I began my teaching career in 1970 after completing my student teaching and coaching through UCSB at San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara.

I was hired as head wrestling coach, assistant B football coach, and social studies teacher at Arcadia High School in suburban Los Angeles County.

 I taught Rights and Responsibilities, Anthropology, Latin American Survey, World History, and sixth-period Athletics with the wrestlers. I sponsored the hiking club, run by one of my wrestlers.

 

After completing a master’s with Azusa-Pacific, I was eligible for a high school teaching job in the Canal Zone, where my wife grew up. I was hired to teach social studies at Balboa High School in the Canal Zone in 1972.

 

I initially taught Behavioral Science, Humanities in Three Cities, and US History. I picked up as many coaching jobs that were available as I could, including intramural tennis, head JV football, assistant swimming, and intramural wrestling, and was sponsor of the Afro-American Club.

 

Over my twenty years at BHS, I taught a variety of social studies courses, including Ethnic Studies, Anthropology, Government, Psychology, Geography, Tradition and Change in Four World Societies, US History, World Regions, and PE.

 

When we spent the summer in the Canal Zone, I would teach summer school.

 

I was hired to teach part-time at night and in the summer for Canal Zone College (later called Panama Canal College). I taught mostly General Anthropology and, one summer, World History.

 

We went on sabbatical in 1985-86 in California, where I worked on completing coursework to be able to teach history full-time for the College, my dream job. We returned to Panama where I went back to my BHS job.

 

In 1989 I was hired full-time as an instructor at Panama Canal College with the Social Science Department. I taught Anthropology, Sociology, International Relations, US History, and World History. I also coached men’s volleyball, coed track and field, and assistant football coach for the college. I sponsored the Community College Honor Society and Student Senate.

 

After two years, the college downsized. I was low man in the Social Science Department. I was transferred to Curundu Junior High to teach Geography and PE. After four miserable years there, I went back to Balboa High School to finish out my career. I continued coaching for the College as well as taking on various coaching jobs for the high school.

 

Over the years, I coached Tennis for five years (four league championships), Football, including three as head JV coach for BHS (one co-championship and two league championships), two as an assistant for the BHS Bulldog varsity, eight as head coach for the BHS Red Machine varsity, and nine as assistant coach for the Panama Canal College Green Devils.

 

I coached swimming for BHS for 26 seasons, men’s volleyball for the College Green Devils for nearly twenty years, track and field for the Green Devils, and later for Curundu Middle School. I sponsored the Lettermen’s Club at BHS and various intramurals: tennis, track and field, weight lifting, indoor soccer, flag football, wrestling, rugby, and lunchtime intramurals.

I also was a member of the football referee association.

 

I retired after twenty-seven years with what became the Department of Defense Dependent Schools after the Panama Canal Treaty eliminated the Canal Zone Government, and we were transferred to DoDDS, which later became DODEA. I was able to retire at age 51 based on an early retirement provision related to the Canal Treaty.

 

My wife, also a teacher, did not have enough years for early retirement, so she transferred to a DODEA school in Iwakuni, Japan, in 1999 after our schools closed and the Canal was given to Panama. I was able to pick up part-time work for Iwakuni High School that first year. I was athletic director, lunchtime intramurals supervisor, girls’ volleyball coach, middle school intramural flag football and wrestling coach, and assistant baseball coach. I also taught English to Japanese at the local community center.

 

The next year, after my youngest boys finished college, I started a Ph.D. program with Capella University, mostly by distance ed. I just coached cross country for the school. For these coaching jobs, my wife was the sponsor on paper, and I did most of the work. She received the pay.  I also picked up additional English teaching jobs with Interact, mostly in Hiroshima, and with the Saiki English School in a nearby Japanese city. These were really fun jobs, and I was paid in yen. After finishing my Ph.D. I was hired to teach Anthropology by distance ed. for Central Texas College-Asia. They later added the Sociology of Marriage and Family. I worked for them for about ten years.

 

We moved to Gaeta, Italy, in 2004, where I continued teaching online for CTC-Asia and worked on completing two master’s degrees by distance ed. so I could teach history and anthropology for the University of Maryland University College-Europe. I was eventually hired as an adjunct assistant professor with them to teach cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, US history, and the Legacy of Civil Rights. I taught both by distance ed. and face-to-face on base. I also taught English to Italian doctors in Naples.

 

I worked for UMUC-Europe for about eight years.

 

My wife was transferred to Rota, Spain, after four years in Italy. We rented a wonderful apartment overlooking the beach and Cadiz Bay. Best place we were stationed since Panama. I continued teaching college courses and volunteered as assistant track and field coach for the Rota High School Admirals. I also made an attempt at starting a wrestling team. We finished four wonderful years at Rota before my wife retired, and we moved back to California after working nearly 40 years overseas.

 

I gave up online teaching in 2015 to pursue writing historical fiction and complete a writing certificate with Stanford University.

 

My current occupation is attempting to begin a writing career. I have published my first novel and have eight more in the works.