I have collected minerals and fossils both in the field and from dealers since the late 1960s.

I grew up in Kansas City, MO and received a Geology BS from New Mexico Tech in '81. While going to school in NM, i did considerable field collecting in the surrounding mineral districts, such as the Magdalena Mountains and the Hansonburg district. Collecting in these districts was a right-of-passage for most of the geology students. My first trip to the Tucson G&M show was in 1979, where i traded flats of self-collected fuzzy psilomelane and smithsonite on barite. I also had my first, embarrassingly amateur, mineral display. I returned in 1980 and was graciously allowed to display again, this time ribboning.

I have been living in SF Bay area since 1981. I sold off most of my mineral collection to Al McGuiness in the mid-1980s to finance a trip to Central America. My mineralogy hobby languished for many years but returned in late 1990s when i started going to the Tucson show again. I discovered online mineral dealers in 2002 and my collecting has not been the same since!

I started field collecting again a few years ago and I also belong to Bay Area Mineralogists & Crystal Gazers. I have recently started displaying minerals again at the San Francisco Gem & Mineral show, featuring specimens from my various sub-collections.