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 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 . Occasionally, we visit Gwen's son, Darren, who owns a home in Las Vegas and works on the rigging team for Cirque du Soleil's KA show at MGM Grand.

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.