From the mid-1960's, until around 1980, I was a professional musician, artist manager and concert promoter, enjoying life to its fullest during an era of general craziness and rock 'n roll. However, my love of music started in 1954, when my first grade class attended a Dallas Symphony Orchestra performance of "Peter and the Wolf". It was at that concert where I fell in love with classical music, and my love of music has continued to grow ever since.

As a Boy Scout, and a member of the Order of the Arrow, I learned wilderness camping and self-reliance as well as a profound love and respect for Mother Nature and all her beauty. I was very fortunate in having scout leaders who cared about helping us learn and grow, and who provided guidance while enhancing the total experience of all members of our troop. I especially remember our assistant scoutmaster, Mr. McCreary, because he made the very best deep dish peach cobbler anybody ever tasted!

Col. Marc W. McCord 125 miles from home. Photo by Col. Michael G. Evans, 1985.

After graduating high school, with intentions of being an attorney, I eventually got my degrees in electronics and avionics. With the advent of the personal computer I began using, then studying, those new tools. Today my profession is personal computer consulting. My business provides system design, configuration, sales, upgrading, repairing, and training in operating systems and applications software. A new service now being offered is web page development for business and consumer customers. Pages will be customized to fit the requirements of each customer.

As a self-employed consultant I provide a wide range of services including new systems design, configuration, sales and support, systems upgrades and repairs, personal computer network design, setup and administration, and Internet web page creation, as well as application software training and support. Please visit my web site called Marc W. McCord dba CobraGraphics , by clicking here, or at the link below under Favorite Hot Links.

I am an avid sports fan, both as a spectator and participant. Being from Dallas, I am a big fan of the University of Texas Longhorns, the often World Champion Dallas Cowboys, and the Dallas Mavericks, but I also enjoy watching golf and auto racing (especially formula oval track racing).

As a participant, I enjoy golf, whitewater canoeing and wilderness camping, aerobatic flying, and target shooting. Other interests include still and video photography, the Internet, travel and non-fiction reading.

Recently, I have become interested in genealogy, have succeeded in tracing my father's paternal bloodline all the way back to pre-1600 Scotland to our oldest patriarch, John McCord and 1620 Scotland, where Clan Chieftain James McCord (son of John) was born on the island of Skye Argyll on the northwest Scottish coast were he was a clan chieftain. Among other things, I learned that over 100 members of our family fought with General George Washington during the American revolution, and that one of my relatives, James McCord, Sr., was appointed as one of President George Washington's first and most important law enforcement officers in the newly-formed Southwest Territory by William Blount, one the signers to the United States Constitution.

I also learned that my family is directly descended from the lineage of Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Kit Carson and Hiram Ulysses Grant (know to most people, erroneously, as Ulysses S. Grant), former Union General and U.S. President. My great grandmother (my father's mother's mother's mother) was full blood Cherokee and my other paternal grandmother (my father's mother's father's mother) was half Apache.

A recent trip to the Van Alstyne, Texas cemetary revealed the graves of my great aunt, great uncle and his wife, and my great grandfather, William Ross Jackson McCord and his wife, Margaret (Mary) Priscilla Parrish McCord. As new information becomes available I will be building a genealogy web page to track my family for posterity. Look for its appearance on Valhalla, as well as my other pages on this web site.