I'm told I'm 3/4 Bavarian now, and only 1/4 Ami (formerly a bad way to describe Americans, now generally accepted as just a shortcut for USBoy, or USAmerican).  I am an Ami, no way around it, and will always be.  I've been in Deutschland since April, 1967, with breaks for a tour in Viet Nam, and another for completion of my degree in 1973 at Florida State University (I call Tallahassee home, although I've lived in Tampa, and was born in Evanston, IL).  I married my sweetheart from my Army days in Bayreuth with the 2nd Armored Cavalry in 1971, and we celebrated our 32nd this year.  Karin was born in Kronach and her family home is only a few hundred meters from ours.  Her mom, Sophie, is a great friend and we take care of her as best we can as she is now 79.

In 1973 I came back to Europe, worked out of England, covering the German speaking countries of Central Europe, plus Italy and Denmark, for a large American legal publishing house, CCH.  In 1979 I quit my London job, started teaching for the American Forces in Germany, and began a Masters Degree program in Counseling Psychology with Boston University, which I finished in June, 1982.  I was hired as a clinical supervisor at a substance abuse rehab center in Böblingen (Stuttgart) that summer, which also marked the laying of the foundation of our house, here in a small village near Kronach, which BTW celebrated it's 1000 years in 2003, the door to the Frankonian Forest (Frankenwald).  That fall we moved in to our new house, and with exceptions of my having to work in Stuttgart (1982-1984), then later in Grafenwöhr (1992 - 1995), I've lived here ever since. 

Professionally, I'm the Clinical Director of the Bamberg Community Counseling Center at Warner Barracks, 279th BSB, Bamberg, Germany, since July of 1995.  It's a great Army base to work in, one of the best in the world IMHO!  I love my work, have a great center with good staff.  I am a graduate of the Army Management Staff College at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.  I was a proud Seminar 9 member, and you can see my seminar-mates and my favorite faculty advisor, Professor Rich Watts, in my Photo Gallery

My Interests are dogs, tennis, digital photography, music, films, and stereo/hi-fi.  I'm a hightech freak, and love the latest stuff on the market.  Ah yes, computers too. Just don't understand them that well.  I am on three different boards of organizations that I volunteer for:  The European Branch - American Counseling Association (Past President 1999), The Professional Certification Board Alcohol & Drug Counselors Germany (Webmaster), and the Sport Verein Neuses 05 Tennis Abteilung (currently Stv. Abt. Leiter, Schiedrichter Obm.).  Volunteering has made a difference in my life, being able to give back something that these organizations and clubs have given me tenfold!  Sport has been an important part of my life, and I play competitive tennis in the Bavarian Tennis Association (BTV) and am captain of the Senioren (AK50) team of SVNeuses.  I was a BTV licensed chair umpire, but due to my eyes have given up trying to chair professional tennis.  It's just too fast for me nowadays, even on the slower red grand clay surfaces we play on here in Europe.  The new brand of pro and the hightech racquets make for a super-fast mens game, and even the women play extremely fast serves and forehands at the pro level.  Tennis has been a big part of my life, and has kept me in relatively good shape.  I play a winter round indoors in Neuses with a younger doubles group on Fridays, and my old timer seniors group on Sunday nights.  It is a great sport, with great folks playing it.  I was a golfer as a young kid, but haven't hit a ball since 1966, before I joined the Army.  Maybe in retirement I'll take it up again.

Ah yes, my one other great interest, cars.  Started back in college with Tim Kerns and a bunch of crazy guys running around the South, dragging a Porsche Carrera 356 Cabriolet and a beat up MG.  Then my own Porsches as a young officer; 1967 912 Targa, a wonderful beginning!  Again in 1970, a mid-engined Porsche 914/6, a great machine in classic silver.  Probably still running around the Tallahassee area of North Florida.  And now, my dream car, a Volvo S80 D5, nav system, Dolby Surround Stereo, GSM telephone built in to the dash with steering wheel controls, silver/off black soft leather sport seats, rain-sensor whippers, Xenon headlamps, and a HEICO upgrade.  Now my wife is picking up her own Volvo, a beautiful light green S40!  Karin and I go by ICE train to the northern German port, Kiel, on 3 February 2005, then by Stena Ferry overnight, first class of course, with Scandanavian buffet onboard, then picked up in Gothenburg, Sweden, the next AM by a Volvo limo, off to the factory for a grand experience of car delivery, tour of factory or the famous Volvo Test Center where they do all the crashes!  Then back to Gothenburg, where we'll stay for a day, and hop on the Stena Ferry on Saturday night, overnight to Kiel, and an overnight in Hamburg, where we'll see the great Mama Mia Musical, all about ABBA! Then home on Monday.  BTW, the D5 is a great Volvo creation, a state-of-the-art diesel outputting 163 HP at an unbelievable high rate of torque.  It is a quiet, powerful engine, and I can probably drive about 1000 kilometers on one tank of 72 liters of diesel.  Why don't we have these cars in America???  I'm told the diesel is "dirty" in the States, and the price of diesel is only a couple of cents cheaper than regular.  No so in Europe!  Big price difference, and taxes on the engine are lower too.  HEICO SPORTIV is Germany's best Volvo tuner, located  in Darmstadt, and they will add some nice things to my exterior and interior, plus do the motorkit chip upgrade, bringing the D5 up to 190 HP+!!!!  And the sport exhaust will add a couple of PS too, and looks just sooooo cool!  You can definitely add that I'm a car nut, and always will be! 

OK, to view the  HEICO TUNING, I've added the photos, click here to see them!

So, that's me in a nutshell! Servus.