Twenty-eight years ago in 1997, I started Firey Computers in San Angelo, TX while attending Angelo State University. I turned a garage apartment into my office and computer repair shop and looked up to people like Bill Gates and Michael Dell. They had started in garages — why couldn’t I?
I grew up in rural Oklahoma about 20 miles west of Tulsa. Even as a country boy, I always loved technology. In the mid-1980s, I won a contest on KXOJ (a Tulsa Christian radio station) for a free PC Bible game and was thrilled — until I realized we didn’t own a computer. I never got to play that game!
I attended Bethany Christian Academy, a small private Christian school west of Sand Springs, when computers first appeared there. I was beyond excited. We had two Commodore 64s and one IBM DOS PC. I would finish my schoolwork as fast as possible just to earn time on them.
One day I learned Homeland grocery store was giving a MAC computer to any school that collected enough receipts. Our little school couldn’t do it alone, so I convinced my parents to drop me off on Saturdays. I stood outside for hours asking shoppers for their receipts. Eventually someone complained, but with my efforts and help from other students and parents, we earned that MAC. I played Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego, and castle games every chance I got — and yes, I know the pain of dying from dysentery all too well.
In high school in Sand Springs and Sapulpa during the early 1990s, I worked with my uncle Ray at Firey Brothers Music in Tulsa. His wife Diana worked with Apple computers and gave me an Apple IIe — my very first personal computer. I still remember the sound of those huge floppy disks loading.
My family moved to San Angelo, TX, where I graduated from Angelo Christian School. In 1994 I enrolled at Angelo State University in the Computer Science program. The computer labs felt like heaven. Netscape was our browser, chat rooms were huge, and I carried ICQ on a 3.5-inch floppy to talk with people worldwide. I made my first Amazon book purchase and even got approved for credit just to buy my first Windows laptop — an NEC with Windows 95, a 486 processor, and a fax modem. I was the guy taking notes on a laptop in class while images loaded line-by-line over dial-up.
While in college, I worked part-time at Power Systems Computers. I was hired for basic tasks but spent every spare moment watching the techs and learning. Eventually I quit, bought a book on upgrading PCs, placed a phonebook ad, and opened Firey Computers — learning as I went.
In 2000 I moved back to Tulsa and set up my first computer repair shop Tulsa in a room rented from my uncle at Firey Brothers Music on 11th Street. Those were the days of expensive PCs, Napster, and the early internet. I advertised on KXOJ, sold computers, ran network cabling, and performed computer repairs throughout Tulsa. Around that time I changed the name to Fireytech to better fit the evolving tech world.
In 2001 I opened a storefront in Broken Arrow, ran it successfully for years, then moved the business back to Tulsa to be closer to home in Sand Springs.
Now, 28 years later in 2025, I look back at the journey of Fireytech — Tulsa’s best computer repair and IT service company — and see how crazy it must have looked from the outside. It has been full of ups and downs, successes and failures, and endless learning about business and about myself. I give all glory to Jesus for the strength to keep going, and I’m grateful for every lesson that has brought us here.
Today Fireytech continues that same passion at our location near 91st & Sheridan (8988 South Sheridan Rd, Suite D1, Tulsa, OK 74133), delivering the highest-rated computer repair near me Tulsa, laptop repair, data recovery, network setup, and on-site IT services with honesty and professionalism.
If you need computer repair in the Tulsa area, call Fireytech at 918-258-FIRE (3473). We’ll take great care of you — just like we’ve been doing for 28 years.
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