I was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania on April 5th, 1939. I am a second generation of my family that immigrated from Slovakia. They were legal immigrants, and they were sponsored by family members that were already here. My parents were the first generation born in this country. Both my father’s and mother’s parents were the immigrants, neither side could speak English. My great grandmother was my caretaker as the whole family worked for a living and were not available for daycare, so I learned Slovak at an early age. (I now speak Slovak and Spanish, but my native language is English).
I began work as a caddy at the age of 11, processed up through other side jobs then I became a member of the 1957 Pennsylvania State Champion (undefeated) basketball team, and graduated in 1958. Wanting more education and not being able to afford college, I joined the Army in 1958 and went to Fort Bliss, Texas in El Paso where I spent 46 weeks in electronic training in the Nike Ajax and Hercules Missile fire control systems. Upon graduation my MOS was filled all around the country, so I extended my enlistment for 6 months more to attend a Nuclear Weapons school at Sandia Base located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There I also met my wife of 63 years Laurie.
My work history includes my military career and then 35 years with AT&T. Then I retired and went to work for Hope Farms winery as tasting room manager. Also during my work career I co-hosted an Outdoor Show in El Paso on KTSM Channel 9, it was called “Sun Country Outdoors” and wrote a weekly column for the El Paso Herald Post entitled “Where It’s At”. Both were about hunting, fishing, and other outdoor adventures in the local region.
I love to golf, fish, and write. Unfortunately, rheumatoid arthritis has limited my ability to do the golf. My background has many areas of side interests, and they are too many to list here at this time. I would be happy to talk about them if anyone has an interest.