What fills my hours: Recently I’ve had a health setback. On the 4th, July of 2018 I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and was admitted to the hospital. In four days they drained 5 gallons of fluid from my lungs and heart. Then they discovered a weak valve in my heart and some blockage. Then they found colon cancer and with all this medication and surgery I ended up with an over medicated kidney and of course they found cancer in my back that metastasized from the colon. To add to all of that I have osteoporosis in my hip and have been told that I can’t even mow the lawn-well that is a good thing. Has not been a good year for me this past year. As we all know at our ages health is All Important!

After Central: I guess in my life I would describe myself as “A Beginner of Things.” From 1965 to 67, I traveled by car most of the east working for a research firm in New Jersey called Pure Water Research. I gathered information from all the waterline and sewer construction companies, and we microfilmed all the info and sold books of them. I got tired of traveling and when to work for the State of NY Controller in Albany again doing research and writing speeches and preforming audits of state and county and city governments. Then worked tor SUNY the State University of New York again doing research on NY Schools now using computers to codify all my research. Then went to work for Governor Rockefeller doing research on funding sewers and landfills and was actually involved in the invention of “Recycling.” Again, I was the starter of things!
Worked on the 6th Floor of the state building in Albany and was responsible for inventing and starting the 5 Cent Deposit Bill that started that form of recycling. Actually, people hated me for making them take cans and bottles back to the store but that only lasted a few years. I then came out of hiding (literally) and no one would hire me. I then went to work again for the City of Albany. The mayor was an old guy but liked the work I did on water research. He had a land development and I helped him create a Learning Center, a Living Farm, Alternative Energy sources – wind and solar, and energy from biofuel. It was exciting times until the mayor died. Story of my life. So off to retirement I went.

Family: My first wife, Diane Handy and I were engaged at Central and married in 1965 she gave me two children; my daughter, Laurie works in Albany NY for the Assembly of the State of NY on the Republican side of the isle which is tough in this Democratic state. My Daughter Beth works in NYC in publishing. She lives in Brooklyn. Diane and I split up and I married my second wife Trish in 1978. She gave me my two sons; Douglas is a medical Doctor in Berkley CA. He was the one in July 18 who fortunately got me into the emergency room. My second son Jason is a civil engineer in Nevada City, CA and is now semi-retired. Trish was heavy into arts and crafts but decided to attend Hudson Valley Community College and got a 2-year engineering degree. She became proficient in Landfill Waste Management and Design and worked for a small engineering firm that was subsequently gobbled up by a larger firm. She and another engineer started their own engineering firm. Unfortunately, my first wife took her life in 1999 based on her business partnership with a man who turned out to be unscrupulous and took all of your family money and mortgage and skipped town. A very sad time for me and my family. I then married my third wife Vickie in 2003. Vickie has three children and I have four so it made for interesting times – now the kids are 37-38 and doing fine. One of her daughters lives down the lane and has helped us view memory pages you and Dave Smith have created as she is a computer wiz and we don’t have one at all anymore. Living with seven (7) kids was a real treat honestly it was fun! Right now, Vicki is an Amish Uber as we live in Amish Country which I like because it is quiet here and we can trust the Amish to be honest. I am currently active in the local small Baptist Church and since Pella have been active in many youth centered activities at a number of churches over time. The church kids love me and while I spent 6 months in the hospital over this past year they would come and visit me and send me cards.

Phi Delta Tau Memories: Remember being part of the first or second pledge class and all the original founders were my friends I lived in a combined 5-man room in Gaas Hall with Nile Vernon, Dave Smith, Fred Fahrback, myself and Doug Dampmon a non-Phi Delt. So, it was easy for me to become a Phi Delt-I liked their counter-culture approach to life and the early guys (the founders) brought me out of being a tight assed German into finding that learning was important and fun. John Daane and Randy Vittori showed me that intelligence and deep thinking were not a way of being a jerk. Thank you, John Cobb, for sending me Steve Struikmans’ Memory Page. He had quite a career starting and nurturing and growing churches in CA and now TX. I recall Steve was a “cow milker” and if he swore in public, he would get red in the face. – Great Guy! Sadly, I remember voting against George Smith becoming a Phi Delt as he bummed too many cigarettes from all of us at Central. But Glad to see he finally made it in the fraternity. Also, a good man and Brother. I think we got the Frat House after I graduated.