Name

After completing law school and commissioning as a Foreign Service Officer, I served with the State Department in Washington, Istanbul, Havana, La Paz and Lima. During the latter part of my career, I worked extensively in Western and Eastern Europe, and in the former Soviet Union during and immediately following its dissolution.

In addition to working as Counselor at Embassy La Paz from 1979 to 1981, I have visited Bolivia often on business, usually related to regional Andean programs, and particularly while serving in nearby Lima (1987-89).

Following retirement from active duty, I have been a consultant to various State Department organizations, including the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, and to the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Agency for International Development. In 2005, I was asked to review diplomatic operations and assistance programs in Baghdad.

On the personal side, I have raised three sons as a single parent since 1982 -- they are now grown, successful, smart and happy, and I am very proud of them. Matt and David are married, and each has two kids. David is a bank manager here in Wilmington, NC. Matt, a former DEA agent, is chief investigator for the District Attorney in the Tom Delay criminal case in Austin, TX. Youngest son John and his fiance will marry this fall, and John is general manager of a large company's operations in Fredericksburg, VA.

Together, my wife Anne and I have six truly good kids and eight truly precious grandchildren to keep us busy. Our house at the beach tends to be vacation headquarters in the summer, which is great with us. We are completely OK with the fact that the ocean is the real draw, and that our job is to cook, provide sunscreen and dote.

PC In Your Life

The PC experience served as a career road sign for me. It also provided me with a good basic lens through which to look at societies, cultures, political and economic systems and countries -- including our own.

Doing community development work in a nationalized mining camp was, frankly, frustrating. I think our failures exceeded our successes by a long shot. My PC colleagues in Colquiri may have a different view, but my own feeling is that we left a good impression as friendly, helpful young Americans, but actually accomplished little of lasting value. We tried hard, we learned a lot, and it was worth a shot.

I do quite a lot of recruiting for the Peace Corps at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

--No best or worst PC experiences. Many were good or bad at the time, but over the years the peaks and valleys got worn off in my mind

I am a member of the Cape Fear RPCV's. Actually, the local RPCV group's name has been changed from Cape Fear to Coastal Carolina RPCVs. I was around at its inception, so still use the original name. Nobody else does...