Born in Rocky, a very small town in Western Oklahoma, with four older brothers
and four older sisters, life was tough with farm work which greatly
interrupted my education.
After
graduation I worked a year in a nearby town then spent five
years on active duty with the Navy and Marines. After discharge
I entered the University of Oklahoma and joined the 45th Division,
Oklahoma's National Guard.
I finished OU in two and a half years, worked on a newspaper in Texas,
then spent two years in graduate school at Syracuse while working for
the Syracuse Post-Standard.
After that I spent a year in Oklahoma then eight years in politics in
DC. Later I entered private sector public affairs until I moved to
Arizona in 1999. Over the years I was an adjunct professor at The
American University in DC, lectured at the University of Virginia and
taught journalism two years at Pima Community College in Tucson.
Interests
I'm a
climber, skier, tennis player and video producer. My hobby is people. But
my writing and doing videos of noted mountain climbers does not leave much
time for reading -- not even the books of people I know or have known.