Biographical information for T. F. Kelley, Ph.D.

Kelley, who trained as a biochemist would be quick to point out that he was educated before Louis Pasteur had done his magic, and Professor Leuwenhoek had not yet completed his microscope, thus the little animalicules remained undiscovered. He admits he no longer knows anything of value about biochemistry, and lacking any continuing education credits, something he assiduously and successfully avoided, he refuses to return his degree. He labored several years as a biochemist but it wasn’t long before he recognized that he should have become an engineer, yet not the fun kind that drives the train and blows the whistle. He was fortunate to find a position in a company that produced instruments for the diagnostic testing of blood in clinical laboratories. There he could work alongside real engineers and learned to mimic their behavior, vocabulary, and speech patterns. The useful devices created at that company help physicians diagnose patients, some of whom arrive at the hospital in distress and indeed sometimes unconscious. The unconscious customers were frequently unable to answer one of the big three Emergency Room interrogatories: “Use your finger to point to the place where the pain hurts the most.” That question is infrequently asked of gunshot victims. For the unconscious patient who is as helpless as a dog at the vet; analysis of their blood was called for. It wasn’t that long ago that there was less than a score of components that could be measured; now there are hundreds. Some are quite esoteric; thus there are very few requests for serum Formica. Since making fancy toys for testing blood was a lot more fun than playing scientist, he stayed at that position for fourteen years, six months, four days, and three hours, but as he would point out: “Who’s keeping track.” At an age with retirement within shouting range he became an entrepreneur, having not immediately recognized that it was a French word which meant working fourteen hour days and seven day weeks for unending years at a time.

During those early start-up years he was introduced to and survived numerous interactions with bankers, lawyers, venture capitalists, patent attorneys, and numerous other life forms which were previously unknown to him.

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