Born April 17th 1935 in Boyd’s Cove, Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland. Graduated from high school in 1952. Attended business school at Grand Falls, graduating in bookkeeping, typing, shorthand, filing etc. Obtained work at Gander in 1953 in the field of aviation communication with the Federal Government. In 1979 I went on to advance my career in this field by attending the Government owned and operated training college in Cornwall , Ontario. Graduating as a flight service specialist, a job I held until my retirement in 1991.

I have always liked the great outdoors and the beauties of nature. Most of my off time has been spend hunting, fishing, camping, boating, hiking etc. I can’t think of anything nicer or more relaxing that a cloudless evening across a lake or cove and hearing the haunting call of the loon, with a glorious crimson sunset thrown in for good measure. Also, a moonlight night scene from a log cabin across a frozen landscape, with a roaring wood fire going. The sound of a babbling brook, and the tug of a salmon on the end of my line.

As a boy growing up in Boyd’s Cove, my favorite pastime was catching conners from the head of the wharf or baby crabs and lobsters tucked away inside a dead snail shell or mussel shell down in the land wash, or catching little lancefish and tiny eels underneath the rocks.

Of all my outdoor activities, my favorite as I grew older was salmon fishing, which is best described by this unknown author who put it into such beautiful words. The last verse of his poem is as follows:

Give me the life in the open
Always from the big city’s blare
Let me camp near running water
Where I breathe God’s own clean air,
Let me see the sunlight dancing,
And the stars atwinkling gleam:
And glimpse the moonlight shining
On the pools of the salmon stream.

After my retirement, I took up oil painting, a gift I didn’t realize I had. I was so pleased with my first painting, I continued to do more, and enjoyed it more as I went. I paint mostly in the wintertime or on stormy, miserable days. To date I have over a hundred oil paintings depicting the beauties of nature as I see it, and the way I like it, simple and realistic. Hopefully, please God; I will be able to continue doing it for a lot of years yet.