I was born at a very young age in Anderson, MO before the time of preschool, kindergarten, and sandboxes. Spending the first nine years of my life on a small farm, I invested my 5 years before school playing in the dirt, swinging on a tree swing, and throwing rocks at almost any target, moving or fixed, that I noticed. My family moved to the north central Missouri town of Marshall when I was nine. I started my formal education when I was 5 and graduated from UMKC School of Dentistry 19 years later. I went back to Marshall, flat broke, but with no educational debt and have been practicing general dentistry there for the last 38+ years.