I was born in Eugene, Oregon in 1957. I visited Colorado on a family road trip in the early 1970s and knew I would someday live here. I graduated from the University of Washington in 1983. During college, I served as student body president, wrote for the college paper, and was involved in many political causes.

I moved to Sun Valley, Idaho for a job as a newspaper reporter. I was quickly named editor, then joined with two other employees to buy the paper, which had been losing $100,000 a year. We turned a profit in our first month and never spent another day in the red.

I sold my stake for a profit and moved to Colorado in 1987 for a job at The Vail Trail newspaper. Tim Wirth offered me a job shortly after I interviewed him for an article, and I moved to Denver in 1990.

I met my wife, attorney Lois Witte, on Earth Day in 1990 when she enlisted me as a training partner for Ride the Rockies.  We were married one year later on Earth Day, 1991.

We moved from Denver to Lakewood in 2004 to be closer to the mountains and our favorite foothills trails (North Table Mountain and Hayden Park on Green Mountain among them). The fact that Lakewood High School was an easy walk for the boys was an added bonus.

Weekends not spent in the mountains are often devoted to gardening, and bike rides.

We have two grown sons, Brennan and Eliot, who live in Boulder.