About

I was raised on a small farm in Western Washington, although Dad's trucking business outgrew the farm by the time I started grade school. Dad's background was fourth generation German on his father's side, and goes back to the Pilgrims on his mother's side. Mom's background is a bit more colorful with a horse thief/cattle rustler and a convicted murderer (that's two people, not one!) on her father's side and small Virginia plantation owners on her mother's side.  (For a period of time, I researched genealogy including initial documentation of a cemetery in Gaysville, Vermont.)

I've been gainfully employed since I was in grade school, almost always in positions of responsibility. Jobs including raising dairy young stock, clerking in a lumberyard, fry cook, and working in my father's trucking business including a year as assistant manager before going to work in aviation fulltime. I earned my pilot's license as well as my airframe and powerplant certificates while glider towing and rebuilding classic aircraft and light helicopters before joining Mission Aviation Fellowship in 1975.

While with MAF in eastern Indonesia, we wore a number of hats including: fixed wing and rotary wing maintenance; inventory; implementation of computer-based systems; writing a flight billing system; and training aircraft maintenance technicians. The highlight of our time was development of the Maintenance Training Center which included the design and construction of two homes and a maintenance training facility; development of polyglot training curriculum and materials; and serving as a base manager responsible for 11 staff members from 4 different cultures.

In 1990 I joined the staff of a community college as an aviation faculty where I was deeply involved in curriculum and lab materials development and implementation of instructional technology including early computer projection systems for five year before transitioning to a leadership role related to the college district's major administrative systems. There I was responsible for installation and maintenance of new major administrative applications and associated hardware as well as strategic planning and vendor relations related to these areas.

In late 2003, I returned from the District Office to serve as Provost for a developing comprehensive branch campus. In this role I had responsibility for representation of the college in relationships with the neighbors including a University, an airport, other property owners of portions of a former military base, as well as the Federal Government. In addition, I coordinated the day-to-day operations, campus strategic planning, and construction of several new instructional and infrastructure facilities.

Meanwhile, BJ was involved with Search & Rescue for over 12 years and for many years did multi-day hikes whenever she had the opportunity.

We have two adult children. Our eldest is a pilot for Alaska Airlines. He and his wife are parents of the world's most wonderful boy! Our second is married and works as a project manager for a plastics manufacturing company.

I retired January, 2013. We've filled our time since then with travel, woodworking, and geocaching.