Although I was born in Massachusetts, I grew up in California and remain a westerner at heart. After a mis-spent adolescence and young adulthood, I decided to go to college, earning a Bachelor's degree from University of California, Santa Cruz. From there, I went on to obtain advanced degrees in Zoology from Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Since then, I have been struggling to get back west, but my career keeps pushing me east. The furthest east it has pushed me has been to southern Africa, where I had a joyous several years as a biologist until I stumbled into fatherhood and family life, which was the best thing that ever happened to me. Since 1990, I have been on the faculty of a small forestry college in upstate New York, where I live with my wife Debbie, my two children and an assortment of dogs. I venture regularly to southern Africa (South Africa and Namibia) for my research.