Graduate of Dexter High School (1982). Graduate of Three Rivers Community College (1985). He has an Associate of Arts degree. He worked at the Sikeston Daily Standard newspaper where he wrote columns and feature stories for the paper. In 1987, he became a contributor to, and a founding member of, the Challenger Center in honor of the 7 astronauts who perished in the Challenger disaster.
He loves hearing about new discoveries made by the Hubble Space Telescope when it spies an un-discovered solar system, or a far away galaxy. He also likes all of the planetary photos taken by the Pioneer and Voyager space probes.