The first thing that comes to my mind when setting out my bio after graduation is to say that I have been blessed beyond my wildest dreams and certainly more than I deserve.

I left Burroughs having received a full 4-year paid scholarship to Occidental College from the Kemper Insurance Foundation. It included an automatic paid summer "junior executive" training program so that I didn't have to find employment during the summer between academic school years. In the first summer assignment with Kemper insurance as a "Kemper Scholar" I was assigned to the filing department (to learn the business from the bottom up) and came home with bleeding finger cuticles from retrieving files that were too tightly squeezed into the filing cabinets. No matter. I was handsomely paid $175.00/mo. It was better than my previous automobile driven paper route, which covered the hills of Eagles Rock, Glendale and Burbank with the Herald Examiner, which paid about $125.00/mo. (if I could collect from all of the people on my route). No matter I was on my way to bigger and better things!

I guess I needed to prove to myself and others that I was worthy of the Kemper scholarship so I buckled down to getting good grades (a condition of keeping my scholarship) and graduated 13th in my class of 355 students, magna cum laude and was awarded a Phi Beta Kappa key to boot. I met a girl (Audrey Sultenfuss) at church in 1956 who was graduating from Hoover and was going to be an incoming freshman at Oxy. We dated for a year and were married at the beginning of my junior year. I participated in the AFROTC program at Oxy (which was mandatory in those days for the first two years of college) and went on to become the Wing Commander in my senior year. Because of that commitment I received a commission as an officer and gentlemen (?) in the Air Force in 1959. I was assigned to a super secret base in Inglewood California, where we procured the United State's ballistic missile programs (circa 1959-62 - Atlas, Titan, Thor & Minuteman programs). I was assigned to a branch that forecasted, disbursed and administered a budget that in today's dollars would have exceeded $40 billion/yr. We worked long hours into the night (the Russians had launched their Sputnik satellite in 1959 and the U.S. didn't have a credible response). Because of the nature of the work that I was doing and the security clearance I couldn't share with my wife what I was doing and why all the long hours. We had 3 children (Gayle, Jeff, and Susan) during this time so obviously I got home at a reasonable hour sometimes. We were able to buy our first home in Glendale ($16,000 FHA with $500.00 total down payment) on my starting salary of $425/mo as a 2nd Lt with no flight pay. I was on my way to the American dream! A family of three kids, a home, a new car (VW at $1895.00) and a steady job, although long hours at work.

After completing my 3 year obligation with the Air Force and since I had been in the "missile business" I went to work for North American Aviation (which was building the Apollo and Saturn S-II programs) in Downey, Calif. for $650/mo; a big % raise in my income. I got my first taste of "corporate life" when I asked for a requisition for a box of pencils for my new desk and was told that my supervisor would have to approve the request. Mind you I had just come from a job in the AF that I alone signed and approved (for Major Generals that headed each of the ballistic missile programs) monthly payments to 18 major defense contractors that typically exceeded $100,000,000 per payment. Boy that was an eye opener! After two years of North American Aviation Corporate life and the politics of getting ahead I decided to take my future into my own hands and go into business for myself. I became a real estate agent selling houses for my mother-in-law's brokerage company. After a number of years of working 7 days a week and all hours I came home early one Saturday afternoon to find my wife of 9 years in a compromising situation. After many attempts at trying to reconcile the situation (with pastors, friends and even my mother-in-law's help) divorce became the only solution. In those days it was a fault procedure and after hearing the facts in the case the judge awarded me sole custody of 3 children, 8, 6, and 4 years old, the house, cars, 7 pieces of real estate.etc. Etc. that we had acquired during our 9 years of marriage and a broken heart. At that pointed I now needed a mother for my three children and I found her in a former baby-sitter, who also happened to be one of my former Sunday school students, who was 6 years my junior. We married in 1968 and had two additional children (Donald and Rachel).

In 1969 I merged my real estate firm (I had become a partner with my Mother-in-law now my Mother-in-love after the divorce) with another firm in Glendale. We built the combined firms into 8 offices and 226 salespersons. That was big in those days, but after 8 years of doing that I came to realize that developing real estate would be a lot more rewarding financially and emotionally than managing 226 real estate agents and selling real estate for a commission. No offense to you Realtors out there, but our average sales price for a house in Glendale was $32,000. Remember those Days??? So in 1976 I took the plunge once again to strike out on my own and formed a development company with two other men and started CMS Development Company and eventually settled into Burbank in the 10 story office building that we built nick named the "Black Diamond" building because it glowed in the sunset. We went on to develop industrial parks, office buildings, a shopping center and condominiums and a hotel over the next 16 years all over Southern California, Seven of our projects were in Burbank, where we moved our headquarters in 1982 to the "Black Diamond" building. Life was good looking out from the 7th floor corner office of the Black Diamond. But all good things must come to an end "as they say" and so.

In 1992 it was no longer fun or financially rewarding to be in the development business so I decided to shut down that part of CMS and just manage the projects that we had developed. I proposed buying a boat and going sailing in the Sea of Cortez. My wife of 23 years decided that she didn't want to going sailing and furthermore that she married be for "better of worse, but not for lunch". So we mutually decided to dissolved our marriage but remain partners in our real estate projects and most importantly in our 5 children (now grown and out of the house).

Now for one of the best blessings that I mentioned before. I bumped into Shary Berens (Hoover 1962) in a Burbank car wash, with whom I had previously worked. We talked and then started dating. She was now a single mom and had an only son to support. She worked and couldn't go sailing with me so I asked if her son Scott, who at that time had just finished high school and was not decided on his future plans regarding vocation, if he would like to join me and another guy in sailing in the Sea of Cortez for three months on my new 38' Hunter sail boat. To my delight Scott agreed to come with me on this new adventure for me in learning how to live life without going to work each day and for Scott to contemplate what he wanted to do in life.

Together we enjoyed sailing down the peninsula from San Diego and around Cabo San Lucas into the Sea of Cortez. We spent 3 months sailing and midway through our trip Shary joined us for a delightful 7 days of sailing and 4 races based out of La Paz, Mexico on her vacation. We came in 2nd out of 36 boats! I knew right then that I had found my sailing partner and sole mate and we were subsequently married in 1995. We decided to moor the boat in Channel Islands Harbor when we brought it back from Mexico. We loved the weather and location so much that we decided to build a home on the water in Mandalay Bay in 1996, and this is where we are to this day. As I reflect on this dissertation I believe that the greatest blessing that Shary and I have is our (combined together) 6 children who all love the Lord and have an active walk with Christ.

Shary is a Deacon in our church and I am an ordained Elder in the Presbyterian Church, although not actively serving in a leadership role at this writing. I volunteer to help Shary in the Church's kitchen (and sometimes at home too) and do the tape (C/D) ministry at our church. Our six children (Gayle, a practicing Hygienist from USC) and Jeff (a cardiologist from UCLA practicing in Tyler, Texas), Susan (a registered RN, married to a pastor in Colfax, Ca.) Donald salesmen in Arroyo Grande, and Rachel (a graduate of Cal Poly SLO), and Scott (a teacher of computer sciences at Northridge with a Masters Degree in Engineering) have combined blessed us with 14 grandchildren, the latest of which is ("little" Eve) being born 3 months prematurely this past May at 1lb.8oz. Her twin sister Ella did not survive but Eve is doing fine in an incubator in San Francisco at this writing. We hope that she will be able to come home in July. Life is full of surprises but this much I have come to know if you trust in Christ to guide your life you cannot go wrong. As I said in the beginning of this long "Bio" I have been blessed beyond my wildest dreams and certainly more than I deserve.