Since then . . .

After high school graduation, I started college at the University of Florida, Gainesville, where I played freshman basketball. I was NOT invited to join the varsity team. During my sophomore year, my father died, at age 54, shortly after he and my mother had moved back to Minnesota. I moved back to Minnesota to be with my mother and transferred my U of F credits to the University of Minnesota. Shortly after starting at the U of M, I was drafted into the Army for the �big one�, the Berlin crisis (you may not remember it!). During my two year tour, I spent time at Ft. Carson, Colorado, Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, and Ft. Devens, Massachusetts from where I was discharged .

I returned to Minnesota and took a job with Honeywell, Inc. at their Corporate Research Center. I joined a group that was conducting basic research in bio-medical and life sciences. I worked part time and went to school part time at the U of M where I finally obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Zoology. It was during this time that I met and married the beautiful Barbara Ann who has been my life-long love for nearly 40 years.

I worked for the Corporate Research Center for 11 years where the only �product� was technical writing. I was fortunate to be the author or co-author of 7 technical papers, one patent (No. 3,814,687) and one patent pending. These writings describe experimentation in immunology which demonstrated improved methods of clinical evaluation of T and B lymphocytes in human peripheral blood, techniques for the preparation of human blood samples for automated white cell differential counts and experimentation to determine the post-perception fate of odor molecules using electron radioutographic techniques.

I then transferred to Honeywell Information Systems, the computer division of Honeywell. I joined a group that was designing, writing and implementing applications software on 16-bit minicomputers. I spent 22 years with this group during which time we developed software for hospital laboratories (U. S. Air Force and private hospitals), medical records departments (private hospitals), radiology departments (private hospitals), Navy non-tactical shipboard computers (SNAP) and district courts (Iowa Court Information System). This job, in contrast to my previous Honeywell job (when I never left town!), required abundant travel which took me from Georgia to Alaska and Massachusetts to southern California. By the time I retired in 1996, I had all the travel at company expense that I wanted.

Barb and I have always shared a love of nature and the outdoors and have spent a great deal of time satisfying that passion. We have owned a lakeshore cabin in Northwestern Ontario for over 35 years which we continue to visit 4 - 6 times a year. For nearly 30 years, we have owned a 160 acre abandoned farmstead in west-central Minnesota which we have developed as a wildlife reserve. The property is a mix of hardwood forests, open prairie, prairie potholes and lakeshore (Lake Gilchrist) all contained on very hilly glacial moraine. Over the years, we have planted over 22,000 trees and shrubs suitable for wildlife, established a 90-nestbox bluebird trail, re-established surface water ponds by plugging any previously drained low areas, established waterfowl nesting ponds by removing floating vegetation in a large marsh, established 6 miles of groomed hiking trails and planted a 5 acre corn food plot (annually) for deer, pheasants and wild turkeys.

We now live in the woods on this wildlife reserve in a geodesic dome home we built in 1998. Barb is a very active volunteer for our local animal humane society and I spend time helping local seniors discover the wonders of email and the internet on the computers that their kids buy for them. We both deliver meals-on-wheels to house-bound seniors in our local town on a weekly basis.

In short, LIFE IS GOOD!