Doug Akins
Mary Ornberg
“Beverly and I moved to Robson Ranch in 2012 and rented a house on Perimeter. We moved into our current home in November of 2013. We wanted to downsize from a two-story, 3,200-square-foot home. Too much. We had watched Robson Ranch for years. Before moving to Robson Ranch, we lived in many places. I moved to Texas in 1990 from Baltimore, Md., and lived in Flower Mound. I lived in a lot of places before settling in Texas: Columbia, Md.; Birmingham, Ala.; Gulfport, Miss.; Hattiesburg, Miss.; McComb, Miss.; New Orleans, La.; Orlando, Fla.; Woods Hole, Mass.; Alameda, Calif.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Huntsville, Ala., just to name a few. I was born in Plainfield, N.J.
“I am still working as a college professor at North Central Texas College, our local community college. I have been there 23 years. Before that, I was a corporate trainer for a dot.com company, Internet service provider (Netcom), and a manufacturing company (Banctec).
Some of my hobbies include theater, movies, reading, music, wine, and cooking.
“Something you don’t know about me is that my wife calls me the renaissance man. I think it is because I have a wide variety of interests. I have lived in 38 places in the U.S., visited all but six states, traveled in Europe and Canada. I love to cook, and I am a teacher, not just by trade, but by passion. I love sharing information, especially about wine, and I love acting and directing.
“My greatest accomplishment is my students and watching them become successful. I have watched students who have graduated and now work for Google, Cisco, IBM, Mary Kay, Amazon, and others. Many have started their own businesses, and through social media, I can keep up with a lot of them.
“I spent four years in the Coast Guard, mostly on buoy tenders. My job was navigation. This was also pre-GPS, so I did it via sextant(s).
“Most recently, I completed two industry wine certifications, WSET-2 in Wine and the American Wine Expert. I also host a few monthly wine clubs here at Robson Ranch.
“A few years ago, I got to meet one of the wine legends, Mike Grgich. He is the guy that made the Chardonnay that beat the French in 1976 (Judgment in Paris). That was pretty cool. To me, it was like meeting a rock star.
“The last thing I would like to share is that I am incredibly blessed to have a wife of 30 years (Beverly), two step-daughters, four grandkids, and seven great-grandkids, all who call me Opa (German for Grandpa).”