I was born in Duluth, Minnesota in a snowstorm, the first of two siblings. My dad was a navigator on a bomber in the South Pacific during WWII. My mom worked in the war industry. They met later after the war. My dad studied engineering at the University of Minnesota. Eventually after my sister (Lawyer/Judge) and brother (Wildlife Biologist) were born, we settled in Lansing, Illinois, a working-class neighborhood south of Chicago.
I was quite active in sports during high school. I was on the track, cross county and swim teams As a member of the Cross-Country team my sophomore year, I was the first to earn a letterman jacket in my H.S. class despite being smaller than even all the women. I was MVP in Cross County my senior year. I set the 2-mile record in Track my senior year and also was able to break 5 minutes in the mile 4:58. I also played baseball in the summer and my Connie Mack team won the South Side Chicago championship after my junior year.
Meanwhile, I was also on the H.S. honor Society both my Junior and Senior Years despite a rather lifelong poor memory for names. My memory caused me to be very organized and as a lifetime Ralph Nader fan, critical thinking has been my greatest skill.
I somehow managed to be accepted into the elite Northwestern University after High School. I suspect this happen because of a convergence of two new situations. First, I had chosen a new field Science Engineering desperate for student majors. Secondly, this was the first year Blacks were accepted as students in the school’s 100 plus years of existence. Much later, I realized that I had also benefitted from Affirmative Action. I and a high school classmate were the first students, in anyone’s memory, from our poor working-class neighborhood who had been accepted into Northwestern.
I was in college during the height of the anti-Vietnam war movement with a low draft number staring me in the face. I was mostly clueless and never got really involved against the war. I was working off campus as a student engineer when Kent State happened. I missed all the campus actions, or maybe I might have become an anti-war activist sooner. I probably did do some small things in college that were signs of my activism to come. I actually completed my 5-year Science Engineering program, but never graduated or ever practiced Engineering. Never had any regrets about that.
My activist days actually began in earnest when I was the last of the draftees in October 1972. After training at Ft. Polk, LA and Ft. Gordon, GA, I was assigned to the U.S. Army Signal Corp in South Korea. I sponsored a Korean orphan in Pusan and in Wonju, I became involved with a nearby World Vision orphanage. This led me to investigate corruption in the Korean orphan situation.
This would eventually lead me on a path of investigating the U.S. support of the South Korean dictatorship of Park Chung Hee. In 1974, I extended my time in the Army for another year time to stay in Korea. I then began exposing the U.S. support of the dictatorship in letters to Congress and President Gerald Ford. Each of my letters were usually signed by 5-6 other soldiers. On my 4-page letter to the President, I collected over 100 signatures from my base.
I was also applying to stay in Korea to both marry my Korean Language teacher Un Chong and travel around Korea as a civilian. During a fake military exercise with most of my base personnel scattered across distant Korean hillsides, I was abruptly and secretly removed from Korea in July 1975 by the U.S. Military command at the demands of the Korean Government.
Separated for 1½ years, Un Chong was finally able to come to the U.S. We were married in February 1977 in SF by a United Methodist minister at an elderly Mormon woman’s home with Quakers. I graduated from Heald Technical College and worked at National Semiconductor for over 6 years.
When I learned later in 1979, of my wife’s sexual harassment by her Director at the SF Community College ESL Division, I joined her in a long a 6-year lawsuit. Radical Woman in SF and WOASH (Woman Organized Against Sexual Harassment) helped create a dynamic support team to help my wife in her struggle and in exposing the reality of sexual harassment to the general public. These were the early years of the sexual harassment movement. We were also both involved with the San Jose NOW.
In September 1985, my wife died from the severe emotional stress that had aggravated and seriously damaged her health. As my wife spent her final days in the hospital, two key witnesses to some of my wife’s sexual harassment were discovered. My wife died believing that she had won her long struggle for justice.
But justice and the legal system often are at odds. Laws passed to protect corporations and government entities quickly stole most the potential money damages from my wife’s case, causing our latest attorney to quit. Eventually, I was able to find another attorney, but I was forced to settle without the trial my wife and I had wanted. This lawyer then embezzled all the money. Later, I did receive $50K from a lawyer trust fund a $30K malpractice lawsuit settlement. I used the money to purchase the Peace House where I still reside.
In March 1989, I joined a caravan to El Salvador. Returning after 3 months, I eventually helped bring 4 Salvadorian adults into U.S. including my wife to be. A year later we were able to bring her 3 young children to the U.S. The children are now all grown. I had a cordial divorce with my wife 20 years ago. However, I am still close with everyone. For 20 years I was a gardener/handyman for various families until I retired in 2012.
