On my mother's side, the family came out of the foothills of the Missouri Ozarks between Cabool and Houstonbut I was raised in the small town of Tillamook, Oregon, backin the late forties, where I attended Tillamook High School, graduatingin 1966. It was with pleasure that I graduated and left the schoolbecause the school's team name was the "Cheesemakers".Now, if that doesn't strike fear in the hearts of the opponentswho are named the 'Tigers", or the "Huns", or the"Panthers", I don't know what will!
After leaving high school, I worked that summer for the OregonHighway Dept as an engineer's aide (4 syllable phrase for gopher),started college at Astoria, OR, and then was given an offer Ijust felt powerless to refuse; this was an invitation from myUncle Sam to join the U.S.Army. For stories about the Army, click here.
After returning home, and thawing out, I attended Mt. Hood CommunityCollege and received dual Associate of Science degrees; one inBusiness Administration and the other in Applied Science. Withthis sort of training I was able to obtain gainful employment in a sheet-metalshop where I was trained in sweeping up the floor and performingsundry other similarly vital tasks. Eventually, however, my geniuswas recognized and I was promoted up, step by step, until I finallytook over the shop as the production manager.
During this same time, I also continued attending school and became certified as an optician and also attended the Washington County(Oregon) Sheriff's Office academy and became a reserve deputy for them.
Click here to see me in uniform!
Although I never worked as an optician, I did put in quite a bit of time with the Sheriff's Office and eventually became the lieutenant in charge of training. This department had an excellent training program for reserves and those who progressed far enough were qualified to take a cruiser out solo and were expected to handle all calls that a regular officer working that same shift wouldtake. For this reason we had reserves from many surrounding departmentsattend our academy.
After about 8 years I grew bored with the sheet metal businessand left it (and the Sheriff's Office) and started working forthe American Red Cross where I was responsible for the physicalsetup of blood draws in Oregon and SW Washington and also had the task of being responsible for the proper preparation and transfer of the collected blood units back to the laboratory. This paledin excitement after only five years and my family and I then leftWashington and moved to just outside Farmington, New Mexico, whereI worked as assistant director, school principal, and occasionalpreacher (did I mention that I am also an ordained minister?)for La Vida Missionon the Navajo reservation. My wife handled the kindergarten andalso assisted in the cooking. La Vida was a church-related, private,boarding school for Navajo students up through the eighth grade.
After leaving New Mexico and returning to Washington, I workedfor a year as a service technician for a medical supply companywhere I delivered, set-up, and maintained medical equipment (primarilyoxygen) to homes and hospitals.
When we returned to Washington, I had immediately put in an applicationfor our local city police department. An opening finally appearedand I started with them, working for a short bit in the recordsdepartment, and then moving on to take charge of the evidence/propertyunit. This position entailed the proper collection, packaging,and preservation of evidence, property seized for safekeeping,and found property. I also test-fired weapons for court. Additionally, in the State of Washingtona person can become certified by the Washington State Patrol asa court expert in the identification of leaf marihuana and thisalso became part of my duties. For those who are curious, thetesting process is a combination of a stereo-microscopic examinationand a chemical test called the Duquenois-Levine test. I did NOTuse the well-known standard college method of evaluating marihuana!A third major component of my job was to respond to major crimescenes to collect and process evidence on site. This includesphotography, developing & lifting latent prints, and recoveryof trace evidence. I took castings of foot/shoeprint impressions, and tool mark impressions. I used such tools as alternate light sources to visualize latent prints and biological stains such as semen or blood spatter (NOT splatter!!) My position entailed frequent court-room appearances and, in fact, I probably was subpoenaed more often than nearlyanyone else in the department. You can get a feel for my job if you watch the TV show "CSI" and subtract Hollywood out of it. Note, however, that there is one part of the show which is dramatically accurate and that is the great looks and keen minds of the investigators! I retired in early 2008 but am getting bored. My DW would like to see me either get some non-stressful job or start volunteering at her hospital. I offered to demonstrate giving sponge baths to the student nurses but I didn't get as enthusiastic a response as I had hoped (neither from my DW nor the coeds!!)
