Author of Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age Kurt grew up in a blue-collar, immigrant family in Huntington, Long Island. Kurt’s Dad Karl was a baker and his Mom Ann a nurse. Kurt was captain of the baseball and basketball teams at John Glenn High School, an accomplished trumpet player, and received his nomination to the U.S. Naval Academy from the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynahan. While at Annapolis Kurt played baseball and senior year was named Brigade Commander, in charge of the 4500 person brigade of midshipman. He graduated Annapolis in 1990 and was commissioned an officer in the United States Navy. Before attending flight school Kurt continued his education at the University of Oxford for two years. At Oxford, he completed a masters degree and rowed for Oxford where his crew competed in the finals of the Henley Royal Regatta in 1991. He also played on the university basketball team which won the British University Championship in 1992.
Following Oxford Kurt headed to Pensacola for Naval Flight School where he graduated first in his class. Kurt flew F-14 Tomcats and was assigned to a fighter squadron at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach. Injury cut his naval career short, and Kurt was honorably discharged, receiving a Navy Commendation Medal and National Defense Service Medal. In 1997 Kurt moved to California to convalesce and complete a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. Kurt fully immersed himself in the Bay area dot.com revolution, co-founded a digital media start-up, and married a beautiful 4th generation San Franciscan.
The tragedy of September 11th changed Kurt’s path and he returned to Annapolis as a civilian professor to help create the Naval Academy’s new Information Technology major and lectured regularly on the process of technological innovation. He served on the Academy faculty 3 1/2 years and helped direct the international scholarships program. During this period the Naval Academy had the most British scholarship winners of any American University, including 8 Rhodes, 3 Marshall, and 4 Fitzgerald scholars. In January 2006 Kurt returned to the San Francisco Bay area to head up full time his digital media start-up and authored multiple patents (pending) on high speed digital data processing. Currently he advises start-ups and executives in Silicon Valley and lives in Mill Valley, Ca with his wife Johanna and two sons Charlie and Gus.
