The author was born in Oswego, NY, and introduced to the outdoors before he could walk-camping with his parents at just six months old. Growing up in Rumford, Rhode Island, he spent his days fishing, snorkeling and boating on Narragansett Bay, discovering fly fishing at age ten. Around that time, he stumbled upon the scene of a serial killer's first victim while returning from ice fishing. Local police failing to timely follow up led to his interest in law enforcement.
Later his family moved to Suffern, NY, where he became the youngest charter member of the prestigious Theodore Gordon Fly Fishers, the who's who of fly fishing personalities. He spent summers learning fly tying from legendary fly tyers Harry and Elsie Darbee in the Catskills. He then studied law enforcement and criminal investigation at SUNY @ Farmingdale under C. Dana Kuhn, renowned for investigating the Boston Strangler cases and head of the Boston Crime Lab.
His law enforcement career took him from South Nyack and Wappinger's Falls to Newburgh, NY-then, as now known as the "Murder Capital of NY." In the 1970s, he worked in conjunction with the NYSP BCI and the New York State Crime Commission on police corruption, which later inspired the novel, "A Darker Shade of Blue." After retiring from the City of Newburgh PD due to injuries sustained in the line of duty, he became a private investigator and animal cruelty investigator. Alongside his career, he served as VP of the Eastern Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers and spent 25 years consulting for G. Loomis Rods and other fly fishing companies as a district sales representative and consultant.
