I was born in 1942 in central Minnesota and, as a war baby, saw my father go to the war in Europe shortly after I was born.  He returned in 1945. We moved to Blackduck, Minnesota in 1948 and I was able to start school in the Blackduck school system. I attended school there until 1960 except for two years, my freshman and sophomore years in high school, when I attended St John’s prep school in Collegeville, Minnesota.

After graduating high school in 1960, I joined the Navy for three years and when my enlistment was up, I found a job in the Twin Cities working for Control Data as an electronics technician. My first wife and I married in 1965 and divorced in 1974. We had two children, Christopher and Jennifer, with whom I continue to be close all these years later. 1977 was a big year with my graduation in the spring of the year from the University of Minnesota with a PhD and a new marriage to Dorothy in late July. Dorothy and I have two children, Rebecca and Jesse. We have enjoyed a wonderful life with the children all doing well and Dorothy and I continuing to enjoy our life together.

My health has not been good since 1982 when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. While dealing with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) for the past 40 years, I became very involved in the Arthritis Foundation. I served on the local, regional, and national boards and had the opportunity to meet many of the leaders in the field of RA treatment and research. While the RA was difficult at times, it was manageable and did not keep me from doing anything I really set my mind to do.

My work career has been described in the career section of this site so I will not comment further on that here.  My artistic journey is also described in an earlier section, so I'll only say that I was a self-taught artist until retirement when I had the opportunity to study at the White Bear Center for the Arts.

In the Spring of 2020, I received a new health diagnosis, ALS. ALS is a terminal disease. Many people have lived 20 and 30 years with it. My goal is to become an outlier and be on the long end of that curve. As with RA, I have begun serving on the board of the ALS Association as a way to become involved in helping people other than myself with this disease.

Dorothy and I continue to enjoy our life together while navigating the new trials that ALS presents while enjoying time with our four children and four grandchildren as much as possible.