I was born in Washington State. My father’s family homesteaded in Spanaway, Washington, while my mother’s family came to Utah with the Martin Handcart Company and eventually settled in Payson, Utah. We moved to Utah when I was very young, and I grew up in Davis County.

I joined the Navy at 16 but had to wait until I turned 17 to leave for boot camp. I served aboard the USS Morton (DD-948), stationed at Pearl Harbor, for all four years near the end of the Vietnam War.

The summer after I got out, I met my wife, Kristi, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I was living the river life, and she was on vacation with her family. We married six months later while I was attending the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City. I worked as an air traffic controller for about five years, until 1981.

I then attended Weber State University, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science. For 32 years I worked for Davis County Government as a computer programmer, network manager, network engineer, and deputy director, while Kristi and I raised our two daughters in Farmington.

After I retired, Kristi and I traveled full-time throughout the western United States for 18 months before buying our current home from Martha and Dick Martin.