Little about me

I grew up and went to school in the Midwest—Kansas to be exact. My father Verne was a musician who played with many well-known bands such as Tommy Dorsey and Paul Whiteman.

After I was born, he and my mother settled in Wichita. There he continued to work in the music industry and to play in the symphony and in his own band. My mother had been a singer in my father’s band, and after raising my sister and I, she worked in the School of Music at Wichita State University. My sister Judy remains connected to the music industry as a sales representative for a large music company.

Except for a year in Newport Beach, CA—my father tried out the shoe business with my uncle—and another year in Carlsbad on a baseball scholarship at a military prep school, I spent most of my time in Wichita. After high school, I turned down an appointment at the Air Force Academy, opting instead for Kansas State with a chemistry and sports scholarship.

However, I wasn't enamored with the program, so I transferred to Wichita State, where I graduated with honors and was one of the five Senior Honor Men for my class. While starting with chemistry and math, I discovered an interest in psychology and declared this as my major in my junior year.

As a youngster and young adult I participated in many activities (football, swimming, soccer, track, baseball, and tennis) and this participation continued in college with football, but after injuries I concentrated on swimming. I coached swimming and diving for a number of years, and I even played tennis competitively for a year, but I had to make some choices with my schedule, so I just played that for fun. I also lettered in gymnastics as a freshman after the coach saw me practicing on the trampoline for diving, but this too had to come off the schedule in order to contain my overflowing schedule.

In addition, I was member (and president) of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and in the Air Force ROTC. In my senior year I was the wing commander (cadet colonel), and though on educational deferment, after graduation I was allowed to go on active duty at McConnell AFB while attending graduate school. This was during the Viet Nam War and I was able to serve and fly, but I was never deployed.

Following graduate school at Wichita State, I lived and worked in St. Louis and Houston, where I studied child-adolescent clinical psychology, gerontology, and psychopharmacology. I then settled in Schenectady, NY with my family.

I've been at Union College ever since and I've held several positions: dean of students, psychology department chair, and tenured professor in the Graduate Management Program. I continue to teach management courses in the School of Management at the Union Graduate College and psychology courses in the Psychology Department at Union College.

To stay professionally active, I am the chief of the division of psychology at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, and I am politically active with the New York State Psychology Association, of which I am a past-president. As well I am the Immediate Past-President and Chair of the Board of the National Register of Health Service Psychologists. I also maintain a private practice and consulting business.

I have three daughters from an earlier marriage, and a daughter and a son with my wife Karen, who is also my private practice manager. My children have carried on the creative and sports interests that run in our genes. My first daughter, Ashley, is a professional photographer and marketer. Daughter Morgen is a personal fitness trainer, and her twin Colby works in my office and also makes jewelry.

My youngest daughter Liesl was a graduate student in global health at Claremont Graduate University in California. She was a Fullbright-Fogarty Fellow in South Africa for eight months and is now finishing her Ph.D. in Health Promotion at the Claremont Graduate University in the School of Community and Global Health.

My son Austin Graduated from HS and received a full scholarship to play basketball at St. Anselm College in NH.

For recreation, my family loves to travel; to go camping, biking, and hiking; and to play tennis and golf. Of course, much of my very limited free time is spent writing and doing research in clinical psychology. My most recent work is on anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress in professional fire fighters.