After graduating from OHS, I attended WMU graduating in 1977. I then went to work for a company in Niagara Falls, NY that supplied chemicals and technology to the pulp and paper industry. In this job I got to travel all across North America and also had several extended job postings in Europe and South America. During my travels for work, one of the places I liked the most was British Columbia and, as luck would have it, I was able to transfer to a sister company there in 1981. This was also a job supplying the pulp and paper industry, but my region was mostly just western Canada.

In 1983, after months of pestering by friends, I went on a blind date with the woman who would become my wife – Charmaine. We were married in 1984 and continued to live in the Vancouver, BC area until 1989. In June of 1989 our first son, Geoffrey, was born and in December of that year I started a new job which required us to move to Vancouver, WA (yeah, we confused a lot of people).

In August of 1991 our second son, Michael, was born. And so for the next 20+ years, our lives revolved around sports, music, school and work. I continued to travel a lot, so Charmaine was home holding down the fort and keeping things running smoothly. My sons are very lucky to have the mother they do.

We have always loved to travel and we did quite a few trips as the boys were growing. Many of our vacations started in Kalamazoo and then branched out from there. Charmaine has extensive family in Toronto, so we also combined trips to Michigan and Ontario.

Both of our sons graduated from the University of Washington and after Michael’s graduation in 2015, I made plans to retire. So in January 2016 I left the work world and settled into retirement. Travel is still a passion, but the last couple of years have put a damper on things. Charmaine and I have set several goals for ourselves – visit all of the states and provinces (Charmaine still needs Alaska and we both need Labrador/Newfoundland) and to see how many of the 63 national parks we can visit. So far we have been to 37 and hopefully we will have reached 42 by the end of September. One of our favorite places to go is the Oregon coast, which we visit several times a year in our trailer.

In September of last year, despite Covid, our son Geoff was married to Madison. Their reception afterword was awesome and everyone commented on how much they enjoyed finally getting to be together for a change. It had been a loooong year and a half at this point. Our son Michael was the officiant at the wedding, so it was a very special day for us.

I feel very blessed to have the family I have and for the good health (knock on wood) that we have all enjoyed. I am looking forward to more great adventures and spending more time with my family.