Extensive background in Middle Eastern history, Arabic literature, the Saudi petroleum industry, Middle Eastern political developments.

Translated book-length history of the Saudi Government Railroad Organization from Arabic to English for the President of SGRRO. Worked closely with the Translation Division of Aramco on Arabic translations of correspondence with the Saudi Government.

Fluency in German acquired through two years in German primary schools. At the age of 7, my father, on sabbatical from his teaching position at Harvard, enrolled me in the local elementary school near our house in Munich, where I learned German rather quickly. Three years later, on another sabbatical (yes, I wish I had had his job!), he enrolled me in the Landerziehungsheim Schondorf am Ammersee, where my elementary German was greatly improved.

At Haverford College, while studying French and American literature, I spent a summer in Morocco, and decided to learn Arabic. This decision led to a seven-year long association with the University of Michigan, along with the American University in Cairo and the American Research Center in Egypt. Five years of formal Arabic study, and three years of dissertation research, resulted in my receiving the PhD degree from the University of Michigan in Modern Middle East History and Arabic Literature.

I subsequently worked at the Library of Congress in Washington as a Middle East analyst, before joining the Government Affairs Organization at the Arabian American Oil Company in Saudi Arabia in 1981.

Since retiring from Aramco in 1997, I had been living in Wales restoring a 400-year old stone farmhouse. Returning to the US after 25 years of residence abroad, I decided that all this linguistic experience should not go to waste. Therefore, I decided to become a freelance translator. I am free to accept work in various fields, in Arabic, French and German. My translation philosophy is that first, I find out what the text is about; second, figure out what the text is saying; third, render that in the most fluent, yet accurate, English possible. Having attended school in Germany from which I returned speaking English with a German accent; having been asked by Nasir Ajmi, President of the Saudi Railroads Organization, to "rectify" the English translation of the Arabic history of the railroad; and having lived in Paris and Morocco, speaking French, I believe that I can deliver reliable and accurate translations from all three languages into English.

Recently I taught an after-school first year Arabic course to juniors and seniors at the Watkinson School in Hartford, CT. I have also recently completed several editing/proofreading assignments involving transcripts from Arabic talk show broadcasts for MTM Linguasoft in Philadelphia, PA.

At present I am working as a proofreader/translator for General Dynamics on the US Army Central Command's Arabic-language websites Al-Shorfa and Mawtani, editing translations of Arabic-language comments from readers on materials contained on the websites.

I have just completed translating and adapting Dominique Halibut and Jean-Jacques Schmidt's French-language Teach-Yourself-Arabic textbook "L'Arabe Sans Peine" as "Arabic With Ease" for Assimil Publishing in Chennivieres-sur-Marne Cedex, France. This involves translating the French explanations of the Arabic language and grammar into English and "adapting" them for non-French speaking readers. This was a 3- year long project and is due to appear in March of this year..

I am, however, available for additional assignments. I prefer long-term projects of the kind I am involved with now.