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Today's Featured Biography

Eugene Goff

After leaving THS as a shy, lost soul, I entered UT the summer of graduation. I stayed two years and left, joining the Air Force. I spent three years partying in Sevilla and Madrid, Spain. I traveled extensively throughout Europe photographing Formula 1 races in my time off. After leaving the AF in 1973, I went back to UT and got a BS in Radio, TV, Film. I worked at my own commercial photography business, did freelance writing and film work for about six years. I was the Chief Photographer for Austin Magazine and the Austin Chamber of Commerce, but missed some of the good times I had in the military, so I accepted a commission in the AF in 1979. I served another 22 years on active duty, retiring in 2001. Along the way I married Lou Ann Helphenstine, a graduate of Lanier HS, and nursing student at UT. We married in 1977 and have two sons. Jason lives in Tucson, AZ where he's studying architecture at the Univ of Arizona and Brian who lives in the Austin area and is an artist and musician. In 1986, I received a MS in Systems Engineering Management from the University of Southern California. My military assignments took me literally around the world, but as a family, we've lived in Mississippi, Nebraska, Germany (Hessisch-Oldendorf and Stuttgart), California, Colorado, Texas, and Hawaii. I retired from the AF in 2001 as a lieutenant colonel with a total of 28 years of service. I was a commander three times in my career with my last assignment also being a command position. I was responsible for 1800 personnel collecting intelligence in the 100 million square mile Pacific Basin. I was assigned to the Air Force but worked for the National Security Agency. Post Air Force, I was hired by the MITRE Corporation as a Senior Systems Engineer supporting the DoD intelligence. My work had me in San Antonio from 2001-2012. Throughout my military career, I kept my interest in photography, but since leaving the AF, I've been spending more and more time with it, rekindling my passion for fine art. I've also taken up guitar again, something I enjoyed during my high school days. As a person, I'm definitely an open minded, liberal thinking individual who cares deeply about our country and the reckless direction the Republican party is trying to take us.
Update--June 2012: Resigned my engineering position with MITRE to pursue fine art photography full time. Lou and I moved to Colorado where I can be close to the landscapes I love to photograph.
Update--January 2015: Lou and I relocated to the San Juan mountains in southwest Colorado in June 2012. We bought a home in Ridgway that was originally built in 1904. We've done a major renovation of the home and it's where we'll stay for a while.
Update--February 2016. Oldest son, Jason, was married in 2013 in Flagstaff, AZ to Nikki Dragony. Nikki gave birth to a daughter, Sofia, in October 2014. Jason graduated from the University of Arizona in Tucson in December 2015 with a degree in Sustainable Built Environments from the School of Architecture.

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