Eating lunch in about 1947 outside with my father Elmer, 7-year older brother Stan, and younger sister Marilyn. I am on the left. This was before we had electricity. My father raised pigs, milked about 14 cows, and raised grain on our 160-acre farm in NW Minnesota.

I'm sitting on the lawn at our farm with one of our dogs in the background.

Family gathering. My mother is standing in the back on the right; my father is in the foreground on the right. I am next to the tall uncle on the left. My grandfather on my father’s side is on the left. He emigrated from Norway in about 1893 and had been a fisherman on the North Sea for cod. He lived to be 99.

At the research lab of Dr. Lloyd Smith at the University of Minnesota. I had chosen the fisheries and wildlife program because of my interest in the outdoors as well as Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” which I read right after it was published. This was my first ecological job. I graduated from the University in 1966.

I was on guard duty in the front bunker of the 9th Medical Lab in Vietnam. I spent a year at the Walter Reed Institute of Research after being drafted in 1966 and then was sent to Vietnam in September 1967. I processed samples for rabies and three other human diseases and worked with military dogs. I started grad school at the U of M eight days after discharge in September 1968.

My brother Stan and me. He was seven years older. He is wearing my Army coat from Vietnam. I am wearing another which I asked for when I was released.

My wife Deb and I while backpacking in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. We lived in Montana from 1979 until 1985. I had met Deb right before leaving Minnesota and then worked for the Montana Dept. of Natural Resources and Conservation, Energy Division.

I was employed by the Minnesota Dept. of Nat. Resources, and this is our division’s Environmental Review Team. We analyzed impacts on the environment and tried to reduce them. I’m the guy with the beard sitting at the base of the tree.

Deb and I were at the 2009 retirement party given to me when I retired from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. This might have been right before my supervisor, a computer geek, found out that in my past life, my animal behavior studies had been cited in feminist journals. (Laughter ensued.)

Taken at our farm in Polk County, MN with Deb, Evan, and Martin in about 2016. Both sons are woodworkers and carpenters. We had two foreign exchange students this decade, one from Thailand and another from Japan. We have visited both of them. This photo also reflects our current life; Evan lives on the farm with a nice woodworking shop. We are often at the farm and also have an apartment in Minneapolis. Martin lives in Helena, Montana, and is the only employee of a high-end woodworker.

This picture was taken at one of the high schools in Ho Chi Minh City (often called Saigon by its inhabitants) where we volunteered to help the students practice spoken English.