I graduated Flint High School in 1961, joined the U. S. Air Force, went to boot camp in San Antonio, Texas, and stayed there for tech school where I was trained in electronic cryptographic systems, a field of service that required me to have the nation's highest level of security clearance, Top Secret with Crypto Access.

I did four-and-a-half years of active duty, the best part of it in Taipei, Taiwan. After my discharge I turned my background in military electronics into a career as a licensed electrical contractor and had my own business for twenty-some years, first in Florida and then in Colorado, before moving to southern California in 1990 to work for Amgen.

In the late '80s I became interested in computer technology and programming and enrolled in several classes at the University of Colorado. I also signed up for an elective called Real Estate Principles, which kindled an interest that drew me into the industry as a licensed agent in 1997, when a friend of mine, Barbara Simmons, convinced me to give it a try.  I immediately signed on with RE/MAX Grand Central and have been there ever since.  In 2005 I got my broker's license and opened Ranger Realty, which is where Patty hangs her license.

I'm a licensed pilot who hasn't flown in ages but still misses it. I love West Coast swing and country dancing, roller-blading, skiing and horseback riding. I have two adult daughters, Sherri and Hope, living in the Boulder, Colorado area.

By the time I got to the 10th grade in Norfolk, Virginia, I was wayward and skipping school.  My parents wisely shipped me off to Fryeburg Academy, in Fryeburg, Maine, for my junior and senior years, where my dad and his brother had gone thirty years earlier.  I graduated Class of 1960, and went off to the University of Maine, Orono for a year and a summer, then moved to upstate New York and went to secretarial school. My first job was with the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management. How exciting. I kept a file of letters from people who wanted to homestead the moon.  

All along I wanted to be a writer, but even more than that I wanted to be a rider. I married a man who bought me my first horse.  Then I bought him one.  Then he said if we're going to have horses, they're going to have to pay for themselves.  So we went into the horse business.  We rented an old dairy farm and opened Chantilly Stables in Chantilly, Virginia. 

Over the next thirty years I boarded, bought, sold, trained and showed horses, mostly hunters, jumpers, dressage, and children's ponies. I fox-hunted, played polo, competed in combined training events, and transported horses in Virginia, Texas, and California.

In 1980 I moved from Houston, Texas to Chatsworth, California, with 11 horses and ponies. There I continued to board, train and teach on a smaller scale. I also got into driving horses and competed in driven dressage and combined driving.

When she was ten years old my brother's daughter, Ena, came to live with me and go to school. Today she has four daughters who are like my grandkids. They live in West Hills and are a huge part of my life.

I met Doug country dancing in 1999 and jumped in with all four feet to become his assistant, obtaining my real estate license in 2002 while still working at the Boeing Company as secretary for two missile defense programs. I retired in 2007 to pursue real estate full-time. I love working with people and web sites, so high-tech real estate is a natural and rewarding career path for me.

I enjoy spending time with family and having my 15-year old great-niece, Devon, living here with us and going to Thousand Oaks High School, where she's on the Color Guard.

Some of my other interests are being active in conservative politics, vegetable gardening, homeopathy, bridge, country music, mystery books, astrology, and independent films.