About Me

I live (with two Great Pyrenees, two Dachshunds, a Haflinger horse and three cats) on 90 acres northwest of Laurel, Montana, in a secluded box canyon lined with Ponderosa Pine trees. 

Laurel is a long way from the towns in Oklahoma where I grew up as the youngest of three children. And a very long way from my 23 years as a corporate executive in the food, housing, and technology industries. As the Director of Marketing for the National Potato Board, I traveled to meet farmers in every state, food editors in New York City and to Tokyo to promote US french fries. I was on the team that launched the wireless division of Sprint Corporation, at the time, the largest product launch in US history.  I went to night school in my twenties to earn my MBA, and again in my thirties to earn my Ph.D. in social sciences.  

In 2003, I retired from the corporate world when I was VP of Marketing Operations at Sprint PCS.  I wanted a job where I could sleep late and wear blue jeans.  I had worked my entire life to have the one I have now, that of a professor at Montana State University in Billings, passing on my real-world experience to the next generation, coming home to my animals and peaceful canyon.

I’m in the process of starting my third career to write and draw. I’ve written a novel.  I’ve written and illustrated and produced children’s books.  I’ve started the Buckley and Baines cartoon series.  I’ve written for journals and Guest Editorials for local daily newspapers.  I’m looking forward to when I can imagine and create at my leisure.

In my travels as a presenter or guest professor in Germany, Turkey, Austria, Egypt, Italy, Spain, and Greece, I have seen the beautiful scenery of much of the world.  

There is no place as beautiful as Montana.