I was born in Detroit, MI in 1953, lived in Whiteville NC, Bloomington IN, and Lafayette, IN before moving to Madison in 1986 to work at the University of Wisconsin.  We moved into our current home in Middleton in 1988. My wife, Sarah, and I married in 1986 and raised our two children (Allison and Simon), both attending Middleton Public Schools.  We faithfully spent 20+ years restoring our Middleton landmark house and are very proud of what we helped accomplish during our 34 years as Middleton residents.  My hobbies include furniture building, train watching, photography, recording, skiing, cooking, and performing live music as a “gigging” jazz musician, among many other things.

I hold both a Bachelor of Music in Classical Guitar studies and a Master of Arts degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, as well as a Ph.D. in Music Theory from Indiana University.  My career has primarily been as a college-level educator.  My work history includes faculty positions at the University of Windsor and the Royal Hamilton Conservatory (both in Canada), Southeastern Community College (North Carolina), Purdue University (Indiana), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I joined the faculty in 1986.  During my stint as a faculty member at the UW, I spent 15 years as the Director of the School of Music, overseeing 50 full-time faculty, 22 staff, 500 student, and a performance calendar with over 350 concert events annually.  During my career I was also elected twice to the accreditation board of the National Association of Music Schools, and spent two decades as an active institutional accreditation visitor and instructor.  As Director I raised over $30,000,000, including the two “naming” gifts for the newly-built Hamel Music Center on campus. I retired from the UW in 2019 as an emeritus Full Professor, and remain active in music as a jazz performer, music engraver, recording engineer, and concert attendee.  For the past two years I have been driving school buses for the local school districts.

I have served on the boards of numerous local arts organizations, including those of the Madison Symphony, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, and the Madison Choral Project.  I have also served on the boards of the Madison Country Day School, the Tyrol Basin Ski Patrol—where I volunteered as a trained first responder for over 10 years—and on the board and as treasurer of the Middleton Historical Society, and a member of the Friends of Pheasant Branch Conservancy.  I am also an Eagle Scout and served as an Assistant Scout Master with Middleton Troop 140.  My volunteer work with the city includes past membership on the Library board and the Conservancy Lands Committee.  I have served on several ad hoc groups, including the Airport Strategic Planning, the City of Middleton Strategic Planning, and the University Avenue Corridor committees. I am currently Chair of the Parks, Recreation, and Forestry Commission (where I have served as a board member for 6+ years) and am a representative member on the Middleton Plan Commission.  In addition, I serve as a member of the Joint Westport / Middleton Plan Commission.