1)  I was born in Pittsburgh PA on May 13, 1956.  I grew up from nursery school through 9th grade in Urbana IL, went to high school in East Lansing MI, and attended Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant where I received a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in Broadcast & Cinematic Arts in December 1978 after 9 semesters of "hard" (yeah, you believe that) work.

2)  I have known my oldest and most trusted friend Craig Hanson for almost 50 years (he thinks our first meeting was 1st grade -- I believe it was Nursery School or Kindergarten), but we both know that we have been best friends forever.   He now lives in Rochester (after about a dozen years of being not TOO far away in Burlington VT, only a 6-hour drive away), and is now just less than 10 minutes away across town in the Park Ave. neighborhoods.   Craig works for the now IT&T-owned former "Kodak Space Systems" -- it is so cool that I actually know someone who really IS a "rocket scientist" (well OK, he is actually a payload scientist, working on optics for things like space telescopes, but his stuff DOES get fired into space and I am incredibly proud of him).   We now see each other a couple of times a month after years of being many miles apart.   We were Best Man for each other's weddings.

3)  My middle name is Dean (as in James or Jimmy ?   Who knows.)  During junior high I gave myself the additional middle name William because I was a bit jealous of my Catholic friends for having 4 names, and I had a "KDWH" logo that I created for myself, copying in part Craig's idea from his truly inspired "Seedy H" logo (since he was Craig Demorest Hanson, and figured out that a run-down looking "H" made a good logo for him).

4)  I traveled throughout Europe for almost 9 months in 4th grade (1966) with my parents and younger brother in a Ford Econoline van modified at home by my Dad, and I have a surprising number of vivid memories of that journey.   My dad was on sabbatical from Univerity of Illinois studying estates, castles, gardens (huge ones), aqueducts, and other structures so he could write a Landscape Architecture design textbook based upon European architecture.   My baby sister was born right after we got home to Illinois (just about 9 months after we left NYC on the ship), and at some point I was able to do the math :)

5)  I started music with piano lessons, took accordion lessons briefly with my younger brother (ow, that's gonna leave a mark), sang in the chorus, and started playing cornet in grade school.   Soon after, I moved up to trombone because there was a shortage of kids with long enough arms :)   In high school I joined the marching band, and was a soon chosen as a rank leader.   I was also in the Jazz Band (God, I love Glenn Miller) and was in the pit orchestra for a few musicals during high school.   I spent 4 football seasons as a member of the Central Michigan University "Marching Chippewas", and was a squad leader.   I was unable to continue a 5th season just before graduating due to a class conflict, but was "official" videographer for the season.

6)  OK, here is my first big crush (this is ALSO going to leave a mark) -- it was Georgeanne Pennell in the 8th grade.   I was totally SMITTEN !   I sent her a Christmas card with $10 in it -- she returned the money in a card that said she thought it was "grovy" that I liked her.  I never effectively followed through -- I guess I wasn't ready for interacting with girls yet, and I had pretty much the same problem with a crush in 10th grade, as well. Since then, I have gotten my feces collected in one place :)

7)   In junior high my best friends called me "Beanpole" (I was 6', 160 lbs. in 11th grade), and some of them still do to this day -- I'm not sure they are quite "with it" yet.   See the current resemblance ?

8)  My dad was born to American Presbyterian missionaries in India in 1928, and grew up through high school there -- I have heard a number of interesting stories from his junior high and high school years in India.   I learned to eat Indian curries fairly early on (certainly in grade school), learned to love them long before my siblings (who waited until their high school years to get onboard with this cuisine), and now they are a favorite.   Dad taught Landscape Architecture at University of Illinois and Michigan State University, and was department head at both universities at some time.   My mom was a School Dietician, and when I was in college she was in charge of the high school cafeterias in Lansing MI.   I remember Mom introducing things like tacos and pizza into the menus using the available "surplus cheese" long before any other dieticians ever realized that there were neat new options available if you just paid attention.

9)  My second language is Spanish, but I am horribly out of practice.   "Tequila y cerveza, por favor.   Donde esta el quarto de banio ?"   In 1988 Craig and I spent a week in Cancun Mexico, and I practiced for a month beforehand.   We got much better service just for trying to speak the local language than a couple of vulgar bimbos from Dallas that we saw regularly being "ugly Americans".

