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"Dr. Kingsley Ormonde Harrop-Williams was born in Golden Grove, West Coast Berbice, Guyana. He grew up in Smythfield near Berbice largest town New Amsterdam and attended Berbice High School. After nearly a year and a half unemployed, he worked for the Transport and Harbors Department in New Amsterdam. In 1970, almost five years after high school, he applied for and received a four month student visa to study computer tabulation in The United States of America. On completion of the computer course, Dr. Harrop-Williams applied and was accepted to the City University of New York (CUNY) as a foreign student. Attending only night school, while working in the day to pay the school fees, he completed his Bachelor?s Degree in civil engineering and graduated Magna Cum Laude. With scholarships and grants he finished a Master?s Degree at CUNY and a PhD at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He has the bragging rights that he never had a student loan. Dr. Harrop-Williams was a professor of Civil Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and George Mason University. He published thirty technical papers in Civil Engineering, and was the principal engineer on many design projects. His career took him to become a Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia; and a professional Hydrogeologist. He also worked as a civilian engineer for the US Air Force and the US Navy. Dr. Harrop-Williams was the Grand Prize Winner of the National Library of Poetry 1995 North American Open Poetry Contest. He is also the author of a book of poetry entitled ?Poetry of K.O. Harrop?. Dr. Harrop-Williams lives in Virginia with his wife and three children. He considers his decision to become a Permanent Resident after six years in the USA and getting his mother and siblings out of Guyana when the food situation became dire as his proudest accomplishment in life."