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In the fall of 1978, after two attempts at college I headed south to Venice, Florida to attend Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey's Clown College. Upon graduation, I worked as a circus clown for two years and met my wife Kathleen.
We returned to Oklahoma in the spring of 1980 and attended classes at NSU then transferred to OSU graduating 83' and 84.' Next, we joined the Peace Corps and served in Tunisia, North Africa 84-86 living in a rural village near the Algerian border with no electricity or running water. I served as an agricultural extension agent working with local counterparts. Life in this village was challenging, like everyone else we had a donkey to haul water from the nearby natural spring. Living with very poor marginalized people and speaking only Arabic presented many new challenges. All of the people we lived with and worked with were Muslims. They were kind to us and helped us learn their language, culture, and way of life. We could not have survived in that environment without their help. It was a rare and unforgettable experience that changed our lives.
After completing our Peace Corps service I was employed as a beekeeper with Save the Children USA in Tunisia. Later, we left Tunisia and traveled throughout Europe and Asia (visited brother Martin in Japan) eventually landed in Hawaii where Kathleen was born. After a vacation visiting her family and the beautiful islands I was finally reunited with my family and friends in Oklahoma for a brief time in 1987 before taking a job in southern Idaho doing grasshopper research with the USDA-ARS througout the Great Basin (Idaho, Nevada, Utah). Life in the Great Basin was another new and interesting experience. My main job was to collect grasshoppers on the range lands of Idaho Nevada and Montana. In some of the most remote areas I would meet sheep herders from Basque Spain and gold miners who still panned for gold in the creeks and streams of southern Idaho. I read messages written in covered wagon grease on the walls of canyons and rock formations by pioneers heading west in the 1800's. I saw the ruts left from covered wagon wheels from the Oregon and California Trails. I saw the remains of the launch pad where Evil Knievel tried to jump across the Snake River in his rocket powered motorcycle in 1974 just outside Twin Falls.
Our first daughter Sarah was born in Twin Falls then we moved to one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen: Corvallis Oregon where I found a job as an entomologist. I worked for the USDA-ARS developing integrated pest management programs for insect/mite pests on pears, apples, hazelnuts, hops, mint and the small fruits (strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, gooseberries, currants, and cane berries) grown in the Pacific Northwest. Our second daughter Rosemary was born in Corvallis and I graduated the next day from OSU (Corvallis) with a masters degree in Agricultural Education. Then one day we packed up our bags and drove across the country to New York to join the Maryknoll Lay Missioners and were sent to Thailand to serve the poor as Maryknoll Lay Missioners on the foreign mission field. Nothing I have ever done compares with that experience. It is said that "A missionary goes where they are needed but not wanted and leaves when they are no longer needed but wanted." This was a lesson we learned and will always remember.
Our children grew up in Thailand attending Thai Kindergarten and elementary school before graduating from an international school in Chiang Mai. As a result they are both fluent in reading, writing, and speaking Thai. Our daughters now live in Tacoma, Washington and Portland, Oregon where they work. Kathleen and I have spent the past 20 years here in Thailand. We both have meaningful work to do and enjoy the cultural richness of northern Thailand and SE Asia. It is funny where life will take you if you remain open to change.
