I was born in Los Angeles in 1943, and grew up in Glendale, California. In 1961 I matriculated at Occidental College where I majored in Physics. Following graduation from Occidental I entered the University of Washington as a physics major.

After my first year of graduate school I changed my major to Astronomy. My doctoral dissertation research under Paul W. Hodge, involved studying the associations of hot young stars (OB stars) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (a dwarf galaxy near our Milky Way galaxy). In the course of my research I made two observing trips to the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in Chile.

Upon obtaining my doctorate I held a post-doctoral research position for one year at the University of Washington. The research involved studies of historical trends in astronomical measurements of atmospheric extinction.

My next research position was at Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, where I studied the distribution of interstellar dust in the solar neighborhood of the Galaxy. I also did observational research on spectroscopic binary stars under the guidance of Michel Mayor. During nearly five years living in Europe I traveled extensively, visiting the major western European countries, and the South American countries of Chile, Peru, and Bolivia.

Upon returning to the United States I taught Physics and Astronomy for two years at Sonoma State University in Northern California. In 1982 I joined the faculty of Mount Union College.