My fondest memories of San Marino High School
Working on the stage crew, being a part of an energetic, rowdy, and creative group that included everyone from freshmen to seniors.

The two most profitable classes I took at SMHS were typing (it kept me out of the infantry), and drafting (a skill I later used, in part, to earn a living).

Although I’d been a part of the Class of 1962 since starting the fifth grade at Huntington, I missed my senior year at SMHS when I transferred to a school in Lugano, Switzerland. That year I had the opportunity to travel extensively. Among my adventures that year was going to East Berlin less than a year after the wall went up, and spending Christmas in Beirut where I survived a coup attempt. I’ve since traveled to Egypt twice, to Kenya and, during the 60s, I spent a dissolute summer in Positano on the Amalfi Coast. Some of the more exotic places I’ve managed to reach include Damascus, Bora Bora, and the Gobi Desert. The international situation notwithstanding, I'd still like to go to Timbuktu.

After high school I studied architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. It became clear after two years that engineering was not my strong point, so I returned to Los Angeles, switched my major to commercial art, and eventually earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Woodbury College.

From 1968 to 1971 I served in the U.S. Army. My aforementioned typing skills landed me an assignment at the clerk school at Fort Ord in Monterey where I taught typing, English, and military correspondence.

After leaving the Army as a staff sergeant, I joined a small advertising agency in Palos Verdes. I worked there for 15 years designing and producing advertising, packaging, logos, catalogs, and other collateral materials for a wide range of clients.

When my parents died I moved back to the ancestral digs in San Marino and started a freelance art service, producing work for other agencies as well as for a personal client list.

At the suggestion of a friend, I began working part time at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College where I have since taught production, graphic design, advertising, and Photoshop. The experience has been so much fun and the energy I get from my students so exhilarating that I’ve continued to teach happily for the last 25 years. I often tell people that teaching doesn’t feel like a job to me. Every day I go somewhere and hang out for a while with friends.

I have no current plans to retire.