My siblings include Julie, Nick, Chris, myself, Joe, Melissa, and Mimi. My father’s family is Swiss-Italian, my Mother’s family is English Dutch. They come from very large, close-knit families. My mom’s family was from the Midwest and were farmers.

My childhood was great. Even when we were very poor, because we were such a close-knit family with my aunts, uncles and grandparents, we didn’t know we were as poor as we were.

My father worked hard. He worked for Chevron for a while. He became a machinist and a sheet metal worker to where he owned his own business. He also became quite the entrepreneur where he owned other things besides his own business. He also built homes and had a gas station. He did a lot to try to put extra food on the table. As we got older, our way of life got much, much better.

When my dad opened his business, my mom was a secretary for him for a few hours a day. But mainly she was a stay-at-home mom. When I was in junior high or high school she got a real estate license to sell real estate. Then she owned her own business as a real estate agent.

Then my brother was also a real estate agent and they owned a business together. My family all worked hard and strived hard. All of us are all pretty successful.

I am a recent college graduate. I went back to school in my thirties and graduated in my early forties with a communication and business degree from San Jose State, which took me a long time.

I had a great job with small pharmaceutical company. It affords Val and I a very nice lifestyle. We love to travel. One thing we have been very fortunate in the first five years to do has been to go to Europe at least once every year. Growing up, my grandmother was a schoolteacher I went to in grammar school. It was just a few blocks form the house. If thing were ever tough I would just go and see my grandmother. Sometimes teachers treated us a little better and gave us a little more leeway.