I was born in Arizona and grew up in Florida, West Virginia, Illinois, Ohio and New Mexico, then went to school at Baylor University and MIT in the Boston area, studying Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and Electrical Engineering. I met my wife, Diane, in Flagstaff, Arizona where we fell in love through hiking the Grand Canyon and on long bicycle trips throughout the desert southwest. We have two grown children, Caymin and Cyril. Caymin is now an amazing organic farmer in Mendocino County, and Cyril is working to become an electrician.

My perspective is widened by travelling/living/working in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Zimbabwe, Czech Republic, Croatia, Italy, Israel and Switzerland.

I have worked in numerous areas of R&D and medical, factory and laboratory instrumentation, and was co-founder of a product development company in Mountain View which kept me insanely busy for a decade. We also cared for my aged parents here in Fairfax until they passed, and now care for Diane’s mother.

Our family came here in 1993, expecting to stay two years while my wife Diane studied and worked at Point Reyes Community Health Clinic. Upon seeing the unique combination of beautiful and accessible open space, intelligent and engaged residents, and proximity to world-class cities, we decided to stay. I was moved by reading Marty Griffin’s book Saving the Marin-Sonoma Coast, and later taking the EFM Master Class (34, 2006-2007), to begin my path into public involvement in Marin County and Fairfax.

Diane still provides health care to many Marin residents at the Point Reyes Clinic, and has worked with emergency medical personnel throughout the county. But even more locally, Diane is our beloved community midwife, and on nearly every street we travel in our town and beyond she says “I delivered a baby there!” Diane worked for several years with the Pachamama Alliance in the Ecuadorian Amazon training the Achuar people as birth attendants. We have both dedicated many years to working on midwifery and women’s health throughout the nation and world — she as President of the Midwives Alliance of North America and me creating an on-line epidemiological database that has made major contributions to research on out-of-hospital birth care.

Locally, after taking the Environmental Forum of Marin (EFM) Master Class I was invited onto their board, and coordinated the Energy Days for the EFM classes for several years. I am well-versed in the energy area, including solar, the grid, electric vehicles and household efficiency, and have brought our old house and others up to code while deeply improving both safety and efficiency.

I joined the Fairfax General Plan Advisory Committee in 2003, finding Fairfax to be a model democracy in inviting ordinary citizens into the center of this process. I became Secretary and then Chair. During my 10-year tenure we completed the quite substantial General Plan, working with the Planning Commission, Town Council, staff and consultants. Fire Chief Meagor advised us on the General Plan Safety Element, which was quite eye-opening to me regarding the risks faced in this usually-pleasant area. In the past decades I’ve worked closely with all our Planning Directors and chaired the General Plan Implementation Committee. I helped craft the first Fairfax Climate Action Plan and formed the Climate Action Committee (CAC) which I chaired for the first years and am now the Council Liaison to.

In 2015 I was appointed to the Planning Commission, learning more about how the Town’s policies meet the world of real people with specific projects. I was elected to Town Council in 2017, and re-elected in 2020.

I’ve worked a great deal with Marin Clean Energy from its inception, and now as a Councilmember serve as an alternate to the MCE Board and sit on the MCE Technical Committee. I focused the town on the change-over to LED streetlights, saving the town considerable money. I am passionate about finding ways to help residents do home upgrades to improve efficiency and safety and show our town as a model of the transition to clean energy.

I also serve the Town as a Board member at Marin/Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District and on the Flood Zone 9 Advisory Board (currently chair). I sat on two now-adjourned subcommittees of the Marin Council of Mayors and Councilmembers, the Pension/OPEB Committee and the Disaster Preparedness Committee.