I’ve had a lot of varied positions:
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I grew up happily in New Rochelle, N.Y. during the 50’s and 60’s. New Rochelle was a wonderful place where I was befriended by so many wonderful people. I went to college in Michigan, met my lovely wife Kris and shortly thereafter moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan where we raised our large family of nine children.
Having been trained in computers and programming, we soon founded Abacus – a startup company in the early days of microcomputers. Abacus had a long 34 year run publishing books and software for the growing consumer market until 2012 when we closed shop and moved onto new challenges.
Over the past few years, my strong gravitation to photography has returned. There are probably a few other jobs that I could add to the list above, but you can see that I’ve come full circle having starting out as a photographer and now I’m back at it again.
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A Little More About Me
I’m a child of the 50’s and 60s. I was raised in New Rochelle, NY which many people know as the fictitious home of Dick Van Dyke.
This was a real and wonderful place in which to grow up. We had loads of friends of every persuasion and were located just a stone’s throw from the most world’s most vibrant New York City. My parents pushed to make sure that my sisters and I received the best education possible – not just academically, but world-wise too.
At an early age I picked up the photography bug. As a teenager, my first several jobs were working in photo studios and professional photofinishing labs. Then I went off to college at the University of Michigan after which I found myself heading for an amazing life with Kris who would become my lovely wife and mother of our soon-to-be large family.
With my career in photography thwarted by a lack of prospective jobs, computers and lots of “techie things” came into my sight. I spent several years learning how computers work and the art of programing and systems analysis. In the mean time we “temporarily” moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. We’ve been here since 1973 – a long temporary.
My Dad must have passed on his entrepreneurial gene to me because I was anxious to go out on my own when the first microcomputers appeared. In 1978 we started Abacus, one of the pioneers in a nascent field. Over the next 34 years we published many hundreds of computer books and software packages. We were into early machines such as the Pet, Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Amiga, the IBM PC and finally simulation software for the popular Microsoft Flight Simulator, selling them through major retailers and big box stores to the consumer market and partners throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia.
During this entire period with Abacus and with the Lee household growing to 9 children, I continued my love of photography. As I traveled the globe extensively for business, the varied vistas offered me great opportunities to photograph places and things that I only dreamed of in my youth. And with our large family, I became a very experienced portrait photographer.
The advent of digital imaging merged two of my skills – computers and photography – and strongly rekindled my interest as early as 1998. Fast forward more than a dozen or so years and I continue my affection for picture taking – as a lover of the outdoors and nature, as an admirer of faces, as a recorder of life’s precious moments.
Borrowing from my 60+ years working with cameras, I’ve compiled many articles which may be helpful to those of you who want to turn your snapshots into gallery quality photographs. You’ll find these at Stay Focused.
Now Kris and I have lots of photo activity centered around our twenty grandchildren and travel frequently to spend time with them. Professionally, my special interests are this country’s amazing treasures that make up our national park system. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time these past few years enjoying and photographing many gorgeous vistas.
If you’d like to decorate your house of office with one of my favorite photographs from my large portfolio, please visit my Print Gallery.
Since I’m still planning on being out on road, who knows where I’ll be next?

Hi Arnie:
I came across your flicker collection while looking online for some photos from an event called UAC Controversy at the University of Michigan in 1969. I found your photos of William F. Buckley who was one of the speakers. He is walking across campus with my husband, the tall guy on Buckley’s right. The one that was eventually used in the yearbook isn’t on Flicker, but I’ve always enjoyed that shot.
Thanks for the memory!
Nancy Donohoe
Amazing how ‘old’ photos somehow show up years later with our newer technology. I happen to have several from that day covering WFB if your husband/yourself are interested.