Cloverdale resident since 1995
Q. What brought you to Cloverdale?
A. It was a fortunate accident. I grew up in Connecticut and after college I went to Colombia, South America with the Peace Corps where I learned to be bilingual. I made good friends through that, some of whom came to this area and bought 80 acres of land 10 miles from Cloverdale. In 1971 I came to visit them and I loved everything about it. They asked me to stick around a bit as there was work to do in the orchard. I stayed and stayed and never left the area. The moral of this story is to watch out for your house guests. When our son turned 5 and was starting school, my wife Jennifer and I realized logistically it was crazy to stay living where we were. One of us worked in Ukiah, one in Santa Rosa and our son’s school was going to be in a third direction. We decided to move to a town. We looked around and chose Cloverdale because we really liked the area and the little we knew about Cloverdale looked very promising.
Q. What keeps you here?
A. It’s an easy place to make connections, meet friends, and find things to do. We got involved, found a lot of activities, and made commitments. I was on the Planning Commission for 12 years. It was a good place to raise our kid. He played sports and we attended most of his games and met the parents of his friends. The Arts Alliance came along and now there’s great theater. We love and attend the Americana music and jazz through the Arts Alliance. Friday Night Live is fabulous. It’s easy to participate in all kinds of activities here and we’re not in too many ruts. We can be outdoors almost every day of the year and I am doing a lot of hiking. I also find it easy to bridge the cultural divide between our two communities here. We keep active. We enjoy life.
