbrook education to helping me teach computer science courses (those with PhDs were my peers) to professionals at Boeing, Exxon, Dow Chemical, and Sprint. I have done freelance technical writing for Microsoft and Que Coporation (computer books), was a contributing editor at Ziff-Davis’ Windows magazine, and worked in a similar capacity at Hewlett-Packard for three years. I must have learned something, huh?
Cranbrook has produced graduates as politically far apart as Pete Dawkins (USMC retired) and Daniel “Pentagon Papers” Ellsberg. Michael Kinsley, former Crossfire host and Slate editor, is a graduate, as is former Sun Microsystems CEO, Scott McNeely, presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Bob “father of ASCII” Bemer, and a host of many other notables. Dirk “Derry” Kabcenell was in my class; after MIT he joined Xerox PARC during its development of the computer GUI, mouse, laser printers, and Ethernet; he went on to become VP and Chief Database Architect of Oracle. Distinguished college professor and poet laureate Brad Leithauser was also in my class. A couple of Roger Penske’s boys also went there. These are just a few of the famous names you’ll encounter at Cranbrook, never mind being surrounded by the architecture of Eliel Saarinen and the magnificent sculptuary of Carl Milles and Marshall Fredericks, all world-renowned.</p>