I was born and raised in Modesto, California.  After graduating from Modesto High School, I attended Modesto Community College, majoring in Law Enforcement. I met a wonderful woman (Rhonda) and we were married  in July of 1978.   I began working at the Stanislaus County Sheriff's office in 1978 in the jail division. In August of 1983,  we went to visit my in laws in Columbia Falls, Montana.......I fell in love with the area and decided to move up here (much to my families chagrin). 

I began working in construction in Montana ....I also worked part time as a  police dispatcher which  led into a full time job with the Whitefish Police Department in Whitefish, Montana. I also was the youth pastor of a church, and a drummer in a southern gospel band.
On opening day of hunting season October 1995, a friend of mine and I went hunting (EVERYBODY hunts in Montana !!)  We were about 25 miles out in the boonies and about a mile away from the truck.  I spotted a deer, raised my rifle and fired, the deer went down....so I started up the hill after it.  It was a rather gentle climb and about half way to the deer I suddenly went down....I was conscious but could not talk or move my legs.  My friend who had gone up another draw would not find me for 30 minutes.  When he did come back to find me he had no idea what had happened, and I was unable to tell or gesture to him.  He knew something was really really bad wrong.  At the time I weighed about 285 and I am 6 feet tall....to big to carry !! So he grabbed my rifle and his own and ran the mile back to  the truck, grabbed my radio phone (didn't have a cell at the time)  he ran back to me, but I was too out of it to use the phone and he was unsure of how to use it. (it was kinda tricky). 

The last and only house we had went by on our trip up was about a mile and a half from where we parked......so my friend ran all the way back and jumped into his truck, drove back to the house....and told them about the emergency we had occurring.  The people in the house had just gotten phone service the day before (thank God!!).

So.....to make a long story somewhat shorter,  The Medi-flight chopper flew up, picked me up, took me to the hospital........six weeks and eight surgeries later I was disabled.  Unbeknownst to me I had a tennis ball sized myxoma tumor in the left atrium of my heart.... its a very gelatinous form of tumor (non-malignant, again Thankyou Jesus !!)  The doctors hypothesized that when I fired my rifle it broke the tumor loose, and it metastasized to my brain and my legs, giving me a small stroke (affecting my short term memory)  and blocked the circulation off to my legs, causing a huge amount of pain and potentially a life threatening problem.  So, the good Dr's of Kalispell Regional  Hospital, realized what the problem was and did several surgeries to repair the problem, including open heart surgery to remove the rest of the tumor.....but alas there was much damage done, and I became disabled.  My legs became incredibly infected which is normal for this kind of injury, and I was given massive amounts of antibiotics (gentamicin and rocephin), and this in turn caused me to loose my vestibular function....in other words, I am dizzy all the time.  The only other lasting result was I have very weak legs, and foot drop  from the surgeries and must wear AFO's (ankle braces) to keep my ankles from rolling.

So....about the only thing I can do is work on computers....and I do so with much happiness !!