I am the first born son of a Congregationalist Minister and an Elementary School Teacher (back in the days when neither professions earned nearly what they do now), and grew up in a working class neighborhood in Pawtucket.

My first formal job was working in a small neighborhood drug store, where I not only learned the value of hard work and the struggles of a small businessman, but of the struggles of the poor, the elderly, the mentally ill, and occassionally, how to deal with crimminals. (We were held up several times.)

I attended Rhode Island College, working nights as a security guard at a nursing home plus whatever on campus jobs I could find and then was fortunate enough to receive a teaching fellowship to allow me to attend the University of Vermont’s Graduate School.

Following a brief stint as a Community organizer for the Diocese of Providence, where I learned from an extraordinarily dedicated and hard working group of people something about the "ins and outs" of empowering people to affect their government, I was able to put my education to work as the City Planner for Central Falls. In a small city with the highest tax rate, the densest population, and lowest income community in the state (at that time), one’s official job title meant little. One did what needed to be done for the good of the city. I walked every street in the city, and worked closely with public and grassroots organizations such as the Crime Stoppers, Community Center, Youth Centers, etc. I worked directly on issues of economic developement, capital budgeting, school enrollments and re-development. I served as Secretary and then President of the Board of Directors for the SPIRIT Educational Corporation. This was a non-profit organization which took students in Pawtucket, Central Falls and Providence at risk of dropping out, and provided a summer enrichment program for them utilizing the faculty and resouces of the private schools such as the Wheeler School, Moses Brown and Providence Country Day.  

Eventually, I bought a building in West Warwick, and opened an antique shop and operated it for seven years. It was a wonderful experience and I still treasure the friends my wife and I made through that experience. During that period, I still taught, commuting to the Suburban Campuses of Northeastern University in the evenings. I have always tried to find ways to serve the public interest. I served on the Narragansett Bay Commission and on the Long-Range planning Committee, have worked to rehabilitate delapitated housing and create affordable ownership opportunities in Pawtucket and Central Falls, and served on the Pawtucket Municipal Pension Board and served as Vice Chair of the Technical Committee to the Rhode Island Statwide Planning Council.

After closing the store, I re-dedicated myself to teaching, specializing in helping working adults complete their college education and also serving for five years in an administrative position at Northeastern for the Earth Sciences Program. I has been teaching Geography courses occasionally at Salve Regina and Rhode Island College was recruited to teach at the Community College of Rhode Island. I currently continue in both of those positions, and mentor students (mostly in the military) as they work to earn their Bachelor's degrees through on-line courses at Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey, volunteer for the Encyclopedia of the Earth as an Editor, a reviewer for the Journal of Excellence in College Teaching, and am very active on the board of a Genealogical Society.

When I have spare time, I love hiking, going to yard sales, exploring the different villages in New England.