About

My parents were German immigrants who came to the US in 1950. I was born in 1959 in Eugene, Oregon. We moved to the coastal town of Newport when I was 5. I studied at the University of Oregon and Portland State University before finally completing BA degrees in Literature and History at Oregon State. My concentrations in history were British history, Middle Eastern history, and US foreign policy. I put myself through college working in restaurants. On completing my first degrees I became a part owner, kitchen manager, and eventually general manager of a top-notch restaurant in Newport.

In 1989 I joined the US Peace Corps. I completed two tours of duty as a Peace Corps English teacher (Yemen, 1989-1990 and Bulgaria, 1991-1993). I married my wife Carol in Bulgaria. We spent three years in her home state of Wyoming where I earned a BA in Education and certification as an English teacher. Then we went on to teach in Pakistan, South Korea, and Qatar.

In 1999, we entered the program in Applied Linguistics at Portland State University. In 2001, after finishing that work, Carol and I took jobs in Saudi Arabia. We arrived a few weeks before 9/11/2201 and remained there for 5 years. In 2006 we returned to the US for family reasons. Since then we have lived on the land where I grew up. I have continued my lifelong engagement in peace-work and other volunteer political activism, and pursued art and writing. Along the way I mow a lot of grass, cut and stack a lot of wood, and do a lot of cooking.  

I returned to Saudi Arabia to teach at a university for a year in 2010 (the year of the “Arab Spring”). On that occasion I was adopted by a small wild kitten. Tabitha still lives with us and (along with Carol) has been one of the most constant delights of my life.