10)  I got my FCC 3rd Class Radiotelephone license in the summer of 1970 (at age 14), and did classical music programs on WPGU-FM at the University of Illinois along with Craig during the 9th grade.   In 1980 I got my 1st Class Radiotelephone license with a Radar endorsement, and upgraded my amateur radio license to Technician Class (N8BVV) -- I think I've since been "grandfathered" up to General Class.

11)  During high school I worked as an outside Ice Rink Guard for the East Lansing Parks Department after school.   I got my first real taste of administering first aid on that job, and got paid around a dollar an hour (maybe less).

12)  I was both a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout.   I never advanced beyond the rank of 2nd Class (I enjoyed learning things much more than actually ticking off check marks), but completed 3 merit badges (thank God that one of them was First Aid) and became a squad leader.

13)  Throughout college I was called "Hey Slut !" .  It started in the Marching Chips.   I even had a Marching Chips t-shirt with it lettered across my shoulders.

14)  My first car was my mom's rust red (and very rusty) 1970 Ford Maverick with a "3 on the tree" manual transmission during my sophomore year of college.   My best car (before now) was a 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass SS with a 4-barrel carburetor. )  I remember buying gas in college for $.50 a gallon (and my dad buying it when I was a kid for $.28 a gallon).   I also remember LIVE coverage of the funeral cortege for John F. Kennedy and the president "Lying In State" in the Rotunda of the Capitol, watched on a black & white TV in a grade school classroom.

15)  My younger brother worked for Kodak in Rochester and then Chicago for years. Eventually he worked in Digital Imaging, Asia Division, and the family moved to Singapore for well over a year.)   I never got to go visit them in the Phillipines, but my brother did teach me how to eat raw fish.   Now sushi IS a favorite, but I'm often limited to my favorite tuna and salmon sushi or sashimi, and I am a little shy about trying anything truly adventurous (don't go anywhere near eel or octopus, sorry).

16)  I met and covered Bill Clinton dozens of times while he was Governor of Arkansas.   I once rode on a private jet from Washington DC back to Little Rock with "Slick Willy" and Congressman Wilbur D. Mills (of the Tidal Basin scandal with stripper Fanny Fox) after covering a Rural Education conference (and Clinton's speech) there.   Somewhere in a box of mementos I still have a portrait that I took of the governor on that plane.   I also met and shot an interview with Sam Walton (founder of WalMart) when he was still the "Richest Man in America".   There have been a few famous people that I have shot for the news through 30 years, and I have never been an "autograph hound" or anything like that.

17)  I was married to a Nurse Practioner (Terri Flanagan) in Little Rock AR from 1982 until 1986.   Her father was Chief of Neurosurgery at the University of Arkansas Medical Center.   I married my second wife (Kathy Jourdanais) in Dunkirk NY at the end of 2001.   Kathy passed away unexpectedly from a pulmonary embolism in August 2006.

18)  I was an Emergency Medical Technician from 1985 until 2008, and drove ambulances both professionally (in Little Rock for almost a year) and for years as a volunteer.   I was Director of Operations (Chief) at Brighton Volunteer Ambulance from 1998 until 2000, and was Driver Supervisor there for almost a dozen years.

19)  I have a younger brother (-2) and baby sister (-10).

20)  I was off from work at home and watching TV for two of the biggest events of the last quarter of the 20th Century -- the NASA Challenger shuttle explosion and the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01.   A regular day off for the first, and out with an injury for the second.

21)  I delivered my friends Steve and Heather's beautiful baby boy in December 2000 at Genesee Hospital in Rochester NY. It was the slimiest, smelliest, most awesome, wonderful thing I've been privileged to do in my entire life. My "nephew" Andrew remains one of my best friends on Earth.

22)  I believe that I am shy about meeting new people, even though I have to do it EVERY day at work. Go figure.

23)  I refuse to quit, ever.   My favorite quote is "Pain is inevitable . . . suffering is optional." -- M. Kathleen Casey.

24)  I have had 3 personalized license plates since becoming a licensed driver.   Missouri "NREMT-I", New York "TV EMT", and now New York NASCAR Dale Earnhardt, Sr. #3 plate "LILTAP".

25)  In junior high and high school I wrote short stories and some movie reviews.   I secretly want to be an author someday -- just have to come up with a story line to flesh out :0