Colin Toenjes
Colin Toenjes was born July 15th, 1974 to Patricia and Jerome Toenjes in Chicago, Illinois.
Childhood
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Colin lived in a number of locations in the city and its suburbs before his family moved to a small farm halfway between Columbia, Illinois and Waterloo, Illinois in 1979. He attended school in Waterloo all the way through high school, graduating Waterloo High School (at age 16). He attended college at Florida State University, graduating in April 1996 with a Bachelor's Degree in Meteorology, with minors in Mathematics, Physics, and Communications. His parents and paternal grandmother still live on the family farm near Waterloo, Illinois.
He has an older half-brother named Joseph.
Occupations
- Morning and Noon On-air Meteorologist, KGWN-TV, Cheyenne, Wyoming. September 1996 - August 1999
- Acquisitions Specialist, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming. August 1999 - April 2000
- Meterologist, American Airlines, Fort Worth, Texas. April 2000 - September 2001
- Photographs Specialist, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas. October 2001 - July 2003
- Colin has been employed by Weathernews Americas in Norman, Oklahoma since July 2003 as an Aviation Meteorologist.
Marriage/Children
Colin married Crystal A. Maxwell on September 22, 2001, in Estes Park, Colorado. Their son, Maxwell Jerome Toenjes, was born April 22, 2007.
They reside in Norman, Oklahoma with their three Second Chance Animal Shelter-rescued cats: Tesla, Marlowe and Zeebee.
Achievements
- Chief Engineer of the USS Khai Tam, 1993-1996
- Editor and co-author of the Technical Manual along with Kevin McNulty in 1994
- Honor guard and member of the 78th Marine Strike Group
Awards
Hobbies
Colin is a extensive player of the miniature/board game Classic Battletech and is very active in the Classic Battletech online community. He is also on the Management Team for Another Garage Con, a Battletech mini-convention in central Oklahoma.
He and Crystal are active members of the Cleveland County Genealogical Society.
He is also an avid fantasy-sports player.
Trivia
- Colin once sported long hair pulled into a ponytail. As he neared graduation at Florida State, he decided to cut it short for his impending job search. The "cutting of the ponytail" was a ceremony performed in front of his shipmates, and not without a tear or two shed. The hair was donated to Locks of Love.
Ed Lamb displays the ceremonial scissors
Ed makes the cut while Captain Reddick looks on
Colin holding aloft his newly severed donation
Ponytail in the shipping box, and Colin be consoled by friends
- Colin was also the unwitting source of another Khai Tam meme. While helping with a civic event, he and the other attending members were enjoying pizza for lunch during a break. Not seeing anything to drink in evidence, Colin inquired if anyone had seen a soda machine. It was pointed out to him that he happened to be leaning against one. This quickly spread throughout the crew, and evolved rapidly into "Has anyone seen Colin?" "Has anyone seen Engineering?" and a multiplicity of similar-themed references riffing off of his inability to locate the soda machine.
- Owns photographic prints of the debris recovered from the supposed UFO crash in Roswell, NM, made from the original negatives.
- His collection of science fiction and fantasy novels in paperback is rapidly approaching 3,000 books.
- Was laid off from his job at American Airlines three days after his wedding due to cutbacks in the wake of the Sept. 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks.
