BIOGRAPHY

I am native Pacific Northwesterner, born in Eugene, Oregon in 1948. My childhood journey began in the California Bay Area. In my first year of schooling I flunked coloring in Kindergarten, but four decades later I was honored with art exhibits of my acrylics in Portland, Oregon and later digital photography in Olympia, WA.

As a boy I enjoyed performing magic, carving wood, writing, bicycling, camping, painting, and personal research projects. Early teachers referred me to speech therapy and were concerned about some of my behaviors which might be now lumped under the general title of "hyperactive." Luckily, I did not end up with a frenetic, empty life. I graduated from Woodside High School with honors in 1966.

Afterwards I enrolled in the University of California at Santa Cruz, but half way through my first college stint I volunteered for Vista and spent some time in St. Paul, Minnesota. Returning to college meant moving farther north and enrolling later at Oregon State and Portland State Universities. I hold degrees in liberal arts, special education, and technology education.

I still enjoy performing magic for my students, riding bicycles, playing the blues harp, and my self-studies. Apparently the early speech therapy worked because I have been asked to present at over 80 workshops to various schools, non-profit organizations, businesses, and government agencies.

My lifelong learning projects have resulted in authoring over 30 titles and numerous articles on the topics of job finding, career portfolios, creative dramatics, leisure wellness, creative and journal writing, community service, cooking, bicycling, and aging well.

Some of my favorite book and play titles include: Special Needs In Technology Education, Teaching Is Dramatic, Take A Card-Any Card, Help Wanted, Job Search Education, Serious Play, Portfolio Power, The Grandfriends Project, Grill Play, Gourmet Aging, Godot Waits For Homeland Security, The Word DOG. While some of my books remain in print, most of my still popular ones now reside online as eBooks (see Amazon.com).

Overall I am most proud of the following accomplishments:

- Creation of the first "job club" for young people and the first commercially available book promoting intergenerational school-community connections called "The Grandfriends Project."

- Honored with awards for playwriting (about unemployment, futurism, and disabilities) teaching, and an international award for an article entitled High Tech Fad, Low Tech Reality. My essays about spirituality "The Word Dog" and Judy's survival of breast cancer "3B2K" have appeared on different web sites.

- Various essays have been published in Canada, India, Australia, Japan, and the US.

- Two trade books gifted with introductions by leaders in the career field (Joyce Lain Kennedy and Richard Bolles).

- Retrained my kennel dog Jack so he fits into the mainstream. Similarly, retrained myself to move from outsider towards insider.

- Married for 27 years to Judy. She has kept me sane and balanced. To this day, I remain blissfully hyperactive. I do try to answer most of my email and clean up after cooking. And I still enjoy giving workshops, doing some consulting, and loafing in order to clear my mind.