The Voice - Student Newspaper

Jack of all trades: Director, guitar crafter, booth builder...and Irish step dancer?

Glendale Community College's (GCC) own Jim Daugherty is not only the Director of Technology Research and Implementation (TRI), but a man whose hobbies are both time consuming and very interesting.

Jim Daugherty received his Bachelors in 1978 and then his Masters in Science – Nutrition from Arizona State University (ASU) in 1979.

He then became a registered Dietitian a year later. He has been married for thirty-six years and has one son, Ryan, who is currently attending GCC to finish his AA in engineering.

He doesn't teach this semester but keep an eye out over the next few semesters as he will most likely be teaching Biology.

As faculty director Jim Daugherty's job is to direct the activities of TRI "in its search for new technologies in support of Teaching and Learning at GCC."

He likes to describe his responsibilities at TRI as "We're the ones who make problems for the rest of I.T."

But TRI is primarily responsible for the maintaining of GCC's main website and the eCourse site.

Also, TRI is starting the process of developing an external website on the [Microsoft] SharePoint servers without the hassle of everyone learning HTML to maintain each department site.

Every department will be capable of maintaining and updating their information by simply typing it in.

Don't be fooled into thinking this man is all work and no play, though.

One finished project of his is a custom electric guitar he built on his own.

He picked the type of style he wanted from a catalog and his son, Ryan, retrieved the electric bits and pieces to install. It currently hangs on the wall within his office here on campus.

Although this is the first and only one he's built so far, he is hoping to get around to another in the future.

A recent summer project which he likes to call "The UpTown Tardis" [think Dr. Who] stands above, or rather on top of, the spiral staircase leading down into his basement workshop.

His original motivation to build this telephone-booth-like mahogany structure was that there was nothing to cover the spiral staircase leaving it for the wind to blow in debris, no way to lock it, and no way to child-proof the open area.

He started early summer and still hopes to put the finishing touches on it with a sign on the upper portion of the "Tardis" and some windows.

He one day hopes to get rid of the staircase and build an elevator in its place.

One of his more active personal interests includes Irish Step Dancing. Daugherty shows off his fancy Celtic moves and gets a considerable amount of height with his leaps at the International Festival each school year.

He was also featured in last year's Irish Nutcracker as the Father and the Narrator at the 3rd Street Theater.

He can be caught once again this year but only as the Narrator.