About - David Defoe

My path has not been a straight line, but it has followed a pattern. I have been willing to move, adapt, and pivot when the next chapter required it. Music, publishing, marketing, photography, and software development may look like separate chapters, but they have all drawn on the same instincts: creativity, problem-solving, and a curiosity about how things work.

• I was born in Bay City, Michigan, in 1966. Bay City is more than a birthplace to me; it is part of my identity and part of my connection to Defoe Shipbuilding, whose history is preserved elsewhere on this site.
• I first attended college in Nashville, Tennessee, studying Recording Engineering and Record Production, with a minor in piano performance. While there, I also played in a punk rock band named “The Agents.” That mix of music, technology, and practical problem-solving shaped more of my later work than I understood at the time.
• I later finished college in Michigan at Northwood University, earning a BBA with dual majors in Marketing and Management. It gave me a business foundation, though I would learn quickly that college only prepares you for part of the working world.
• After college, I moved to Los Angeles, where I spent seven years in the magazine industry and played in a band called “The Undertoad.” The magazine business gave me an early view of large organizations, fast decisions, and the politics that can sit underneath good work.
• During those years, I was also in publishing at the advent of the browser. I saw the web as a new way to share archived content and reach readers directly, and that possibility became a lasting passion. After helping that magazine company grow a profitable department, the department was sold. I then moved to Austin, Texas, to run another magazine distribution company. The business eventually closed when cash flow could not support continued operations.
• I returned to Michigan and worked across several fields, including selling life insurance and investment products, though I no longer hold those licenses. I also worked in production planning at Delphi, supported businesses with Internet and web-hosting issues at XO Communications, spent 16 years doing online marketing for a group of car dealerships, and owned and operated a photo studio. Each role added something useful: operations, communication, customer support, marketing, and the discipline of solving practical problems under real constraints.
• The most important professional pivot was moving into full-time full-stack development. It brought together much of what came before: the creative energy of music, the deadline pressure of publishing, the practical needs of business operations, and my early fascination with the web. In many ways, development became the place where those scattered experiences finally made sense together.
• I have two children, both professionals, who, I like to joke, may someday support me in my old age.

This site reflects those same threads: personal history, technology, and an interest in preserving the stories and records that might otherwise be scattered or forgotten.