Occupation: I’ve had two careers: mechanical engineer, and a schoolteacher. I did each for 20-some- odd years before I retired in 2004. I taught math at Newtown Middle School and at Bassick High School in Bridgeport.

Family: My wife Christy and I have two sons, Louis, our oldest, and Christopher. They’re both married. Louis and Maureen live in Newtown. Christopher is in the Navy. He and his wife, Shiloh, are stationed in Washington State now. They have a daughter, Sarai, who just turned 1 year old. She’s gorgeous.

How long have you lived in Newtown? We moved here from Stratford in 1967.

What do you like to do in your free time? I have many interests. I spend a lot of time with my clocks, adjusting them and fixing them. My passion is old pendulum type clocks. I own 30 or 40 of them. I get together with people I’ve worked with regularly. Some of us do a weekly lunch get-together, and there are two other groups that I meet with monthly. I also collect old Zenith trans-oceanic portable radios. These are shortwave radios that can tune in stations from all over the world. The only limitations are atmospheric conditions. And I do a lot of reading.

Do you have a favorite book? I like science and astronomy books. I have too many interests to stick to one author, though. I recently finished a book about particle physics. I’m also reading U-Boats At War by Harald Busch, about World War II submarine activities, and I just got a book from the Library of Congress through our Booth Library about a French clock I own, a Morbier. It’s the history and the mechanics of the clock.

Do you have a favorite travel destination? We used to go up to Echo Lake in Vermont when the boys were younger, and that’s one of our favorite spots. We went to Washington recently, and that was a new environment for me. Our son is stationed at Bangor Base near Seattle. We went up Hurricane Ridge and from there, you can see Mount Olympus. The panoramic is magnificent. It was interesting — people there take ferries across fjords in Puget Sound like we take Route 25 to go somewhere.

What is the best thing about Newtown? Newtown is very picturesque. I grew up in a city in a multistory apartment, so here, the first thing I reacted to was the space. I enjoy that. We have a birdfeeder in our yard, and over the years we’ve kept a list of the birds that have visited — about 50 different kinds. There’s an abundance of wildlife here that we truly enjoy seeing. Plus, Newtown is never more than 15 to 30 minutes from anywhere you need to go. The people are friendly and accommodating; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been here for so many years!

What is the greatest change you have seen in Newtown? A lot has really remained the same, but there are changes: like the fact that we’ve acquired Fairfield Hills; the schools have gotten larger and there are more of them; and certainly the budgets have grown. But in spite of the changes, Newtown has retained a rural feeling.

Do you have someone that you admire? My father. He came from the Middle East in the 1920s and really embraced this country. He read encyclopedias and histories and was more American than many Americans I know. He had a high regard for the government, and he instilled that in all of us. He always taught us that you accept people for who they are.

Do you have a personal philosophy? Live and let live. When I was a student in high school, one of my teacher’s comments was: Freedom is the right to do what you ought to do. That’s pretty much where I came from. People think that freedom is the right to do what they want to do — it’s about doing what you ought to.

What makes you laugh? My most recent reason to laugh is my granddaughter. She is just learning to walk. To see the look on her face when she comes around the corner in the room and that big smile on her face just lights me up. And when I see the same expression on her face that I recognize from my son, that’s another thing that lights me up. And my wife, too — she has been my rock, and we’ve had many good laughs together.