An enriching family environment during my formative years led me to be a life-long, wide-ranging observer and learner.  I am incurably curious.  This is best illustrated on the MY BACKGROUND page. 

 

 ​Example

is not part of teaching.

It is teaching.

Albert Schweitzer

 

   This all began in a single-parent family due to the death of my father. My mother raised three boys from infancy.  We came from a remote dairy-country village of 811 folks just one mile south of the Canadian border. 

 

   Our inherent curiosity stems from our mother's example and positive outlook on life.  She was fearless; indomitable.  One of her travels was to join her sons in Vietnam during the war.

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   Looking back, her her example of fearlessness was imprinted on her sons.​

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    Even though coming from a tiny village, my older brother and sister-in-law lived 8 countries: Vietnam, Oman, USA, Malaysia, England, Wales, Colombia and Abu Dhabi and traveled to over 60 countries.  My younger brother has had similar experience.    

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   Although I could have never guessed at the time, my life's pattern began at the age of seventeen.  It was then when I set off in 1961 on a solo bicycle camping trip of 450 mile around the Adirondack Mountains of New York State.  (Red line on map.) 

 

   (This was 40 years before Apple introduced the Smart Phone with GPS,  and before 17 year-olds had access to credit cards.)

 

   This trip was immediately followed by joining US Air Force.  After my four-year tour, I lived in Vietnam as a civilian.

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   I have lived in seven countries:  Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Sultanate of Oman, France, Canada and, of course, the United States. 

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   Business travel and voyages of curiosity took me to all but two of the world's continents and more than thirty additional countries. These include, but not limited to Holland, England, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Congo, South Africa, India, Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Cambodia, Laos, Mexico, and Brazil. 

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   My younger brother jokingly said we are one of the few families he knew with a foreign policy.

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   I am telling this with a sigh
  now ages and ages hence:

   Roads diverged in life, and I -

   I took the ones less traveled by,

   And that has made all the difference.

              a la Robert Frost

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   More detail, links to articles, books by other authors and other sources, can be found on the "MY BACKGROUND" page.