His first love was books. Being the son of a successful artist and businessman, he was able to afford the luxury of many books and a fine education. She was a vivacious blonde lyric soprano, the daughter of immigrant parents, raised in the finest european cultural tradition despite the meager means of her parents.  She was warm, sensitive and outgoing. He was withdrawn but articulate and sensitive. She was artistic; he was a scholar but mainly a student or science. Marriage, a trip around the world and some ill-fated business ventures soon depleted their funds. But a baby arrived (me) and so for a time life was still crisp,  new' and exciting. After a time they separated and Gertrude took her child back to her parents and got a job as a schoolteacher.  Edwin became a subsistence farmer and recluse and immersed himself in books, grapes, vegetables and the windy snow of upstate New York.

           Since mother was away, I too was brought up by Anna , my grandmother in the finest european cuI tural tradi tion. But part of that meant being bi- lingual and being a "kraut" during world war II was a mistake even for a kid and after several altercations with my jewish"playmates", I learned how to run fast and also how to play cat and mouse on the rooftops of New York city apartment buildings. Survival was dirficul t but not impossible. I enrolled in a Catholic school which solved one problem but introduced several others.  Summers were spent with my dad, rarming, gardening, wine making, walking, climbimg trees and hay mows and smelling and gathering wild flowers- an idyllic but lonely childhood for I yearned for a "normal " family life like other kids had. When I was eleven, Gertrude and Edwin were divorced and al though it was symbolic it proved to be quite traumatic for me. 1 became more of a loner and spent most or my time ei ther playing the violin or hiking in the forest lands near New York City. The woods felt good and by the time I was 14, I had already done some winter camping and snowshoing. I learned wilderness survival. While at Cornell, I maintained my pre-occupation with outdoor activities and became a very enthusiastic mountain climber, taking the time to hitch to the Rockies, the Tetons and the North Cascades. I studied agriculture but later became enamored with the beauty of classical mechanics and enrolled in an engineering program. I met Inge one summer at Cornell and we were instantly attracted to each other. She was warm, outgoing, intelligent and attractive and we had a lot in common. Graduation, the army and a brief industrial career followed. From my early teens, I was dissatisfied with Amerika's way of doing things; I referred to the "cadillac-cigarette culture" and my brief military-industrial "trip" only served to reinforce my previous prejudices. After that, I became totally immersed in graduate school and sort of "numb" for a time with regard to most other things. Somehow Inge put up with all this; we now have two girls and two boys aged seven to eleven, each one with a very different and almost opposing personality - a real challenge that we are now facing in addition to the many dissimilarities in ourselves that we have discovered or that have evolved through personal growth in very different directions. ...

        While teaching at Oregon Strate University, I started an experimental course which quickly drew in many students who were also basically dissatisfied. It culminated with an eventual enrollment of over 600 students. It was the most exciting experience I have ever had but the administration got "uptight" , cancelled the class and doubled my regular course load. So here I am!  Being a Geminii, I tend to be interested in everything;  I have a comfortable  knowledge of several things, am "expert" in a few and tend to be somewhat of  a dilettante. I'm particularly fond of drums and drum music, still hike and  climb and ski. If you want to know more about me and my family, you'll have to come and visit us.