I was born in Oklahoma to school-teaching parents, George and Elizabeth. We moved to Southern Oregon where I attended grammar school and learned to appreciate nature’s wonders. Living on South Myrtle Creek, a tributary to the Umpqua River, I grew up dunking worms for small trout. Soon Dad began fly-fishing, and the sport grabbed me immediately. It has consumed me ever since. We moved to California where I attended high school, college and dental school at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco. After an internship in Houston and some excellent redfish and speckled trout fishing, I settled in Davis, Calififornia, to begin a thirty-year dental practice. During these years I began fishing in Alaska and internationally. I was asked to teach a beginning fly-fishing class at Sacramento City College. I did so for several years, and thus began my enjoyment of fly-fishing and casting instruction. In 1971, a few fly-fishing friends and I started the Fly Fishers of Davis where I was a long-term board member and served as its second president. Utilizing my love for photography and fly-fishing, I began to give slide presentations to local fishing clubs. My tenure in Davis also gave rise to my family with the birth of son, Brian, and daughter, Deannae. I retired from dentistry in 1999, and moved to Sandpoint, Idaho, where I pursued my fishing hobby even more. After purchasing and remodeling an unfinished log cabin in rural North Idaho, I joined the Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society to hone my knowledge of local native plants before landscaping the property. Using the knowledge from our project and a couple of other properties I landscaped, I put together several programs on landscaping with native plants that I have given to various native plant societies and Master Gardener classes. Along with an ambitious fishing schedule, I am active in the Panhandle Chapter of Trout Unlimited, alpine skiing at Schweitzer Mountain Resort, summertime cycling, helping exercise two energetic German Shepherd dogs, gardening, interesting travel and enjoying friendships.
