Who Am I?

First and foremost, I am a husband and a father.  Most of my free time is spent with my wife Beth and my kids Rebecca, Mariah, Julia, Suzanna, and Thomas.  Beth and I met while we were undergraduates at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, where we were both members of the Epsilon Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity.  Beth is a registered nurse who now teaches part time in the nursing program at Olympic College in Bremerton.  She is also a CPR and first aid instructor (see kitsapcpr.com).

We live just outside of Bremerton, Washington, which is on the opposite side of Puget Sound from Seattle.  Since I work in Seattle, I commute daily by ferry across the sound.

My favorite pastimes include backpacking, hiking, canoeing, and camping.  Perhaps my favorite activity of all is backpacking.  By the time I graduated from college, I had already done more than 3,000 miles of backpacking, and I had spent four summers living out of a tent.  Beth and I got engaged on the trail at Zion National Park in Utah (see photo at left).  Since we began having children, I have not been able go backpacking nearly as often, but I still camp and day hike as often as possible.