Fate and short term planning collided and somehow helped me develop my place in life today. I decided to join the Air Force after graduation but they decided to assign me to be a policeman. I wanted to go to Europe but instead I was sent to Montana and Guam . Of course, these destinations were preferable to Vietnam at the time. Upon discharge, I attended Santa Rosa Junior College , College of Marin and CSU, Sacramento , earning a Master's Degree. Along the way, I pursued a career in social work and have found this career field to be very suitable and rewarding for me.

In 1980, I returned to Sonoma County from Sacramento . I worked as a Greyhound bus driver for a few years before being hired by the Sonoma County Probation Department in 1984. Since then, I have worked at the Sonoma County Probation Camp as a Juvenile Correctional Counselor. The Probation Camp is located near Forestville and it is a small institution serving boys 16 to 18 years old.

In 1990, classmate Gwen Hewitt and I were married in the chapel in Yosemite National Park. We have lived in Santa Rosa since that time. Gwen and I enjoy road trips, hiking, camping and working in our backyard garden. We have managed to summit Half Dome in Yosemite and camp at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We go to Las Vegas occasionally to visit Gwen's son who lives there.

Over the years, a great source of support, strength and happiness for me has been my friends from school years. Louis Alderman, Fred Miller, Dave Aldridge, Bill Kuziara, Ken Nahmens, Clive Sharrocks and I communicate and spend time together regularly. We try to get away for a weekend at least once a year. This outing is a tradition we have been able to maintain for the past several years.