I was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, in 1947! I grew up there and in Mason City, Iowa, just South of Minnesota. My family moved from Marshalltown to Mason City when I was in the fourth grade. Soon after that I began taking cello lessons from Mr. Norman Selness, the public school string teacher. Mason City had an excellent city-wide string program in the public schools, with elementary and senior high orchestras. My high school stand partner is now a professional cellist in California.

As a teenager I wanted to be an atom bomb builder, then a cellist, finally a missionary; so I set out for Moody Bible Institute, following high school. I later decided to be a pastor, instead of a missionary. I was reared a Baptist, but now I'm a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). I pastor Wayside Presbyterian Church in Signal Mountain, Tennessee.

I have a BA from Moody, a Master of Divinity degree from Faith Theological Seminary, and a Dr. of Ministry degree from Covenant Theological Seminary. I have been a pastor for 23 years, serving churches in North Carolina and Tennessee. My wife Grace and I came to Wayside Presbyterian Church in Signal Mountain, TN, in 1989. (We were married in Philadelphia in 1973. Grace is Chinese, born on the mainland, and moved to Taiwan at the age of four.) Our son David is in the eleventh grade, and our daughter Rebekah is married, and teaches high school English. Our cat's name is Kyle. She is grey, white and black, and very friendly.

I have two hobbies. One is messing around with my computer, writing web pages, surfing the internet and so on. The other is playing the cello. I studied with John Ehrlich of Drake University in Des Moines, and took a semester of cello lessons at the American Conservatory in Chicago, but I am largely self-taught. Now I play in the Chattanooga Symphony, and teach a few cello lessons from time to time.

My cello is Czechoslovakian, and was probably made in a factory there in the 1920's. My father gave it to me in 1964. It's not an expensive instrument, but it sounds nice, and I've played it for thirty-six years.

If you are a cellist, you will enjoy Cello Heaven.