Obi

Obi is a native of Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Hyde Park High School and served in the U.S. Air Force. He did his basic training at Lackland Air Force Base (AFB) in San Antonio, Texas, then went for further training at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, Texas. He was stationed in Darmstadt, Germany, for three years working in intelligence. After a short return to the U.S. where he worked at several odd jobs including six months as an assembler for an electronics company near Mt. Vernon, New York, he spent 15 months traveling in Europe where he hitch-hiked from Lapland in Scandinavia to Morocco in North Africa working along the way at a variety of jobs from farm hand to factory worker to dishwasher to carpenter's assistant, mainly in Sweden and Germany. His travels have taken him to Oslo, Norway; Copenhagen, Denmark; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Paris, France; Cologne, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; and Tangier, Morocco. Upon his return to the United States he attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he majored in Philosophy and minored in English. He did further graduate work and later attended the John Marshall Law School, earning a Juris Doctor degree. He has also done graduate work in Computer Science and Telecommunications at De Paul University. He has worked in Chicago and throughout the United States as a computer consultant designing and implementing fault-tolerant applications in a wide range in industries from banking to transportation to manufacturing. He has worked as a criminal defense attorney representing high-profile death row inmates, several of whom were released pursuant to DNA testing. He has been active in third-party politics. He has studied art and photography at Chicago State University, and has won awards for several of his images. Some of his photographs have been published. He has also found time for a full and rich family life, with seven children and three grandchildren. His hobbies include physical training and martial arts, African and Conga drumming, and yoga and meditation. He currently works and lives with his family in Chicago.