I was born in Saint Albans, West Virginia, and moved to Hinton, West Virginia, when I was a year old. From there, the family moved to Charleston, West Virginia, and in 1963 to Sarasota, Florida. After graduation from school, is spent time in the Army until 1973. The following twenty-seven years, I spent at the wheel of an eighteen-wheeler crisscrossing the fruited plains of America. I came off the road and taught adventures how to master the big trucks, teaching them driving theory. After that adventure, I returned to trucking as a dispatcher for drivers on their journeys. I retired and am now an Associate Pastor at the First Baptist Church in Durant, Florida.