My Background
Family, Early Life and Schooling
Family
I was born in 1960. My parents were William and Carolyn D. Piccone (both now deceased). I was the third of six children. I have two older brothers (William and Richard), two younger brothers (Robert and Stephen), and a sister (Carolyn), who is the youngest of the six. It should be pretty easy to pick me out in the two family photos provided.
I am of mixed ethnic background. My father's father was Italian, and my father's mother was Irish. My mother's father was German, and my mother's mother was Irish. That makes me nominally half Irish, a quarter German, and a quarter Italian, although it is possible that my background includes a bit of Spanish and/or English (I have nearly no knowledge of my ancestors before my grandparents, but I have heard vague rumors of this possibility).
Four of my five siblings never married. I was 44 years old when I got married. My wife is a Malaysian Chinese woman who had also not previously married. We do not have children.
Early Life and Schooling
I lived in a row house in the West Oak Lane section of northwest Philadelphia until the summer after I reached age nine (1969). I attended a parochial school (St. Athanasius School) from kindergarten to third grade. I was involved in a rhythm band in first grade and a choir in third grade. I never played any type of musical instrument after first grade, even though my mother was a musician and we had both a piano and an organ in my family's home.
My family moved to Levittown, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1969. I attended St. Michael the Archangel School there from fourth grade to eighth grade. I won an award for General Excellence in eighth grade. I worked one summer at a department store called Pomeroys, first assisting with inventory and then working as a porter (mainly emptying office trash cans). I began delivering daily newspapers in my neighborhood for the Bucks County Courier Times when I was twelve years old and continued through the end of high school. I attended Woodrow Wilson High School (since renamed) for four years. In high school, I won the Chemistry award as a junior and the Physics and Mathematics awards as a senior. I played several sports (baseball, bowling, cross country, track). I participated in the Mathletes club and was the captain in my senior year. I graduated sixth in my class out of 434 students.
I left home to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978. For further information on my education past high school, see my Education page and my LinkedIn site (if you are a member).
September 2005
