Jay Osborne

This is tough. I don't think I can fill a whole web page with accomplishments and nice stories about the family, because I don't have many and I'm single! Boo-hoo. Well, here's what I do have and what I've done so far I guess...

I went to college at UC-Santa Barbara. I nearly dropped out after one quarter, but hung in there and later got a little more serious about studies. I graduated in '91 with a degree in math, so naturally I went to Colorado to take a job as lift operator at Steamboat Springs, CO. The snow could have been better, but I learned to snowboard at least. While there, I took one day off to visit Corey Kashiwa in Ft. Collins, went to the career resource center at Colorado State, and I penciled an application to Northwestern U. for statistics. Five years later I had a Ph.D. While in Evanston, IL, I overlapped with several other folks from LA; Patty Blake (Young) ('88). I lived around the corner from Patty in Wrigleyville. She is a speech pathologist and a mom now and lives in Lincolnshire, IL. Tegan Corradino (Matthews) and her husband Sebs were close neighbors in Evanston. (Tegan laughed at me and said I looked like a pirate when I wore a bandana during our weekend ultimate games.) I overlapped with Dan Jones when he was at the U. of Chicago B. School and Kristie Morse was in Chicago some of that time too.

While in grad school I started playing squash. That is what I spend most of my free time doing nowadays. I do love it. I've played in 30 or so tournaments around the US, mostly on the east coast and midwest. I helped start a team at Northwestern that is still going strong and is now a top 30 program. I got to go to a resort in Jamaica as a visiting pro and I'll try to do that again soon. If you've never heard of the Hedonism resort and you like wild and crazy nakedness, I recommend it.

After graduate school I took the only real job in academics I could get, as an assistant prof. at Auburn U. in Alabama, beginning in 1997. It was a nice place, a university town with a surprisingly international population. You could even get by without a car, and I did for a while. It would have been a good place to raise a family, but it wasn't the greatest place for a swinging bachelor like myself, so I looked for something a little bigger and found it in Raleigh, NC at NC State U.. I'm now in the biggest statistics dept. in the country. Exciting, I know. I enjoy teaching though and am happy to have found a good career. I was recently promoted with tenure, so that was a relief and a big accomplishment for me. There are lots of smart people in my building and it is a stimulating place. I bought a house last year, with high ceilings for juggling, and a nice garden for gardening. Close enough to work for me to trailride in when I'm not too lazy. If you're ever in Raleigh, look me up!

Other personal items; I'm into many different recreational activities. In addition to squash, I play badminton, juggle, do triathlons (well, one in March, 07 anyway), mountain bike (lots of nice trails here) and disc golf. I used to run (Chicago marathon) and play lots of ultimate, but my knees (ACL recon) won't allow too much of that anymore. I've been able to travel a little; did the Europe thing for a few months after college, went to Japan to visit my brother on sabbatical, went to Russia with friends during grad school, and I hope to go to Punjab for a friend's wedding this October.

I'm apprehensive about the reunion. I'm not sure why, but I'm still very worried about how people see me. I guess I never grew up that way. But at least I'll be there. Sincere thanks to Susan and Rick and everybody on the committee who organized.

Jason (Jay)