About Us
73 years of History
A little history about myself: I am 73 years young, married, with two married sons, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. I spent 39 years with State Farm Insurance, 37 years with my own agency. I retired from State Farm in December 2007. In the spring of 2002, the Iowa State Republican Party approached me and asked me to run for an open Senate seat in my district. In November 2002, I won that Senate seat, beating a well known Democrat that had served four terms on the local County Board.
The Senate
In 2003, I was named the Freshman Senator of the Year and in the two terms I served in the Iowa Senate, I served on nearly every committee and was named the Senate Minority Leader in 2008. During my second term, I ran unopposed, which I am very proud of. My time in the political arena was very fullfilling and it was one of the greatest opportunities of my life to have the chance to make a positive impact on the community in which I grew up, raised my family, and ran my business.
The Shop
Like almost every other amatuer woodworker, I started in my garage with limited tools, ideas and the simplest of projects. That was sometime around 1978. During the winters, I used to get home from the office around 5:30 in the afternoon and the first thing I would do is fill the portable propane heater and try to heat up the garage while the family ate supper. During the summers, I had to leave the garage door open, the fans on high, and fight the mosquitoes. Those of you visiting this site from Iowa know where I'm coming from.
Shop Upgrade
I have since graduated to a 22' by 40' shop that is attached to and accessible through my garage. The shop has 9' ceilings, central air, gas heat, with a 5' crawl space. Much to the displeasure of my grandchildren, I made room for this shop in my backyard by filling in our 50,000 gallon in-ground pool. I had a difficult time deciding what to do for the floor. I finally decided on buying the 2 1/4" maple basketball court that had been removed from the Sioux City, Iowa YMCA. The court was constructed in 1954 and I now have a little of Sioux City's history in my shop. Each piece of maple had to be stripped, cleaned and planed to thickness before it was laid in my shop. That took hours of work.