The picture at the top of this page is of a teen-age male I wasinvolved in digging up several years ago. He had been buried about18 inches deep and had been there for over a year. Not observablein the picture is the lead bullet we found inside the skull. Aforensic dig is done just as an archeological dig is done: wedivide the area into small grids and use small spades and brushes. It is very tedious but obviously,it is important not to lose clues such as bullet fragments.
The second picture is a picture of me with my former partner,Myrna, and our former chief in the middle. In the background youcan see our crime scene investigation van; a converted ambulance.
In the early seventies I married Karen, a most delightful younglady who still looks 19 and who produced Kevin (now a medicaltechnician in the Navy stationed at the Army base of Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX where he is nearly finished with a year-long program in cytotechnology, and married to Kerrie (also a former Naval medical technician),and father of the remarkable Aidyn and wonderful Kelsi) [UPDATE: Kevin is now out of the Navy and is working as a civilian cytologist at a major hospital in SW Washington] and Shannon (now a college graduate with a degree in Business Administration, presently working in administration at a major group health firm and recently married to Matt as of March 1999). Matt and Shannon recently moved into their first new, built just for them, home. They have now presented us with a granddaughter, Jocelyn Lauren (Josie) who is as cute as can be. [UPDATE: Shannon is now one term short of finishing here nursing degree and is planning on moving to SW Washington where she has been, almost, promised a position in obstetricts in the same hospital where her brother Kevin is working.] Our third child, Antonia (now working as a certified nurse's aide)was received as a five year old from Bolivia where she had been badly burned andlost all her fingers, her lips, eyelids, nose, and received severescarring over much of the rest of her body. She has had 'thumbs'created from her own tissues and can now write, tie her shoes,do calligraphy, and nearly anything else which she wishes to do.She still has plastic surgery about twice a year to remove scarringand rebuild her face. Toni is married to Gordon and has given us a grandson named Damon, another grandson named Mitchell, and just two years ago a granddaughter named Aja.
We also had the great fortune to have three Vietnamese young ladiesjoin our family as daughters. Mai is now a wife and has givenus four of the finest grandchildren I personally have ever seen,(Tuan, Tu, Thien, and Ty). The second is Hoa (who just changedher name to Jenny) who recently finished school and is startinga career in the airline industry. Jenny got married on Feb. 21,1998. If you've never attended a Vietnamese wedding reception,you're missing some great (and, OK, I admit it, unusual) eating.Jenny and her husband, Dat, have given us a grandson named Michael and another named Bryce. Jenny's biological sister, Trinh, and her husband Toan have also becomemembers of our family and they have given us another three beautifulgrandchildren (Martha, Matthew, and their newest arrival, Mathias).That makes for a grand total of fifteen outstanding grandkids. So far!
Back in 1989, we hosted Eriko, a Japanese exchange student, forher senior year in high school. We fell so much in love with Erikothat we decided to keep her as one more daughter and just lether go back to Japan for occasional visits. She has now finishedher Master's in computer science and is presently employed bythe Japanese National Telephone Co. We are very, very pleasedthat she returns to visit us at least once every year. October of 2000, Eriko married Hiromasa Sugisaki and Karen, Shannon, and myself had the pleasure of attending the wedding in Tokyo. Her parents are really beautiful people and treated us like visiting royalty. They put us up in an authentic Japanese inn (no shoes, special slippers for the toilets, group bathing, tatami floors, etc). The inn manager, Mr. Watase, was extremely kind to us and we now have a frequent e-mail exchange. The reception after the wedding was beautiful and we got to enjoy some of the famous Kobe beef. I'm told that the cattle are massaged, fed grain and beer, and listen to soothing music all day. I don't know if that's true, but I can testify to the fact that I have never tasted such fantastic beef!!
I enjoy Asian and Hispanic foods, playing with the computer, woodworking, qualityscience fiction, genealogy (working on Young, Altig, Altic, Altick,Altice, Altis, Stepp, and Whitlaw), and foreign languages. I cancommunicate in German and Spanish (albeit poorly) and am teachingmyself Esperanto, which is probably the greatest language in theworld. I hold green belts in both judo and karate, but they aresimply now mementos of the past. After suffering a heart attackin 1995, I lost weight, started exercising more, and became moreguarded in my diet (well, at least my wife guards it). Besides watching my diet my DW enjoys quilting and the grandkids. I like the quilts. :)
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