Well, you found me. Congratulations!!
This page used to be called "Some Bull About Me". I'm sure the appellation still applies, so let the reader beware!!
I get enough requests for the following information that when I rattle it off the top of my head it gets better and better each time. So I decided to make a permanent repository that I couldn’t embellish on the fly.
I was born and raised in Riverside, CA. In December of 1965 my brand new bride and I left town to drive to Pensacola Florida and we finally returned to Riverside in 1996. The intervening years tell quite a story.
I was in the U.S. Navy for 13 years when I learned I was due to be transferred to Washington DC for the next 6 years. At the time it didn't seem like a very good idea. During those early years I visited many varied and wonderful garden spots through out the world, like Viet Nam, which is actually one of the prettiest places in the world, the Philippine Islands (ditto on being pretty), Hong Kong, Japan, etc. If you get the idea I spent a lot of time in the Western Pacific your right. In fact I made it all the way to Pakistan back in 1974.
For the record:
 | 1966-1967 Aboard the USS Enterprise - rode the back seat of the fastest plane in the theater (RA-5C's). We were fastest because we were always slick wing (no tanks) and could easily out run anything at sea level - 60 combat missions photographing North Vietnam, 100 traps and at least one photograph published in a national magazine. |
| 1970-1971 Aboard the USS Kitty Hawk - Drove A-7E's - one of the best Dive bombers ever. It had a great computer and and even greater 20 mm gatling gun - 137 Combat missions, 300 carrier landings, 100 of the landings at night. |
| 1974 Aboard the USS Constellation - I was Ships Company on that cruise. |
Anyway it paid well; I got a great education (MS in Aeronautical Engineering in 1974) and a lot of computer experience. I once took a lab course from a guy named Dr. Gary Kildahl. He’s the guy that wrote CPM and who almost became Bill Gates; but that is another long story.
When I declined the invitation to spend the last 6 years of a Navy Career in Washington D.C.; Diann and I ended up in San Diego in the lovely community of Coronado. Then I became an agent for Farmers Insurance.
From 1978 until 1982 I developed a nice agency specializing in Commercial Insurance. I taught the subject once in a while to other agents in the District, was the top Commercial producing agent in Santa Ana Region in 1981 and was leading the pack in 1982 when I moved to Los Angeles to become a District Manager.
Why did I do that? Heaven only knows. Biggest mistake of my life. By 1986 we are in Walnut, Ca with our baby daughter Ann Marie. John came along in 1988.
I cut my Agency ties with Farmers in 1990 and started Software Engineering for Professional Insurance Agents. I signed up my first software client in September of 1990 and the rest is history as they say.
We managed to survive the 6 years we spent in Fontana, moved to Riverside, Ca for 10 years and now we are in paradise, otherwise known as Mammoth Lakes, Ca.
I have worked with over 1000 agents nationwide, from California to Ohio. My greatest professional joy, the one thing that keeps me going is being able to work with the finest agents in the business on a daily basis. I have all the good things about being a district manager (except the money) and I don’t have to put up with things I dislike.
I believe in professionalism, I have little tolerance for incompetence, and I will freely help anyone who puts forth a 100% effort to help themselves. I especially dislike individuals who take advantage of their peers or their clients.