Sam & Sara at Christmas time 1996 Click here to see more pictures

Aloha! OK, OK, I'm still trying to hang onto my Hawaii connection any way I can.

I'm a Public Relations/Business Communications professional who enjoys a good laugh, a wide variety of Music (including but not limited to jazz, pop, rock, Hawaiian and "local," classical, contemporary Christian, and especially vocal a cappella music and Barbershop Quartet Singing with my quartet, Macs (preferred, and of course, I can do Windoze, too), surfing the web, Designing/Conceptualizing Web Sites, the Outdoors -- Hiking, Backpacking, Camping, Bicycling -- Photography, Recreational Team Sports -- such as adult mixed softball -- my church, the Witness Players, and my daughter, Sara.

While PR is my chosen profession, I'm currently paying the bills as the supervisor of the Quality Assurance Postscript Lab in the Computer Printer and Imaging Division of Tektronix, Inc., in Wilsonville, Oregon (before it was sold off to Xerox).

However, I'm still in involved in public relations, marketing and promotion activities for the Greater Portland Vocal Gentry Barbershop Chorus and the Oregon Columbia Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).

In the summer of 1994 I moved from Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii, to Gresham, Oregon (east of Portland), so that I could be near my daughter. She's a great kid with a wonderful, cheery personality. Sheturned 8 years old on Feb. 22, she's in second grade and loves school. I'm proud of the fact that she's becoming quite a good reader, ahead of her grade level! Lately she's taken a liking to the American Girl series of books, and even got an American Girl doll for Christmas!

And, yes, I do miss shorts and t-shirts weather! Especially after the Winter of '96's subzero temps (with windchill!) here in the outer reaches of the Columbia Gorge... and I miss the cooling tropical breezes... now that we're experiencing an unseasonable heat wave...

Sara and I had a great Christmas holiday in Southern California with my family. All three of us brothers and our families stayed with my youngest brother and his family at their home in Glendale, Calif. My parents live not far away in La Crescenta, so we saw them frequently, too.

It was the first time we'd all been together in nearly two years. At that time there were only three grandchildren. Now there are five, at Christmas time ranging in ages from 7-1/2 to 11 months.

My parents, Sam & Eleanor, live in Southern California where my dad is the head chaplain at White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles. He's an ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister and has also been a pastor and high school teacher in Central California and Hawaii. My mom has been mostly a stay-at-home mom. She's now enjoying being a grandmother.

My middle brother, Tim, and his wife, Linda, live in Hutchinson, Minnesota. Tim's a nurse, Linda's a part-time high school teacher. They have two girls, Kelli, about 5-1/2, and Jenni, a little over 18 months. They're thinking about moving back out West so the don't have to "raise the girls indoors," as my brother puts it (too cold in winter, too humid and too many mosquitos in the summer). Linda's a Midwest farmer's daughter, having grown up in Bottineau, N. Dakota.

My youngest brother, John, and his wife, Lisa, live in Glendale, California, near my parents. They call on both sets of grandparents to babysit. Lisa grew up in Glendale. Her parents also live not far away. John works for a software development company and Lisa is a kindergarten teacher. Their two children are "AJ" (Adam John), 3, and Shannon, now just over a year old.

My brothers and I all graduated from Monterey Bay Academy (near Santa Cruz, Calif.) in 1974, 1975 and 1978, respectively. I graduated from Pacific Union College in 1980, Tim graduated with a nursing degree from Modesto Junior College, and John graduated with a business degree from San Francisco State University the same year my dad earned his second master's degree from SFSU, this one an MFCC (marriage family child counseling).

Now that we're "all growed up" and have familes of our own, we don't fight as much as we used to when we were kids... (well, Tim and I were the ones who fought all the time; I can't remember ever fighting with John)... actually, we don't fight at all and have a good time when we can get together.