I was born near Boston, grew up in a small town outside Rochester, NY. I studied art history at the College of William and Mary before transferring to the School of Architecture at Ohio State University. After graduation I worked in Rochester as a Vista volunteer doing neighborhood planning, then got a job as a neighborhood planner/organizer for the city of Milford, CT. I became a Peace Corps volunteer working as an architect in the Public Works Department of the small island nation of Western Samoa. I got a chance to continue as a Peace Corps volunteer, this time as a bridge engineer for the Public Works Ministery of the Kingdom of Nepal. I continued managing a program for CARE to train overseers and build bridges in Nepal. During this time I met my wife, who was a Japanese volunteer training nurses. She got a good job on a Japanese aid project and I had some success with photos and writing. After her job finished we moved to her hometown in rural Japan and built a home. I teach English, do some writing, and take photos.