After the halcyon days at JBHS where I was a shy skinny wallflower for the most part (but I had a really cool car) I moved to Santa Monica with my Dad and worked for an uncle in a Shell gas station for a while. I met a girl there and almost got married. But she met another guy who had a cooler car and that was that! I was deep in the learning process of an activity that would shape my future in a most astounding way. I was learning to fly. And I was working for the Douglas Aircraft Company, the largest manufacturer of commercial airplanes in the world. Life couldn't get any better for a guy like me. Then I met Irene. We dated about two or three times before we agreed to get married and tied the knot a year later. When I finally got my pilot's license she was my first passenger. I have been flying since early 1956 and we have been married since June 1957. 2 kids -- our daughter, Teri, and son, Donald -- came along in '59 and '63 respectively. Both are married now and have a couple kids of their own. Don's two are married and one of Teri's is getting married in a year. By '63 we moved to Westminster where I became the Associate Pastor of the 7th Day Adventist church. In '75 we bought our present home in Santa Ana and I became the Associate Pastor of the Adventist church in Anaheim.

After leaving the pastoral ministry in '79, I ran a general contracting company for a couple years before returning to Aerospace at Hughes Ground Systems Group in Fullerton. In '84 I returned to my old job at McDonnell Douglas where I am still employed as a Business Analyst in Phantom Works -- the R&D arm of what is now the Boeing Company. I quit flying for two decades when the kids came because I just didn't feel comfortable taking money from my family to pay for flying. In '84, thanks to Reaganomics (Investment Tax Credit) we bought a new Cessna 172 and have since flown it nearly 3000 hours all over the western US from Dallas, Texas to Homer, Alaska. In '97 I discovered a charitable group of pilots in Santa Monica (Angel Flight) and joined up with them as a volunteer mission pilot. Even served as the Southern California Wing Leader for a couple years overseeing the activities of over 400 volunteer pilots. During the ensuing years I was active as a pilot, public speaker, recruiter and fund-raiser for Angel Flight until August of 2001 when I had a cardiac arrest, a stroke and discovered I was a diabetic all in a 6 week period. That terminated my flying activities, however I am still active with all the other "earth angel" needs of Angel Flight.