My name is John Rains, and while much of the background behind this site is detailed on the About the Project page, this is a more personal account—about the person behind the passion.

I was born in England in 1949 and grew up in post-World War II Kent, in the southeast corner of the country. After excelling in the eleven-plus exam at age eleven, I earned a scholarship to a public school—what Americans would call a private, church-established institution. Although my father chose the school, its emphasis on the arts didn’t match my growing fascination with physics, mathematics, and music. I soon transferred to Northwest Kent College of Technology, balancing my studies with work as a lab technician in semiconductor development, followed by academic pursuits at Woolwich Polytechnic University.

At Woolwich, I became part of the groundbreaking Molins System 24 project, which redefined the automation of light alloy part manufacturing. The project’s use of IBM mainframes and Ferranti NC controllers attracted attention from IBM, which acquired the technology and moved its development to Rochester, Minnesota. I was invited to follow. In October 1971, freshly graduated and newly married, my wife and I left everything familiar behind and boarded a plane to America.

We arrived in Rochester unsure of what to expect, bracing for a country we only knew through the lens of post-war media. What we found was a welcoming city with a unique blend of cultures, thanks to the Mayo Clinic and IBM. It quickly became home. My early engineering work blossomed into opportunities that took me across the country, deepening both my skills and my appreciation for the American experience.

What began as a two-year assignment turned into a decades-long career. I moved to Richmond, Virginia to join the Molins U.S. Sales office and shifted my energy from graduate school ambitions to becoming an Electrical Engineering Manager. I developed automated testing solutions using emerging microprocessor technology and programming languages like PL/1, C, and Object Pascal.

Over the years, my professional path led me through innovative projects—from creating control systems for tobacco processing to developing one of the earliest adaptive moisture-content control systems for Lancaster Leaf in Pennsylvania, a precursor to modern machine learning applications.

Of course, no journey is without its valleys. Alongside success came personal struggles and a period of transformation. I turned to physical pursuits—racquetball, aerobics, and quiet introspection—to stay grounded. As an introvert with Asperger’s, I learned to harness both discipline and self-awareness, which helped guide me through challenge and change.

In time, I met my second wife and took on new leadership roles, first at AMF Bowling’s Automated Scoring Division and later at Circuit City, where I oversaw automation across 19 distribution centers nationwide.

Each chapter of my life has added a layer to the whole—shaped by curiosity, persistence, and a commitment to doing things well. And through it all, the most enduring shift came with my calling into ministry. I now serve as a Pentecostal minister, devoting my life to faith, service, and helping others find their way forward.

There are parts of my story I don’t often lead with—like my years as a musician during the turbulent 1960s. It was a time marked by creativity, but also by chaos. Like many others of that era, I wrestled with the pull of heroin and the countercultural lifestyle that surrounded it. Eventually, I faced a stark crossroads: continue down a path of music and addiction, or choose the steadier ground of engineering. You already know the choice I made—but what you may not know is that I walked away from music completely.

It would be nearly three decades before I found my way back.

That moment came during my involvement in prison ministry, where I began playing and singing contemporary Christian music. What once was a source of turmoil became a tool for healing. Music, once silenced by pain, was reborn through purpose.