USAFA Class Heritage

By God`s grace, I have three super kids, a great son-in-law, a very special future daughter-in-law, wonderfully loyal friends, good health, a comfortable place to live in an interesting city (Atlanta), and an excellent income from my job as a computer database developer.

By my own willfulness, I have two ex-wives, an ex-girlfriend who taught me that I still have a lot to learn about relationships, and"following Uncle Sam`s dubious example"a personal balance sheet with a large negative bottom line.

I`ve flown at Mach 2, climbed a dozen or so of Colorado`s `fourteeners` lived in Europe, Asia, and ten different states, visited Africa and South America, rafted the Chattooga (in `Deliverance`) River, skied and backpacked all over the Western U.S., and learned the rudiments of four foreign languages.

I`ve taught college economics and flying, worked in the Pentagon, corporate America, and the small business sector, and spent many years barely surviving as I eeked out a living in Montana.

All these mostly wonderful experiences have taught me two basic rules that would have made some major differences in my life had I observed them faithfully during these last 55 years: (1) Trust in God above all else, and (2) Seek out every opportunity to help, and be helped by other people. I pray these two rules will serve me well during my next 55 years, and especially during the years of radical lifestyle adjustments that I believe we all soon must face. Submitted 1998.