About Me

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I was born and raised in Canton, Ohio.  My father worked in a Ford Motor factory for over 40 years and my mom stayed at home and raised her four children.  

One day, an English teacher asked me what I wanted to do with my life.  I thought and then seriously answered, "I don't know, but I want it to be interesting."  Hence, the basic vision was born and the gauntlet was throw down.  

That was over 50 years ago and as I reflect back I think maybe I did.  

Some highlights:  

Regarding Education:  After dropping out of high school to volunteer at a neighborhood center, I dropped back in and finished.  Starting at Akron University in 1972 I kept plugging away and by 2002 I had earned a bachelor's degree (Keene (NH) State College, two master's degrees  (U.Mass and Southern New Hampshire University) and a Doctorate in Philosophy from the political science department at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. 

Using the education and the networks I built I managed to become a Fulbright Scholar and taught in Chisinau, Moldova, lectured local government officials in Ukraine, China, Jordan, Tanzania (including Zanzibar and Albania.  

Of course, it wasn't all work.  I have walked the great wall of china, rode a camel in Petra (jordan), walked through the jungles of Thailand, where I was served a cup of coffee made from the beans of the bush next to the stand and crushed and roasted while I watched.  Very, very fresh.  

And so much more.  

In my teens, starting in my home in Canton, Ohio,  I hitchhiked to California and rode a bicycle to Connecticut.  I picked up the traveling bug when summer before I started high school when my mother took the kids on a trip to visit her brother in Eagle Rock California.  Because she decided to stay into October I actually started high school in California in 1968.  This was an amazing eye opener.  

I had gone to a Roman Catholic Elementary School in Ohio and now I found myself surrounded by students who wore clothes I was not familiar with and, I believe, actually smoking grass in class.  It was a little hard to tell because they hadn't really kept up with the baby boom so there were actually students sitting on the floor.  This was clearly not St. Joe's.  I was back in Canton before the end of October so had some catching up to do.  

As I mentioned before, I quit school when I was 16 to work in a local neighborhood center.  I did a variety of things but I do remember helping to begin a center newsletter.  This was a lot of fun.  

After a while, though, people convinced me that I would be able to do much more to help people if I would return to school.  The school I was in, which was a vocational high school,  didn't actually want me back so I switched, which put me on more of a college bound track.  

((((Still under construction)))

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