I got a scholarship from Pratt Institute in the 11th grade. They gave a full year of painting classes. That gave me a year of art classes in college. So when I started school again after being married and the service I was 10 years behind. I went to Cabrillo College. I got on the GI bill, did work study, and did whatever I could to make a living. I bought an old truck and started hauling garbage just to survive. Got on food stamps, got on welfare. I had two children. It was really difficult. I never felt very satisfied with being where I was.

But I was always an artist. In elementary school my teachers were always pushing me. But my dad wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer. So never helped with school at all.

Once I started at Cabrillo, I was there for two years. The teachers were wholeheartedly full of giving. I graduated in 1970.

I didn’t have enough money to graduate in time to get into UCSC. So when I did my last quarter, I was only supposed to take 12 units. So I though I’d never make it. I didn’t have the money or the grants to graduate. It would take me another year. So I took 28 units unbeknownst to the administrators. I just knew I had to do it.

I got accepted to UCSC, but then they started questioning the fact that I had take 28 units. I passed with honors. They said this is a rare thing, but being that you did so well, they gave me a scholarship and another $1000.

At that my wife was still going to Cabrillo and as soon as she graduated I had to make a decision about our relationship. We got separated.

After two years at UCSC, I got accepted to Rutgers in New Jersey. I had a choice of going to Stanford or to Rutgers and I wanted to go back to New York because I thought it was a happening place

But I made a mistake. I should have gone to Stanford.

I graduated from Rutgers in 1976, met Beverly. We got married in ’78. We bought a house in Scotts Valley. The kids were happy. I got a job at UCSC in ’78. I was doing all kinds of stuff, even thought I had a master of fine arts degree. I was pitching spinach off the freight trains at Engels Frozen Food to the conveyor belts. I didn’t like unloading spinach at all. I’d come home at night and my fingers would be three times the size of normal. I pitched with a pitchfork I worked for a hardware store.

Lo and behold, they called me up with a teaching position at UC. I jumped on that. I taught at UC for ten years, and loved it. I taught sculpture, paining, drawing, metal fabrication, welding, stone carving, bronze casting.