Ken Risley

Bio

Personal - Grew up in Michigan and Dayton, Ohio with stints in Alaska, California, Washington DC and the Florida Panhandle. After highschool, I spent a year living on and rebuilding a 50 foot wooden sailboat in Florida. That experience made me a GREAT BELIEVER IN FIBREGLASS BOATS! After graduating from University of Florida on a full scholarship, I moved to Tampa, Florida where I began my career in construction, engineering and began my family. I have two sons: David is a professional blogger, Bryan a former airpline pilot who is doing his graduate study in accounting and soon to sit for his CPA - and teaches flying on the side. Each are married to wonderful ladies, and David is a father himself. My wife, Kimberly, and I live in an airport community. We have a 2000 foot hangar attached to our home where we house one airplane, one truck, and a whole bunch of stuff that "I really need to get rid of". Our streets are for cars AND airplanes. We have two runways. On business trips I open the hangar door, push the Cherokee 180 out, crank her up, talke off into the wild blue, and return later that day. She is not real fast (about 135 mph) but it is sure nice to float over all the traffic jams. Professionally, I am an Engineer, registered in Florida. My practice is in Structural/Architectural Engineering I also hold a Florida Certification as a General Contractor. My companies are Florida Tectonics, Inc. (www.ftibuild.com) and Premier Design and Construction. I also am half owner of a 125 student preschool in the Tampa Bay Area. My passions seem to be any kind of aesthetic creation. That is probably true of most of us. When one finds oneself doing something and then look up to see that 4 hours have passed without noticing - that is passion. I find that happening in music, in music production, in video editing, in animation (Iclone 3.1), in song writing, ham radio and aviation.