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I was born in 1942 in South Haven, Michigan. Dad was a farmer, growing vegetables such as cauliflower, cucumbers and strawberries. Mom taught school. I actually attended a one-room school house through the 6th grade. That's me at the right end of the bottom row, below. Brother Walter (4 years older) is second from the right in the top row. I have 3 younger sisters.

After graduating from South Haven High School, I attended Michigan State University, paying a good share of my room, board and tuition with the profits from a roadside market I started the summer before my senior year in high school. I ran it for six summers.

I managed to graduate from MSU without acquiring any job qualifications, but I did have a wife and a baby boy. I got a job as a social worker with the Mason County Department of Social Services in Ludington. After 2½ years - and another child, a daughter - I transferred to the Ingham County department, and we moved back to Lansing. I soon became a supervisor, and after a couple of years (1971) I moved to the Central Office in downtown Lansing to write procedures for a new computer system. I became more and more involved in the systems side of the business, again becoming a supervisor. My team claimed many accomplishments. My own big one was designing a program to apply benefit increases by computer in one mass update, rather than case by case. It saved the state $5 million in the first year. But I was also a bit of a trouble-maker, in one instance causing department director John T. Dempsey to be brought before the state ethics board (the complaint was dismissed).

Feeling stressed and unappreciated, I resigned in May 1978, thinking that with my accomplishments at Social Services, I could easily find another job.  Nobody was impressed. By this time, I was divorced from my first wife and separated from my second. I finally landed a job as a computer programmer for the City of Lansing. After about 6 months, I got a new job with Farm Bureau Services. I was fired from that job in April 1980 for revealing my salary to fellow employees.  The next job was with Freeport Minerals in New Orleans. After 4 years, a couple job changes and a 3-month marriage, I moved back to Michigan - to Grand Rapids. I got a job with Foremost Insurance, but after a few months got fired again for revealing my salary to co-workers. Eventually, I managed to get a state job again, this time with Management and Budget. I moved back to Lansing, got married for the 4th time and bought a house. In September 1996, I took a job with the Municipal Employees' Retirement System, a public, non-profit corporation that had formerly been an agency of State of Michigan. I retired from MERS in 2004.

I am an atheist (brought up as a Methodist). My wife Carol is a Catholic. My 2 kids, Tom and Amy, live in Colorado.

Carol and I in our back yard

I have been running for 25 years and occasionally compete in a road race. In the 2007 Capital City River Run, a half marathon, I was 12th among 27 men age 60-69. (I turned 65 a week before the race.)

I also like to hike. This picture is from a 6-day trip in the southern Utah canyons in April 2007. I'm in the blue shirt at the right in back and sister Laura Barden is in the white shirt in front.

Although I'm not a skilled photographer, I took some lucky shots along Michigan's west coast several years ago and I've been selling them matted and framed at local shows. One of my photos was featured on the flier for the 2006 REO Town art market. Here is my display at REO Town in 2007:

My only experience with local politics was in the early 90's when I was involved with Concerned Citizens to Save Lansing, a group formed to support Ken Vaughan's lawsuit to stop Lansing's early retirement program, in which the mayor, city clerk, finance director and budget director were among 144 city employees who took bonuses to retire early. The group included city council meeting regular Lloyd Teets and Alexander Bolt, who was later responsible for getting Lansing's "rain tax" overturned. I was president of the group for a year. I also ran for the 4th Ward city council seat in 1993, finishing 5th out of 6 candidates (Paul Novak won).