About Me

I was born in New Jersey not far from Philadelphia but my family moved a lot due to my Father's job with the Army. (At the worst point, I went to six different schools in a five year period.) At various times, we lived in New Jersey, Washington state, South Korea, Georgia, and North Carolina.

After graduation from the University of North Carolina - Wilmington with a degree in quantum physics, I held a few physics and computer engineering jobs in Wilmington and Raleigh, NC. While in Raleigh, I did a little graduate work at UNC Chapel Hill (though I was never actually enrolled in a gradulated degree program) and got married.

My then-wife and I moved to Colorado Springs, CO., but the marriage eventually failed. Shortly after which, I was offered a promotion to move to southern California where I have been working as an engineering manager since 2010.

Besides my career, I have a number of other interests. I hold an FAA Private Pilot's license (though I'm not current and have allowed my medical certificate to expire) and I'm a certified scuba diver and love snorkeling. I'm also an avid (and previously scratch but not any more) golfer and I'm slowly getting better. But as may be seen from the rest of the website, however, my real interests are in the culinary and pastry arts and photography. I've attended five week-long courses at the Culinary Institute of America, one of - if not thee - best culinary schools in the world and will be attending another class in March, 2017. I also travel around the U.S. doing all sorts of photography.

No UFOs Here

When one googles my name, tens of thousands of hits are returned for another Jeff Challender. It just so happens that there were two people named Jeff Challender, both of whom were physicist. What are the odds of that? The other Jeff was very well known in the UFO research community. I on the hand, never have nor have any future plans for any UFO research though if anyone has the desire to send me into space, I'd be more than happy to go. The other Jeff passed away in 2007.

Who's Jess?

My Mother was very fond of calling me Jessie though few others did, at least not regularly. Some of my closer friends, however, call me Jess or Jessie.

Who's Cinders?

My cat, thanks for asking. Her picture can be found on the animals page.

Feel free to contact us by clicking here.