It was the summer of 1967 and the Beatles new album “Sargent Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” was the hit record of the Summer ( It still is a hit! ) and the Beach Boys were groovy. I was working in the boat yard in Venice, and Surfing 10th Street in Hermosa Beach.
There were no computers, no cell phones, no Internet, no credit cards. Can you imagine that in today’s world? Ha, Ha. Having just graduated from BMHS, it was an easy and fun time to be alive in the Southern California SouthBay. World events were not instantly staring you in the face and it was a time of freedom and excitement about what the future would hold for me and God’s plan for my life.
Fast forward to the current year of 2025. As I sit here today thinking of all that has happened since then I feel a sense of fulfillment and the realization that if I could, I would do it all over again. I’ve loved every minute of my life and at age 77 I often ask God why it is Hehas let me live so long? After leaving Bishop I spent 2 years at El Camino JC with a major in Architectural Drafting. I wanted to be an Architect but upon loosing my student deferment from the Vietnam draft I decided to enlist in the Navy. The Navy did not need draftsmen so they sent me to cook’s school, so I became a cook and baker. I’ve been married to my sweetheart Gina for 55 years and we spent my Navy years stationed in Hawaii as a baker on Ford Island at the Naval Station Pearl Harbor. Of course I took my surfboard with me!
After the Navy years we purchased a small cabin in the San Bernardino mountain village of Crestline, CA. ( Subsequently Mammoth
Lakes, CA. & now Reno, NV) and I worked as a baker for Jensens Old Country Bakery in Blue Jay, CA. After a few years of being tired of
having to be at work by 3 A.M. and not making enough money to support my growing family, I decided to enter the financial services
business and have since completed a successful 40 year career as a financial advisor. We now have 2 sons, 5 grandchildren and one great grandchild. I never had a “bucket list” I’ve lived it my whole life. Abraham Lincoln once said “It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years” In the earlier years having accumulated more bakery fat than I wanted (too many donuts, ha, ha) I started running to lose weight.
Running is my “Happy Hour”. In 45 years I have run 268 races at every distance from 5K to full marathons, a few triathlons and biking
events and still do so to this very day. At first it was just to lose weight and then it became friendly competitions with my friends. Living
in the mountains most of my adult life I have felt more at home in the forest than anywhere in the world except maybe in the ocean on
my board. When I am in the forest or in the surf I can feel God’s arms wrapped around me as His awesome creation seems to fill my
soul with happiness and peace. Running in the mountains is exceptionally rewarding. Today I love running along the Truckee River
listening to the water moving along and on the mountain trails above Lake Tahoe where I share the trail with numerous wildlife friends.
In 1998 I read an article in Runners World magazine recruiting runners to run the San Diego Rock N” Roll Marathon and do fundraising for Team In Training (TNT) the athletic fundraising arm of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. (LLS) .The article said you can raise money for cancer research in honor of a cancer survivor or in memory of someone who has passed away from Leukemia. I didn’t know of any survivors but remember having a brother who died of Leukemia. After doing some investigating I found out that my brother Ned passed away from Leukemia in 1947. at the age of 6. I never knew Ned as I was born one year later. I often think that my parents thought of me as his replacement. All that I know of him comes from my mother, who has now passed away and my older brother Richard.
Richard remembers playing with Ned when they were little and his struggle with the illness. Richard remembers Ned getting tired, run down and very pale. My mother would take him every couple of weeks to the hospital for a blood transfusion. Ned would come home all rosy cheeked and his strength would be back to normal. Then in a few weeks he would get run down again and so, month after month, back to the hospital my mother would take him until finally he just could not go on. Back then they had no treatments, they just knew that it was a blood disease. Back then it was a sure death sentence. Leukemia is a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow, causing abnormal white blood cells to be produced rapidly. These abnormal cells can’t fight infection and they crowd out heathy blood cells. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) is a global leader in the fight against blood cancer. Today over 90% survive.
So, on June 1, 2025 I participated in Americas Most Beautiful Bike Ride as myTNT fundraising event for this year. There were 450 TNT riders and 3 distances of your choosing .You could complete 35 miles, 72 miles (once around Lake Tahoe) or 100 miles ( Once around Lake Tahoe and down to Truckee and back to the Lake) I did the 100 route. With many rest stops it took me 10 hours. ( 8:50 ride time) The ride started in South Lake Tahoe riding clockwise around the Lake. The Emerald Bay switch backs were at the 10 mile mark and very steep. Then traveling north we passed Meeks Bay and Homewood . When I got to Tahoe City I made a left turn and followed Hiway 89 past Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley ski resorts to the city of Truckee where there was a turn around back to the Lake. Heading east lunch was served at Kings Beach (Yeah !) then on to easy peasy Incline Village. Up to the Spooner Lake Summit there was a series of 3 monster hills at mile 80. My legs were shot. I did some walking. The good news is with 4,924 feet of climbing there is a lot of downhill and the downhill from Spooner was long and fast down hi-way 50. Heading through Cave rock the final way to the finish was easy and a sight for sore eyes, sore legs and sore butts!! Ha, Ha. One foot in front of the other, one pedal at a time, you can do anything you put your mind to (even at my age) and in the words of that famous ski film Icon Warren Miller “If you don’t do it this year you will be one year older when you do. Life is that simple. Don’t let it pass you by!”
I personally raised $6,140.00. The team that I was on from the central California valley raised $460,000.00 and all the teams from around the country that participated raised just south of $3,000,000.00. LLS is the voice of all blood cancer patients seeking access to quality, affordable, coordinated care so kids today have the chance for a long prosperous life something my brother Ned never had. It’s very rewarding and humbling to do something meaningful for people less fortunate than ourselves. God has blessed my life beyond belief and I will continue to give back to others as long as I am able.
My life’s verse is Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm
you. Plan to give you hope and a future.” Our hope is in Jesus and our future is Heaven.
