I was born in Teaneck Township, New Jersey in 1967 and adopted by James and Rose Walsh. My two siblings are Kathleen Shaul, the only surviving biological child of James and Rose Walsh, and Kenneth Walsh, who was adopted from a different family. I lived in Lake Placid, New York until 1973, at which time my family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. I graduated from St. Thomas the Apostle Elementary School and Brophy College Preparatory, both in Phoenix. I graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in geography in 1988.

In 1988 I moved to Tucson, Arizona to work as a graduate teaching assistant for the Department of Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Arizona. I received a Master of Science degree in atmospheric sciences in 1989 and worked towards a PhD in that field. Having twice failed my PhD examination, I was disenrolled from the University of Arizona in 1992.

I joined the Young Communist League USA in 1987 and the Communist Party USA in 1988. In 1988 I was elected treasurer of the Young Communist League for Arizona and treasurer of one of the two Communist Party USA clubs in Tucson. In 1989, facing potential expulsion for breaches of party discipline, I resigned from both organisations.

In 1994, I moved to Austin, Texas to work as an intern meteorologist for the National Weather Service. After less than five months on duty, however, despite a final employee rating of "fully successful," I was dismissed on the vague charge of "attitudinal defficiencies." Since I was still in my probationary period, there was little to be done, but I found on request of my personnel records that two of my professors had questioned my "honesty, trustworthyness or loyalty to the United States." The precise nature of these accusations and the names of the professors were not revealed to me.

Remaining in Austin, I went to work for American Atheists General Headquarters under the leadership of Jon Garth Murray and Madalyn Murray-O'Hair as a general office assistant. The Murray-O'Hairs disappeared in August 1995 and were found to have been murdered about one month later. I returned to Phoenix.

After a temporary job with the United States Bureau of the Census and some temporary work as a data enterer, I was hired by the Arizona Registrar of Contractors as a clerk-typist in 1996. In 1998, I was dismissed from that post as "psychologically unfit for duty."

In 1998 and 1999, I worked for several temporary placement agencies. In 2000, I was hired by a property management company and worked as an apartment community groundskeeper, demolition labourer, and swimming pool operator. I was working as a groundskeeper when I was arrested in 2004.

After my release in 2006, I worked for a time as a scorer of standardised examinations. Available work was limited, and, after the scoring season ended, I sought other work. Since January 2007, I have worked as a construction labourer assisting the establishment of city parks.

In my free time, I enjoy participating in internet fora, reading, hiking and mountain climbing. Although I have given up hope of working as a meteorologist, I am still a member of the American Meteorological Society and subscribe to its monthly magazine.

--Kevin Walsh

17 March 2007

Less than one month after that was written, I was laid off from my construction job. I returned to scoring standardized examinations for the rest of the scoring season. From October 2007 to February 2008 I worked at a temporary job as a maintenance assistant at a PVC pipe factory in western Phoenix. After I was laid off from that work, I tried to return to scoring standardized examinations, but I was told that since a co-worker had complained of my status as a convicted violent offender, I could not be rehired. I had not misrepresented anything to that employer and had clearly answered "yes" on my application for employment when asked if I had ever been convicted of a felony.

I was unemployed for several months and tried to make myself useful by applying for jobs for which temporary work visas were sought, proving that these are not jobs that "Americans don't want," rather jobs for which employers want to use foreigners to lower wages. I applied for work picking watermelons, doing nursery work, installing rebar for swimming pools, and cleaning horse stalls, and in every case the employer withdrew the work offer or found some excuse for not hiring. In one case the employer simply refused to return telephone calls from the Arizona Department of Economic Security rather than even interview me for the job.

At last on 1 October 2008 I was hired as a metallurgical furnace operator at a heat treat plant in southeastern Phoenix. I've been working there for three years, and I enjoy the work.

On 23 September 2009, on the recommendation of my probation officer, my probation was ended. The next day I had my last psychiatric visit, and my involuntary outpatient treatment ended. It was a sham anyway. They didn't prescribe any medication for me or send me to any kind of counseling. All they did was have me visit the psychiatrist every three months and answer the same routine questions. I applied for the restoration of my rights to vote, to hold public office and to serve on a jury, and these rights were restored in December 2009.

In 2008 I resigned my membership in the American Meteorological Society. The quality of their magazine had been deteriorating for several years and had reached the point of being mostly "politically correct" fluff with little real meteorology.

--Kevin Walsh

22 October 2011