John's Story

John David Somsky was born in Sioux City, Iowa. There he grew up. During his formative years through High School he cultivated an interest in science and gadgets always questioning, always quizzing his parents, always searching for the "how" and the "why". He wanted to know the way the world worked.

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Both of his parents are teachers. His mother, JoLene Teresa, recently retired from teaching second grade after 30 years. His father, David Paul, teaches government at East Middle School. His parents may be where he gets his inquisitive mind from.

He lived at a small house on Rebecca Street, near Briar Cliff College (where his parents obtained their Bachelor degrees) until he was 3. Then they all moved into their new house in Morningside in order to make room for his new brother, Cameron Michael. John acted as interpreter for Cameron for the first few years. Cameron didn't start talking to others until he was over 3, but once he started, he never stopped.

John loved school, particularly science and math. He has also always been interested in making money. His first attempt was a neighborhood lemonade stand, selling drinks for 5¢ a cup. One summer he was able to make $13 on his lemonade stand. Not too bad for a 7 year old! Next he went on to a couple of different paper routes, a job in a grocery store and being a math tutor until the end of High School.

		One of John's most cherished childhood memories happened when he was 13. He went on the (Des Moines) Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). This is a 500 mile bicycle trek across the state of Iowa, from Missouri river to Mississippi river. The first 3 days he was accompanied by his Aunt Kay. When she had to leave to return to work, he continued for the next 3 days on his own. It was his first time truly on his own, and he loved it. He played hacky-sack, found Lasagna dinners in church basements, searched out conversations with fellow riders, pitched his tent every evening, and pedaled past the corn fields of Iowa. He pedaled up every hill and rode every inch of the way from river to river. It was his greatest undertaking of his life to that point.
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Also during this time John began developing an affinity for computers. He wrote his first program in 4th grade, took his first college programming class in 6th grade, but had to wait until 8th grade to purchase his first computer with savings from his paper route, a Texas Instrument 99/4A. He wrote several more programs, all saved to tape cassette. (Floppy and hard drives were to rare and expensive back then!) He continued to program throughout High School. He was also a member of the debate team where he learned how to speak in front of an audience.
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John went on to college at Iowa State University, where he majored in Computer Engineering qualifying him a true "computer geek". He established close friendships that he actively maintaines to this day.

After his sophomore year, he received an internship with the Control Data Corporation. He alternated rotations between work and school. He worked 4 rotations as an intern for this company. During his final rotation, Control Data Corporation changed its name to Ceridian. Ceridian then spun out the computer products group as Control Data Systems. Control Data Systems offered John a permanent job that summer before he went back for his final semester. However by the time he graduated, Control Data Systems and Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (SDRC) formed a joint venture called Metaphase Technology Incorporated. His offer was transferred to an offer from Metaphase Technology Incorporated. In 1997 Metaphase was completely purchased by SDRC. In 2001, SDRC was purchased by Electronic Data Systems (EDS), making the sixth company John worked for with out ever really changing jobs.

		John also established his main hobby, motorcycling. He got a new motorcycle every year the firs three years after getting his license. He has since consolidated on a single motorcyle, a 1998 Honda Valkyrie Tourer.
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Recently there have been two major turning points in John's life. First, Kristin! Meeting her has permanently improved his life, giving some meaning to life after work. Second, career change! He decided to leave EDS to pursue a new opportunity with a small startup software company. That's quite a difference moving from a company with 140,000 people, to one with 4!