Keith R. Carver

Keith R. Carver is Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

July, 2004: Fishing off the dock with Kaylee, my four-year old granddaughter. She calls me Pah-pa.

Being Pah-pa is ... wonderful!

Three largemouths and a smile

Summertime on our lake in Maine. It's 5 a.m. and I'm already up the lake in the boat, sipping coffee, getting ready. The water is glassy, mists are rising everywhere, there's the soft yodel of a loon down the lake, the beaver pushes a new birch sapling through the water. The sounds are muted but distinct, natural. A kingfisher chitters as he swoops above the shore, and there is the muffled sound of a boat way up the lake. Nature's quiet mystical cathedral, which I'm about to interrupt. I put on a fresh wiggly minnow, cast out about 10 yards and wait. The bobber soon starts to move just a little. I decide it's probably just the minnow swimming. But now the bobber moves more quickly to the right followed by a sure determined plunge. Fighting instinct, I wait a few more seconds. The bobber is almost out of sight. I quickly heave back on the rod, setting the hook. Got one! A big one too, who heads for the boat then under the boat, then up to a splashy dance on the surface, then back down again. A hefty largemouth, ol' bucketmouth. I eventually get him into the boat with some help from the landing net. Light glitters from the greenish-black scales of this beautiful fish, a male. I look at him and he seems to scowl back at me. He weighs five pounds. I carefully slide him back into the water. He hangs motionless for a second, then he's gone!

.... June 2002

Some woodworking projects

I really enjoy woodworking and usually have a project going. The most recent is a cherry sewing center I made for Donna. She is an intense quilter and uses it just about every day.

You can see the finished Wesley sign, two panels of mahogany, driving by the church on North Pleasant Street, Amherst.

Here's a nice Arizona handsaw, given to me by sister Jean. It's handy when we get these power outages.

I am a true Carver. Here's a carved letter sign I made for the Wesley United Methodist Church, Amherst.

Cherry blanket chest I made for Claudia as a wedding gift, 1993. Note the dovetailed joints.

Turning a maple bowl at the wood lathe

Wesley Barbershop Quartet

Here's our Wesley Barbershop Quartet - (l to r): Keith, Barry, Brad, Mike, singing "My Wild Irish Rose." Some of our other favorites - "No, No, A Thousand Times No", "Climbin' Up the Mountain," "Bill Grogan's Goat", ... We love to get together and sing. There's just something about barbershop harmony.

Feb 7, 1998