I was born and raised in SE Michigan in a beach community on Lake Erie, where my father’s love of boating had a major influence on me. We spent every summer traveling to the Lake Erie islands and the Erie Canal. I worked as a Mechanical Engineer for 20+ years until semi-retiring in 2022 to pursue my passion for boating year-round in SW Florida. The engineering part of me has my creative mind in “full gear” all the time. I moved here shortly before Hurricane Ian in 2022. What an experience to obtain under my belt. As a northerner I had only ever heard of the damage a Hurricane that powerful can do.  Knowing that I have an emergency training background, I immediately started volunteer groups for rescue and recovery and storm damage control. I am wholeheartedly committed to our community, especially the boating community. I spend quality hours donating my time to the special needs boating community moving vessels and mechanical repairs to their vessels along with captaining cruises for their enjoyment.  I am also a volunteer with the North Port school system. When I am off hours from captaining vessels; I run a small laser engraving business creating nautical gifts and custom pieces for all my boating enthusiast friends and colleagues. I just purely love SW FL and all it has to offer.