This is an image of a scan of a photocopy of a drawing I made some years ago of a photograph taken of me in grade school at Everett Elementary, in Everett, Pennsylvania. I was there from 1955 to 1961.
At Bedford High School from 1961 to 1967, I played trombone in the band and dance band, sang baritone in the chorus, including the role of Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun, took an academic course load, and graduated third in my class. Here is my yearbook picture.
My undergraduate degree from the Pennsylvania State University (1967 to 1971) was in Classical Studies - Greek and Latin Literature. That was a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude. It came with a Phi Beta Kappa key.
After graduating from the Dickinson School of Law with a J.D., in 1975, I was in a law partnership with my father in Bedford until his retirement in 1981. I've been a sole practitioner since then, handling pretty much all sorts of cases in criminal court, domestic relations, civil litigation, estates and real estate work. I began looking for alternatives in the third decade of my practice. Carol Bowman, the Latin and French teacher at BHS, retired in 1999 and I became a part-time Latin teacher. I am still a part-time lawyer.
For a few years I re-taught myself Latin and took Latin courses various places: through the University of Georgia's Independent Study system, at the University of Virginia and at Penn State. Finally, I got enrolled in a program leading to regular certification as a public school teacher through Duquesne University in the fall of 2004. That was finished at the end of 2007, and I secured a Level I Certificate in Latin and English in February, 2008, adding French in July of the same year. My certification was changed in July, 2011, to a Level II in those subjects.
In the mid 1980s I became active in community theater at the Old Bedford Village Opera House and the Bedford County Players. To date I've been in over a hundred shows there and elsewhere, and have directed some, including three musicals at Northern Bedford County High School from 1999 to 2003. Some of my favorite roles were George Peterson in Same Time Next Year, Lenny in Rumors, Bill Starbuck in The Rainmaker, Hogan in Under the Yum Yum Tree, Dr. Zubritski in Fools, Norman Thayer in On Golden Pond.
Since 2003 I've been riding a bicycle a lot - usually between 2,500 and 3,000 miles a year. I've done the Multiple Sclerosis 150 mile Keystone Country Ride four times. My bike is a Giant TCR-1. Here is a picture from 2008.
I've been a member of the United Methodist Church in Bedford since 1962, and have sung in the choir there since high school. I belong to almost no other groups or organizations. My professional memberships include the Bedford County Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and the American Classical League. In recent years I have also belonged to the Classical Association of the Empire State, the Classical Association of the Atlantic States, the Pennsylvania Classical Association and the Classical Association of the Mid-West and South.
My family consists of my wife Carol and three chidren, Jennifer, April and Will. Carol and I have been married since 1969. She was formerly (through December, 2009) the executive director of the Bedford County Chamber of Commerce and is presently a personal chef (cinnamonsage) as well as the choir director at the Bedford United Methodist Church. Jennifer is a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, currently stationed at Langley; she also makes and sells jewelry (her business website is here and her blog is here). April owns and operates an insurance business in Altoona with her husband, Jason Ressler. They have two sons, Steven (b. 2002) and Kevin (b. 2005). Will is a designer and artist while also managing Sozo in State College. He and his wife Julie have three sons, Liam (b. 2007), Austin (b. 2009) and Lincoln (b. 2011).