Like many young people of that era, he held various odd jobs such as delivering milk and newspapers.

He attended Harrison Grade School and the family were faithful members of Victory Baptist Church.

He was accepted to the World Jamboree in Austria in 1951 and Scout officials and Shawnee townspeople helped him raise the $1,100 required for the trip, which he was to say later, changed his life.

After his discharge he attended Harvard Business School and upon graduating he married Ellen Schnake, on August 29, 1964, a teacher from Ohio he had met in Scotland.

They moved to California and he was hired at Foremorst Dairies, Inc.[5] and the founder of the McLaughlin Prize for Research in Ethics in Accounting and Taxation.