About Me...in detail.

I am 66 years old. I’m a husband, a father, and a long-time resident of Arlington, Virginia. I was diagnosed with ALS in September 2004 and have come to terms with my situation. I have a power chair, feeding tube and Baclofen implant. I operate my computer by head pointing and am programming a Vanguard communication device, which will speak for me when the time comes.

I’ve had a chance to try many things in my life – Army officer, diplomat, adjunct professor, consultant – in short, I have had a good ride so far. I view ALS as my next career. This disease has led me to meet wonderful, caring people I’d never have met in other circumstances. My heart goes out to people who get this disease early in life. I’ve had many different activities. My sport was golf and I enjoyed it for 50 years, even though I never got good enough to be on TV. My wife and I had many happy days battling on the tennis court. Golf was too static for her. I don’t look backwards with regret on my inability to do what I could do before ALS hit me. I’m not a compiler of life lists of things I never got to do and places I never got to visit. I look back on my life to date and view it as a well-judged race – like a NASCAR race in which you don’t set the speed record, but you don’t crash, handle the curves well, and deliver a respectable performance. Some of you might say that my description sounds like T.S. Eliot’s “measuring a life in coffee spoons.” I may not have experienced great things or accomplished high peaks, but I can look back with satisfaction on a wide variety of wonderful and not-so-wonderful experiences.