I have a mild but long-standing martial arts addiction and have held a black belt in judo and a brown belt in the shotokan style of Japanese karate. I began aikido in late 1973 under Frederick Rowell, in a club that met on the University of California-Berkeley campus.
In 1974 I joined the Aikido Institute in Oakland, where I trained under Bruce Klickstein, Bill Witt, Stan Pranin, and Hans Goto, all of whom were students of Shihan Morihiro Saito. In 1978 I was promoted to shodan and began to instruct a small club at the College Preparatory School in Oakland.
In 1979 my wife Marge and I moved to Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan to train directly under Saito-sensei at the Iwama Dojo. We lived and trained there for two years, during which time I was promoted to nidan.
In 1983 I resumed instructing at the College Preparatory School. I was promoted to sandan by Saito-sensei in 1984. We moved to Portland in 1990 and I gave up training in favor of child-rearing for twelve years.
In 2002 I joined the OGI dojo to train under Fred Phillips sensei. In the autumn of 2002 I reentered teaching at the Oregon Episcopal School and began to teach aikido there as well. Fred Phillips sensei has graciously allowed some of aikido students at Oregon Episcopal School to train at OGI as guests.