Geoffrey D. Decker                                
Instructor                                  

Northern Illinois University

Department of Computer Science

General Announcements:

    Be sure to check Blackboard Academic Suite at webcourses.niu.edu for your class and section!

Summer 2009 Teaching Schedule:

    CSCI 210-0001 - Elementary Programming:  12:30-1:45 PM on MTWTh in PM 251.
    CSCI 240-0001 - Computer Programming in C++:  9:30-10:45 AM on MTWTh in PM 253.

Fall 2009 Teaching Schedule:

    CSCI 210-1, 2, 3, & 4 - Elementary Programming:  9:00-9:50 AM on MWF in PM 252.
    CSCI 465-0001 - Enterprise Application Environments:  11:00-11:50 AM on MWF in PM 203.
    CSCI 565-0001 - Enterprise Application Environments:  11:00-11:50 AM on MWF in PM 203.

Contact Information:

       Address:

                Geoffrey D. Decker
             Northern Illinois University
             Department of Computer Science - PM 463
             DeKalb, IL  60115-2854 

       Office Information:

             Office:  PM 463
             e-mail:  decker@cs.niu.edu
             Office Phone:  815.753.6939      
             Department Phone:  815.753.0378
             Department Fax:  815.753.0342

Education:

   Huskie    M.S. in Computer Science          Northern Illinois University   DeKalb, Illinois         1990

   Jayhawk    B.A. in Music (Music History)   University of Kansas             Lawrence, Kansas    1986

Biography:

I was born January 31, 1962, in the Missouri River bluff town of Atchison, Kansas (Amelia Earhart, the famous aviatrix, was born there too!), to a family with three older sisters.  I grew up in the Kansas City area on the Kansas side in the suburbs of Mission, Prairie Village, and Overland Park.  My father, Kenneth D. Decker (1916-1994), was a barber by trade and my mother, Beverly Mildred Dege Decker (1925-2002), when she worked outside the home, did graphic design and art for a large yearbook publishing company.

I graduated from Shawnee Mission South High School in the Shawnee Mission School District in Overland Park, Kansas, in 1980.  I attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.  I nearly completed the B.S. in Human Biology degree with an emphasis in Biochemistry but decided music was much more interesting to me.  I switched to the B.A. in Music degree program with an emphasis in the history of music.  Throughout my time at KU, I played horn in the university's marching band, symphonic band, and orchestra, and also as a member of the local musicians' union in the semi-professional Lawrence Chamber Players, Topeka Symphony Orchestra, and Lawrence Symphony Orchestra.  I also studied horn privately with Professor M. David Bushouse.  

After graduating KU in May of 1986, I worked various jobs in Kansas City, Missouri, for two years.  I eventually moved to DeKalb, Illinois, and began the M.S. in Computer Science degree program at Northern Illinois University in June 1988.

After graduating NIU in August 1990, I worked as a programmer at Kemper Service Company, the transfer agency for Kemper Mutual Funds, in Kansas City, Missouri.  My employment was eventually transferred to DST Systems, Inc., also in Kansas City.  At Kemper and DST, I worked as a programmer in COBOL, Assembler, C and C++, and spent two years as a technical recruiter in DST's Employment Department.  My last two years at DST were spent as a systems programmer primarily supporting the company's postal verification software licensed from Pitney Bowes.  At DST, I also founded and conducted the DST Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble made up of employees and their families and friends.  In July 2000, I was invited to conduct the DST Wind Ensemble and members of the Kansas City Symphony in an outdoor concert inaugurating Kansas City's Avenue of the Arts.

After 11 years as a programming professional, I began my career as an instructor at Northern Illinois University in August 2001.  I taught courses in COBOL, Systems Analysis and Design, Music Appreciation, and the humanities at National American University in Kansas City, Missouri, but always wanted to teach full time.  Northern Illinois University provides me that opportunity, and I am very happy to be here working with talented students and a distinguished faculty.  In 2005 I was awarded the Department of Computer Science Excellence in Teaching Award.  I very much appreciate this honor and thank our former chair, Dr. Rodney Angotti, the Department of Computer Science, its Student Advisory Board, and those students that nominated me.

I currently study horn at the graduate level with NIU's Professor of Horn, John Fairfield, and play in the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra here in DeKalb.

I make it back to Kansas City as often as possible to spend time with my sisters and their families.  My oldest sister, Cheryl (b. 1944), is an artist and owns her own graphic design firm, my second sister, Sandy (b. 1945), is a nurse, and my youngest sister, Tami (b. 1957), is also an artist with a marketing firm.  I also have one niece, Kelly (b. 1979), four nephews, Jason (b. 1968), Shane (b. 1972), Matthew (b. 1986), and Nathan (b. 1990), one step nephew, Tray (b. 1964), and two great nephews, Myles (b. 2004) and Liam (b. 2005).  I also love my 9-year-old Westie, Gretel, and spend as much time as I can with her.

Concerts in Which I'm Involved:

   To be announced.

                   
    Visit http://www.kishorchestra.org/ for more information about the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
       

Interests:

  • Operating Systems - MVS and UNIX systems, primarily.
       
  • Systems Analysis and Design and OO Systems Analysis and Design.
        
  • Playing the horn (mistakenly known as the French horn to some although there's little that's French about it or its history).
        
  • Classical Music - The composers Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Bruckner, Wagner, Richard Strauss, Tschaikowsky, Elgar, Schostakowitsch, Haydn, Händel, Britten, Berg, Berlioz, Schoenberg, Webern, Debussy, Sousa, Schumann, Ravel, Verdi, Donizetti, Bellini, Puccini, Grieg, Mahler, Prokofiev, the Strauss Family, Johann I, Josef, Eduard, and Johann II, and Stravinsky, and the conductors Herbert von Karajan, Arturo Toscanini, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Karl Böhm, Carlos Kleiber, Erich Kleiber, Sir Georg Solti, Dmitri Mitropoulos, Fritz Reiner, Leonard Bernstein, Hans Knappertsbusch, Clemens Krauss, Joseph Keilberth, Eugen Jochum, Rafael Kubelik, Sir Adrian Boult, Leopold Stokowski, Arthur Nikisch, and Carlo Maria Giulini, George Szell...............all are dead and gone, sorry to say.
          
  • The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Wiener Philharmoniker), the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Berliner Philharmoniker), the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, and the Chicago Symphony - performances and recordings by these favorite great orchestras.  Links to their websites are below.
      
  • Traveling to Europe, especially Vienna, Austria, my favorite city in the world.
        
  • Period instrument performance.
           
  • American and European History, especially that of the American Revolution, the American Civil War and the Pennsylvania Germans.
        
  • American Presidential History, especially that of the presidencies of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry S Truman.
       
  • Westhighland White Terriers, especially my almost 6-year-old Westie, Gretel.
        
  • Art
          
  • Architecture and interior design.
          
  • Cooking:
    Favorite recipes - Wienerschnitzel from The Cooking of Vienna's Empire
                                 Bográs Gulyás (Hungarian Kettle Goulash) from the same
                                 Austrian Paprika Chicken from Wolfgang Puck
                                 Austrian Napkin Dumplings from Wolfgang Puck
                                 Austrian Tafelspitz/Kavalierspitz (Boiled Beef) from epicurious.com
           
  • The German language and its literature - reading, writing and speaking it.
         
  • Genealogy

Interesting Links:

This page last updated 05/29/2009 at 20:58:03.