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Well, there's not much all that remarkable about my life, except my wonderful family. Scan on down through my page and you'll find more about my family and I than you probably ever wanted to know! |
EARLY LIFE
In the 50s and early 60s, the town I lived in, even though a south suburbs of Chicago, had a nice, safe, small-town feel to it. I had what I believed to be an ideal childhood and most of the things all other boys did. I had loving parents who were involved in my activities, a dog, and friends on my block that I played with. I was a Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and Explorer and my parents participated in many Scouting events with me. My mother was a Cub Scout Den Mother, my Dad became a Boy Scout District Commissioner and he participated in many outings with my troop and me.
When I was in about 5th grade, my Dad started taking me to the local YMCA on Saturdays for swimming and wrestling classes and I found that I was pretty good at wrestling. I also loved football and we played sand-lot touch and tackle football almost every Saturday afternoon during the Fall.
My grade school didn't have much to offer in the way of sports except Basketball, which I was terrible at, but when I went to High School, I played football and wrestled all four years. Both my Mom and Dad attended almost all of the football games and wrestling matches. My parents were not particularly well off and luckily, I got a partial scholarship for football and wrestling at the local Junior College so, after High School, I went there.
My wife, Hilary, was
born in Massachusetts where she lived for the first nine
years of her life. In 1959 her
father was transferred to Chicago and they settled in
Oak Forest, which was just west of where I lived.
Hilary and I met
in early May of
1966. I was finishing my first year of college and had already enlisted in
the Marines on the delayed entry program. Hilary was finishing her Sophomore year of High School
and was car-hopping at the Oak Forest Dog n' Suds drive in, which is where we met.
It was love at first sight for me and we dated all summer until I left for Marine Boot Camp. We continued dating whenever I was home on leave and she waited for me through my training, Vietnam, and post Vietnam assignments until I was discharged.
In August of 1969 we were married and celebrated our 40th Anniversary on 9 Aug 2009. Over that 40 years we raised three wonderful daughters and have two terrific grandchildren (a third is on the way).
mentioned above, married the girl of
my dreams in Aug of 1969. I also decided that perhaps college was
not all that bad a thing. I applied for re-admittance to the Junior
College I'd attended unsuccessfully after High School and went back to school (nights) to
finish the Associate's Degree that I'd left unfinished when I enlisted in
the Marines. 
In
May of 71, I left Wilson Sporting Goods company and went to work as a
police officer. I spent almost eight years working in uniformed
patrol, as a plain clothes detective, and in undercover drug enforcement,
and the detective division for about 8 years. During that time I
continued my schooling. I was working nights on the police
department and went to school days, earning my degree in Criminology/Pre Law from the U of I
Chicago in 1975.
of the world's "garden spots" such as Egypt, Yemen, Somalia,
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait. I was TDY
a lot but did
have time, along with four other fellow AF modelers (pictured at right) to
found the IPMS Gamecocks chapter in Sumter. 
in
China Post #1of the American Legion. China Post 1 is one of the oldest
American Legion posts in the world, formed in 1919 after the "Great War" in
China and was officially chartered by the American Legion in 1920. In
order to gain membership, one must normally be recommended. I was lucky
enough to be sponsored by Col (ret)
Hal Fischer, a double Ace (10 kills) F-86 pilot from the Korean
War (sadly, Col Hal
