What drove me to become a scientist?    It was a summer research experience while I was in high school

I loved kneeboarding at Black's Beach whenever possible with Eric Jensen and Bob Gove. Eric was best man at my wedding and he went on to a successful career in education (jensenlearning.com) while still surfing almost every day!.

We would take every opportunity to go kneeboarding at Black's Beach, especially on a south swell

While a junior in high school, I met Sam Hinton. He suggested that I follow my passion by joining a NSF research opportunity at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Wow, that was great.

Tom Clarke was studying the ecology of garibaldi. I got to go out into the ocean to help collect data and to participate in large tank experiments at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (now part of UCSD).

Tom Clarke, Scripps Institue of Oceanography graduate student, let me help with his research in 1966. He went on to a successful career as a faculty member at the University of Hawaii.