I wish to acknowledge the love and unswerving support of my wife, Linda, and my family Stacy, Andy, Elise, Ralph and Nicolle. I also wish to pay a debt of gratitude to my late parents, Betty and Bill, and my late parents-in-law, Dot and Marrel, for the exceptional formal education and business education they provided me. Special thanks go to my son Ralph, a licensed architect, who created the kitchen blueprint artwork.

I wish to acknowledge the contributions of my publisher, Rich O Hanley, and my editors and reviewers, Claire Miller, Robert Vokurka, and George Wells.

Finally I wish to salute my professional colleagues worldwide, who gave me opportunities to learn and challenged my thinking along the way, especially: Karen Albers, Fred Barrie, Trevor Barrows, Bob Beecy, Greg Beers, Jane Biddle, Jon Blokker, Raghu Boppanna, Lynn Boyd, Cecil Bozarth, Ed Brorein, Al Bukey, Tim Buntin, Scott Burchell, Jorge Calaf, Brian Cargille, Ernie Carnicelli, Doug Charlton, Jim Chisolm, Mike Clark, Gary Cokins, Jim Cox, Art Darbie, Terry Dekalb, Oscar DeVries, Rick Elder, Dennis Faerber, Sherrie Ford, Howard Forman, Don Frank, Jill Franze, Karen Wynn Freeman, Bill Gaines, Jeff Galuten, Jack Gips, Tom Golden, Jonathan Golovin, Bill Grauf, Dan Guide, Pat Hanley, Mike Harding, Roger Harris, Safdar Hasan, Norm Heilweil, Don Hons, Dan Hudson, Yvonne Huertas, Radin Ikram, Anna Jeliazkov, Steve Kahl, Eng Lok Khoo, Mary Holmgren King, Andrew Ko, Barbara Kobryn, Gene Kobryn, Guenter Krause, Greg Kreger, Bruce Krueger, Tom Krupka, Barry Jacobs, Bill Johnson, Dan Kamas, Doug Kelly, Hank Kowalla, Kip...