Grand Haven Mens Golf Assoc.

Who am I and how did I get to Grand Haven? As my friend Jim would say “and there I was”…

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I grew up in Orangeburg NY, which is a small town about 20 miles North of New York City. The area was rural then but it was fast becoming a suburb to the big city. I was the oldest of five children and we had a very happy life filled with sports, school and family outings.  My first job was as a caddy at Blue Hills golf course. There I learned some important lessons like how to cuss, gamble and smoke. Thankfully the smoking was not permanent.  I also learned that golf could be fun, when and if you hit the ball straight.  I graduated from Tappan Zee high School in 1967 and enlisted in the Air Force.

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The Air Force was happy to have me and they decided I should be an Air Traffic Controller. This bit of luck turned out to be the beginning of my lifelong career in aviation. I spent 4 years in the Air Force most of that time I was assigned to Weisbaden Air Base in Germany.  In my off duty time, I was able to travel around Europe and see places and things that I had only read about in history classes.

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After leaving the Air Force, I was hired as an Air Traffic Controller with the Federal Aviation Administration.  During my time with the FAA I also attended college part time and graduated from Western Connecticut State University. I have 2 wonderful daughters who put up with my constant transfers to different airports from New York to Virginia.  The FAA also led me to my wonderful wife, Barbara.

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When we retired, we decided that it was time to get away from cold winters, so like most of our new friends we headed to Florida. Our first home in Florida was in a community with a golf course in San Antonio (yes it’s in Florida) about 25 miles North of Tampa. We enjoyed the community but missed the ocean so about 3 years ago we started to look at locations on the East coast. Palm Coast was on our list because we had both been here to attend training classes at the FAA Management Training Center that used to be on Palm Coast Pkwy.

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We looked at houses and property all around Palm Coast but the first time we drove into Grand Haven we knew this was where we wanted to be.  We found a lot and started building our new home. We moved in 2 years ago and we are very happy to be part of the community.