Comments:
From Harding, I went to Washington and Lee University, and after graduating in 1963, I joined the Peace Corps. After serving in Sierra Leone for seven months, I had a serious automobile accident and return to the U.S. I ended up working with the Peace Corps for three and a half years, first in Washington, DC and then as a staff member at the Virgin Islands Training Center on St. Thomas.
I went to graduate school at the University of Massachusetts from 1968-73, where I received a doctorate in international education. At UMass, I was director of the Global Survival Freshman Year Program, a special interdisciplinary program focusing on global issues, from 1973-77 and then associate director for education of the University’s Energy Office from 1977-80.
In 1980, my former wife, Pat, and I moved to Seattle. I began a consulting business concentrating on the design, development and delivery of training programs for businesses and organizations, and my clients included Boeing and Microsoft. During that time, I also did work in Russia, Guam, China, Germany, Slovakia and Greece.
My son, Darren (29), lives in Mexico City, where he and his wife teach at an international school. My daughter, Sue Anne (27), who we adopted from Korea, lives in Seattle, where she teaches at a pre-school. As a family, we spent one year in Kenya (1994-95), where I was teaching at the United States International University in Nairobi. It was a Peace Corps-like experience and a wonderful year.
In 1997, I went through a major life change, and Pat and I divorced. I continued to live in Seattle and do my consulting work. In 2003, I began working for City University, a private university in the Seattle area, as the Dean of Faculty Development, a position I held until 2006. When my job was eliminated and my office dissolved, I was faced with another major change, and I moved to Recife, the largest city in Northeastern Brazil, in June 2006 to be with my partner.
We live in a nice apartment four blocks from the beach and two blocks from the largest shopping mall in South America. I was certified as a TESOL teacher before I left Seattle, but right now I teach entirely online for several different universities and organizations, so my job is home-based (I don’t have any morning rush-hour traffic to contend with) -- and portable.
As you can see, I have not had what you might call a “normal” life pattern, but who of us has? It has, and continues to be, full of challenges, excitement, learning and good health. I can hardly ask for more than that.
