I was born in Oceanside California in 1950. My family was a Marine Corps family. By the time I was twelve I had lived in six different states. I quickly grew to love the steady diet of new challenges and new adventures. In 1962 my father retired from the Marine Corps and we moved the family to a small village in central Japan call Inamoragaski. It became our home for a year.

Upon our return to the States, we settled in Port Townsend, Washington. At first the small town seemed very confining, but then, I discovered the Olympic Mountains and the waters that surrounded the Peninsula. A world of independence and discovery was at my doorstep. I made my first navigation of the treacherous Straits of De Fuca with two friends at age 14 and hiked across the Olympic National Park when I was 16 years old.

After graduation from College I worked as a mill-right, a farm hand in the Willamette Valley and in timber on the Oregon coast. In 1976 I was lured back to Port Townsend to teach Global Issues at the local High School. I never left.

I taught for 35 years at Port Townsend High School. I discovered early on how important experiential education was to my students and I constantly kept them on the move. The Expedition Club was the inevitable outcome. In 2003 the Club made its first Expedition to an isolated village of Phapang in Northern Thailand and we have returned every year since.

Currently, I have lead 12 Expeditions to Thailand, 8 Expeditions \ Exchanges to Japan, over 50 retreats to the Oregon coast for team building, 30 Urban Plunges to work with the homeless in Seattle and over 100 smaller scrambles or overnight trips.

Perhaps the best way to give clarity and to summarize my life experience and the mission of the Expedition Club can be found in the words of Albert Camus. He wrote: "What gives value to travel…expedition…is the fact that, at a certain moment, when we are so far from our home…we are seized with a vague fear, and an instinctive desire to go back to the protection of old habits…At that moment, we are feverish but also porous, so that the slightest touch makes us quiver to depths of being…" The fear that Camus speaks of as one encounters something new and foreign is the fear that I seek for my students. It will challenge them to enlarge their thinking, their collective identity, their lives…It will let them know they are on the brink of real learning.

 

 

Payap University B.A. in International Business Management.

 

I grew up in a small port town, quite fittingly named Port Townsend, located in the great Northwest part of the USA. The Northwest led me to a very outdoorsy life full of kayaking, surfing, hiking, and playing on the beach. However, when I wasn't outside I was in a classroom, tutoring or teaching. Ever since I first taught English in Thailand when was fourteen years old I have found myself drawn to classrooms. I worked my way through college as an English teacher. I taught all ages, from 8 to 28, and found myself having to create new and inventive curriculums for each age group. Through these creative curriculums I discovered that teaching in a classroom was not always the best way to teach.


Some might say that I have a fairly unique educational background. As a junior in high school I was home schooled 3,000 miles away from home in a small little village in Northern Thailand. I was 16 years old living on my own and teaching English everyday. I remember the confidence in my leadership that I got from teaching in a classroom. I remember having elaborate broken conversations talking about American stereotypes and for the first time wondering if I applied to any of them. I remember patience, sitting and waiting and realizing that the world did not revolve around my time schedule. And I remember the hard times of being alone and figuring out how to get through them with the help of others. Needless to say this experience changed my life and after six months I returned to the USA with a new outlook and goals for my future. I finished high school in Port Townsend and decided that I did not want to stop travelling but I also wanted to go to college. So I turned my eyes toward Thailand and found a respected college with international professors to pursue a BA in business management. The next four years I spent in Thailand making international friends, becoming fluent in Thai, lapping up the culture, and travelling during school breaks.


In college I remained active and co-founded the International Student Union. All through my education I proceed to take office in the Student Union as: Communication Officer, Vice-President, and President. I found myself volunteering with Non-profit organizations in my free time. I spent time with Burmese Immigrants and was always involved with the YMCA in Chiang Mai. During my senior year the earthquake in Japan happened and shook me personally. In response I spearheaded a team to throw a fundraising concert that rose close to $10,000 for the displaced victims of the catastrophe.


Going abroad changed my life in more terrific ways than I could possibly explain. It helped shape who I am and how I view the world. And now, my goal is to allow every young adult to have the same momentous opportunities that I was given!