I was born in a small, middle-class industrial town in southern Illinois called Granite City, which was named after the old Granite Ware plant that produced pots and pans.  Today, Granite City is known for its steel mill. The city has produced one Pulitzer Prize winning writer named Robert Olen Butler, who wrote a novel, Wabash, about his hometown.  Butler calls Granite City where North meets South, due to so many people who came from Arkansas and Tennessee to work at the steel mill. 

My parents were working class people.  My father worked as a letter carrier for the post office for over thirty years, and my mother worked as a secretary or clerk, depending on the opportunity at the time.  I was among the first generation in my family to graduate from college.

I attended Granite City South High School, which later became just Granite City High School when the city closed the North High School and combined both schools.  I earned my BA in English at Southern Illinois University, and went on to earn my Masters in English from the same school.  I began teaching as a TA while I was a graduate student, and went on to teach at community colleges in southern Illinois. 

I learned that I have a love for teaching, and decided to go back to school for teacher certification.  After my student teaching at Edwardsville High School in Illinois, I went to the Philippines for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer (1997-99).  While doing teacher training in the Philippines, I met the woman who would become my wife, and the girl who would become my stepdaughter.  We were married at Saint James Parish in Buenavista, Agusan del Norte.  In attendance were many of the teachers I worked with and about twelve Peace Corps Volunteers and Staff. 

After Peace Corps, I spent one year teaching at Nogales High School in Nogales, Arizona.  At the end of the school year, my father very suddenly passed away, and I moved back to Granite City to take care of my mother, who was very ill.  I taught for the next two years at John F. Kennedy Catholic High School in St. Louis, Missouri.  After my mother passed away last year, my wife and I decided to come back to the west.

I came to Yuma because I really wanted to teach at Yuma Catholic High School.  I love the use of technology in the classroom, and I love to be involved in Catholic education. 

When I am not in the classroom, I like to write stories, paint, swim, and travel to new places.  So far, I have been to most of the United States, and parts of Canada, Mexico, England, Wales, Scotland, Russia, Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines.