I was born in Maine, but raised in Michigan. My parents moved to Michigan when I was three. We moved to a town thirty miles west of Detroit that Time magazine once described as resembling “one of those dreary mid-England factory towns.” I certainly liked going back to Maine on family vacations better than living in Michigan. I met Lisa, my best friend and spouse of over forty years at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, We were theatre majors. My emphasis was in lighting and scene design. Upon graduation, I was hired by the university’s auditorium as a stage technician. Whenever I accumulated enough personal leave, we’d head to the East Coast. Returning from a week on Cape Hatteras during year three at the auditorium, we wondered why we lived in Michigan when we really wanted to be near the sea.
Seeking “something a little different,” I joined the U.S. Coast Guard. We spent twenty-three exciting and challenging years raising our six children and doing “the king’s work” in New York City; Port Townsend and Seattle, Washington; Miami,Florida and Juneau. Alaska. The Coast Guard gave me thirteen years assigned to various ships on the East and West Coasts and I was fortunate to command Coast Guard cutters in Miami and Juneau. I also evolved into a foreign affairs officer near the end of my career. In 1996, I was facing a transfer to Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. after seven years in Juneau, Alaska. My wife had finally become tenured in Juneau School District and our children loved Alaska. I retired so that my wife could finally establish her own career, rather being re-certified in multiple states and going through the hassles of the hiring process every two or three years as she faithfully followed me in the pursuit of my career.
I formally retired in November 1996 and entered the UAS MAT program the following summer. As our class was completing our final courses, the principal at the former Alyeska Central School offered us temporary work correcting summer school correspondence courses. I continued with ACS until the 2005.
In 2006, I was hired by Juneau School District to teach in the Detention Unit at Johnson Youth Center, a State of Alaska Youth correction facility. It’s an interesting assignment: I never know during the morning commute how many students we’ll have. The average student stay is 7.9 days. Our students range from 12 to 19 years of age. We do a lot of life skills classes, exposure to art, history, and remedial English and math. When people ask what we do, I usually reply that we try to plant seeds, seeds of knowledge, that hopefully will germinate in the future. We try to develop a love of learning, and the relevance of school courses to adult life. I’m fortunate to work with a wonderful para educator, Julia Black, who complements my perspectives, teaching style, and areas emphasis.
Lisa and I finally realized a dream that we had when we first met in 2003 when we bought our sailboat MAJECK (the first letters of our children’s names) in San Diego. With the help of our sons, two of whom are professional sailors, we sailed and motored nearly two thousand miles to Juneau that summer. We spend our summers cruising Southeast Alaska and occasionally we head south to Puget Sound.
Six years ago, Lisa started what has become a tradition with her kindergarten and first grade classes, Saturday sailing in May. She divides the class into groups of six to eight students. Each student must bring a parent and a life jacket. We take each group for a two-to-three hour sail and sometimes we even see humpback whales. Although we’re really tired at the end of the day, we love exposing the kids and their parents to the joy of sailing.
We love teaching, we love sailing,and we love being with our children and grandchildren.
