I was born in Minnesota and lived there until moving to Cleveland, Ohio, where I attended middle and high school before heading east for college. After graduating from Bowdoin College and attending graduate school at the University of Massachusetts, I taught biology at a private school in Massachusetts. Five years later, ready for a change, I began a new career as a stockbroker. When I became disillusioned with the commission-driven business, I left that job and started a discount brokerage firm and an investment management company. The two businesses grew rapidly, and I eventually sold them to a regional bank. I ran the growing businesses for the bank, but the bank began having problems with its loan division, so I bought back the investment management business and merged it with another similar company. The demands of the new company left little time for fun, so, in 1997, I stepped down from my CEO position and partially retired. At that time, we moved from Portland, Maine, to San Luis Obispo. I wrapped up my final company responsibilities a few years later. Since then, Carol (my wife and high school girlfriend) and I have enjoyed retirement. During the first ten years, we spent about half our time living in our motorhome, traveling, and doing volunteer work in various federal and state parks. Later, we returned to boating, an early love of mine, and spent the next eight summers living on our boat, mostly on the coast of New England. In the midst of Covid we sold the boat, and we now live in San Luis full time. I regularly hike in the area and spend a great deal of my time trying to keep two old English cars on the road. We have three children (two living on the East Coast and one in Morocco) and six grandchildren.