I was born in Hinton, W. Va. in 1940. At that time, my parents lived in Rainelle, W. Va. My mother was a McClung. We moved to the Kanawha Valley in 1943 where I grew up in St. Albans and Nitro, W. Va. I graduated from Nitro High School in 1958, and West Virginia University in 1962 with a degree in psychology and a life membership in Sigma Chi Fraternity. I earned an MBA in marketing at Marshall University in 1975. My career started in Sept. 1962 when I was employed by Dun & Bradstreet in Charleston, W. Va. and, later in Pittsburgh as a credit reporter for about six years; by Ashland Oil, Ashland, Ky. as a computer systems analyst for almost ten years; by Dravo Mechling Corp., a barge line in Pittsburgh and St. Louis for six years in marketing and sales; and retired from The Ohio River Company, a Cincinnati barge line, after 14 years as sales manager of the Pittsburgh office. My wife, Penny and I married in 1967 and live in the eastern panhandle of W. Va. to be near our daughter who lives in central Pennsylvania.