Born in Philadelphia, PA in 1960, then took Horace Greeley's advice and moved west, to Aberdeen, South Dakota, in 1968. Attended May Overby Grade School, Simmons Jr. High, and Aberdeen Central High School before attending and graduating from South Dakota State University (with a 4-year degree in wildlife science) in 1981.
First hired as a state game warden in 1983, stationed in Flandreau (Moody County) in east-central South Dakota. The Moody County warden district was roughly 500 sq. miles in size and had been without a warden living within its boundaries for 24 years prior to my arrival, at the young age of just 23.
During my career, I (further) served as: game warden in Sioux Falls; state law enforcement training coordinator; administrator for the statewide Turn in Poachers Program; firearm and use of deadly force instructor; head range master; policy and procedure analyst; registered lobbyist and chief legislative liaison for the Division of Wildlife's law enforcement program; until serving the last seven years of my accumulated 25-year career as the state's asst. chief game warden in Pierre, SD.