I was born in 1941 in Pueblo, Colorado, graduated with a B.A. degree in Psychology from Case Western Reserve University in 1963 and an M.S. degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Oklahoma in 1966. Upon graduation, I received a direct commission as a Navy officer, serving as a Clinical Psychologist for three years in the Medical Service Corps. One year of Navy service was spent in Vietnam (1967-68). Since military active duty, I have worked primarily as a School Psychologist. I have spent 12 years overseas with the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DODDS), working in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Iwakuni, Japan. My last position was working with the Marine Corps Community Services Counseling and Family Advocacy Program in Okinawa, Japan, as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, before retiring in May 2006.

For the last 6 years I have lived with my wife Kemme in Okinawa, Japan, where she continues to teach 5th grade at Kadena Air Base. I have been married to Kemme since 1975. She is my sweetheart, and always will be. My son Michael graduated with a Masters degree in Social Work from Columbia University in May 2009. My daughter Anne-Elise is in the process of completing her Ph.D. in Anthropology at McGill University in Montreal. In April 2009 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to complete research for her dissertation in Cameroon (west and central Africa). She will travel to Cameroon in September 2009 to begin her research.

In August 2009 we will be at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. This is Kemme’s new assignment as a DODDS teacher. This base is located 12 km east of the city of Adana, which is on the southern coast of Turkey, about 50 km north of the Mediterranean Sea, and less than 150 km from the northwest border of Syria.

I have recently completed my first volume of poetry, "Down In Heaven, Up In Hell", and am attempting to obtain publication for this volume at the present time. Five of my poems were published in the July/August 2005 issue of "The American Poetry Review." I believe that poetry can uniquely affirm human experience in all its richness, darkness, confusion, and beauty.