I was born in Eugene, Oregon in 1940. My early years were spent in Oregon, California and Utah. After graduating from Franklin High School in Los Angeles in 1958, I attended Pasadena City College for one year and where I was elected class president. English was my favorite subject. In 1960 I joined the U.S. Army and was stationed at Ft. Bragg in NC where I completed jump school and became a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne. I was honorably discharged in 1963 as a squad leader (E-5). I then trained as a computer programmer and went to work for United Airlines in Denver, CO. Being a single parent and looking for answers, I sold everything, packed up the kids, bought a sailboat named it Second Sunrise, and took a year off sailing in the Bahamas and Caribbean. I home schooled the kids on the boat. As a Master SCUBA instructor, I earned some money along the way. I then settled in Pennekamp State Park, Florida. Later, I commuted to Miami to work at Eastern Airlines on the reservation system and obtained my U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Captain’s License. After Eastern went out of business, I worked as a captain on a variety of boats including tug and barges, a research vessel, a paddle wheeler, a ferry boat, an air boat and evening cruise boats. I married a lady I met at Eastern, and we delivered boats for people and businesses mostly on the east coast, Great Lakes area and along the Mississippi River. I then wrote user manuals for the marine industry and received my Master’s in Technical Communication from the University of Central Florida. I later received my MBA in Management from Webber University in Florida. In the summer of 2002, my wife and I hiked approximately 750 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to West Virginia. We settled in Lake Wales, Florida and from 2010-2014 I was elected city commissioner and then mayor. I taught English and Business Communications at Polk State College for fourteen years. My wife passed away from ovarian cancer in 2021 and I volunteer on the Education and Awareness Board of the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA) helping to find a cure for ovarian cancer. I am currently retired and enjoy my time traveling, writing and helping other people.