The Unknown Journey

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. Henry David Thoreau.

In my wildest imagination, I never dreamed of writing a book. I was not planning to write my autobiography even though some friends and family encouraged me to do it. Yet with their support, I really never gave serious thought to putting pen to page. That was until our family reunion in March 2008, when I was once again asked to record the stories and times about our common history for our family’s sake. Oddly enough, just a few weeks earlier, JoAnn and I were having breakfast with our daughter Brenda and we begin discussing my time as Superintendent of Schools. It was then that I realized I had been in the office as Superintendent almost four years when she was born. She certainly knew what my job was, but she had no idea what it entailed. I knew then, for her and our other daughter Rebecca’s benefit, and especially for Cooper and Chandler, our grandsons, that if I didn’t tell the stories with a certain level of detail, they would never have the opportunity to know my history and a little bit about their roots. Also, with the large number of brothers and sisters in my family, my many nieces and nephews, and their extended families, if someone in my generation didn’t reduce to writing some of our past, those precious memories would be lost forever.

This is a personal memoir; this is how I remember times, places, and events. Even though I have made every effort to accurately portray events, situations, and circumstances as completely as possible, I did it in a summary fashion. This story is not written as, or intended to be, a detailed description or history of the major events I was privileged to take part in. I wrote it principally to share my story with my immediate and extended family, and hope the book will prove useful to and inspire future generations regarding how as least one person dealt with life’s events that happen day by day.

I faced the problem all authors have to contend with, that of selecting events and the level of detail I wanted to share. I had neither the time or wanted to use book space to tell everything. I was determined to produce a book that was easy reading and of reasonable length.

My story is of a rural north-Florida country kid who comes from a large family, grows up on a family farm with limited means, goes to college, returns to teach school in his hometown, and less than four years later is elected as county Superintendent of Schools at the age of 27. I joined the Florida Army National Guard while still in high school, and somehow rose through the military ranks from the lowest level Private to become a Brigadier General. At the time of my retirement, I had served 39½ years on active duty and National Guard service proudly wearing the uniform of the United States Army.

My story is one of hard work, being at the right place at the right time, and good fortune. For me, occasionally times were rough, but for the most part, they were good times. It is a dual story of civilian service and soldiering. It is a story about the people, circumstances, and situations that helped make me what I am, and who I am. It is a story of my benefiting from opportunities created by the sacrifices of my parents, and by others throughout my walk through life. It is a story of me believing in myself, and my abilities coupled with determination, hard work, honesty, integrity, and never sacrificing personal principles of values, morals, and ethics.

I told this story primarily because of my love for my family. My life has been great, and this is my story so far. I’m sure there will still be more to come.