Paul Dennis Sporer / Documents & Photographs 5

Paul Dennis Sporer / Background / A wide range of carefully selected biographical information, assembled from various authentic sources, for researchers and genealogists

Page 1

	DOCUMENTS AND PHOTOS - PAGE 5
	My high school transcript. As one can see, I did well in Math, Geography, History (although I stumbled a bit in one semester); I also took typing (I was the only boy in the class); in French I could have done better had the instruction been better. On the basis of my high school grades, and the standardised tests I took, I was able to get into New York University, on a scholarship.

	The Report I received for the College Board Admissions Testing Program, in the Standard Aptitude Test (SAT). For the verbal and math scores I was in the top 5% of all students. My intended fields of study at that time were Music and Electrical Engineering, interestingly, neither of which I actually pursued in school. The second time I took the SAT, I had put Psychology and Engineering as my intended fields, again I studied neither extensively in school.

	My transcript from graduate school at Fordham University Business School, at Lincoln Center, shows the courses I took over the four semesters I was there. I took difficult courses, such as Financial Analysis, Investment Analysis, Organisational Behaviour, Mutlivariate Statistical Methods, and Managerial Aspects of Data Processing Systems. As one can see I got the equivalents of A's and B+s in a number of subjects, and did well in the others. I was overall more interested and motivated in this school than I was at New York University.

	This is my diploma from Fordham University, one part of the school being located on 60th Street and 11 Ave in Manhattan. It shows I have a Masters of Business Administration, without mentioning my major of Finance. It is signed by the President and Dean. It is interesting that officially it is the trustees of the school who, acting on the recommendation of the faculty, actually bestow the degree.

	This picture was taken in Bermuda, on one of our summer holidays. Note the long hair I sported at age 20. We also went, in different years, to Niagara Falls, the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands. My favourite of these locales was probably Bermuda, which was more rocky, with coves, different kinds of shoreline, more varied than the others. I remember that a storm could come upon us very quickly, and then pass just as quickly.

	This is a view of our hotel in the Virgin Islands. I did not like the these Islands all that much; I found them a little too constricted and culturally uninteresting. However, this view from the hotel was great, and I started to become more interested in taking landscape photographs at exotic locales such as this.

	My family and I would go to eastern Long Island for vacations. Here I am in front of Montauk lighthouse, which is the very tip of Long Island. This area is still unspoiled and relatively free from commercial development. We started going out here when I was a teenager, and although it was a long drive from our house (about 100 miles), it nonetheless provided a salutary and relaxing environment.

	Growing up in New York City, I was adept in dealing with city life. I never had a great love for the hustle bustle of life in the great metropolis, but I used its facilities to my advantage. Cassandra came from a smaller city, but learned to adapt remarkably well to the demands of urban society. There are many good restaurants to choose from in New York City. Although I have a wide taste in food, I prefer that whatever I eat, it is elegantly and creatively prepared. One restaurant that I liked was the Four Seasons, and this photo was taken there, showing Cassandra and me in the lobby.

	For our first trip around England, Cassandra and I made a 'grand tour', from London, to York, to Hadrian's Wall, and on to the Lake District. Here I am seen inside the ruins of a place called Rievaulx Abbey, which was founded in 1131 by Cistercian monks. It is an intriguing place, enclosed by hills in a quiet solitude, the ornately decorated columns standing as a symbol of the power and resoluteness of Catholic Christian faith.

	On our second trip, we travelled through the southern part of England. Cassandra and I have never gone on any packaged holiday, we prefer to make our own way, and explore places in our own way. So we hired a car, and went to places like Glastonbury, Salisbury, Cerne Abbas, Lacock Abbey, Longleat House, Avebury and Stonehenge. This is a picture taken of Cassandra and me outside of a church in the area of Glastonbury.

	The sophistication of prehistoric cultures in Europe is a phenomenon I have spent years exploring. Here I am examining an inscription I found at a place in Ireland called Loughcrew (Sliabh na Callighe or Hill of the Witch), in County Meath, about 40 miles inland. This stone is part of a complex of 30 structures known as passage graves and cairns, spread out over the three highest hills in the county. Some of these structures could more accurately be called temples, where rituals were performed involving the entire community. The inscriptions that I found here apparently belong to a later date, and could have been left by immigrants who originated in the Near East. These later peoples could very well have assumed that the structures were temples used by a previous cultural group, and they appropriated them, on an improvised basis, for their own religious purposes.