Who Me?

A reader may think that writing a biography would be an easy task. Research that needs to be done by an author of non-fiction books requires many hours of focused time and countless interviews with real persons associated with the person or event. The author of a biography should have all of the facts stored in his memory and merely needs to transcribe them into a book without further research. Wrong!

Maybe it was because of my age, 82, that I was unable to sit back and dictate to a stenographer, or into a tape recorder, a flow of the events and influences that shaped my personality and my life. Instead, I spent over two years sitting at my computer’s “Microsoft Word”, searching my mind, my pilot’s log book, and diaries, slowly eking out one sentence, one paragraph and then one page. Time was allocated to this endeavor on a “I have nothing else to do” attitude. With the Oregon rain, soaking the golf course into an unplayable mire, I was able to pacify my longing for a game by turning on the word processor and succumbing to the pleasure of reliving my younger days. The cover jacket of this book was designed by my graphic artist son, Jay, to depict my personality as a “free spirit” and as a serious Certified Public Accountant.