I was born in Easton, PA May 11, 1951 and grew up, oldest of 4 kids, in the fields, woods and streams of Forks Township outside Easton. When I was about 11, I convinced my brother and several friends to clear the field down the street and make a baseball field, where we spent hours almost every day, weather permitting. When I was 13 my family moved to Buffalo, NY where I went to Kenmore East High School and became an avid Buffalo Bills and Sabres fan. When my mom went back to work when my little brother started school, I discovered my lifelong passion of cooking and have done almost all the cooking in the house from when I was 14 up to today. I went to Brandeis University, outside Boston, and graduated in 1972 majoring in Politics. I went back to Buffalo for a year where I continued my factory work that I had done summers and worked at General Mills, mostly loading boxcars.

In the summer of 1973 I drove across country to start at USC Law School. There I met my future (and current) wife, Julie Isen, and we got married December of our third year (1975). Right after that I started as a law clerk with Robert Gilbert’s office, representing unions and labor/management pension and health plans. By February 1980, I had become a partner in the firm (Gilbert, Cooke & Sackman) and managed the business aspects of the firm. I handled or oversaw all the firm’s pension and health plan work and represented some union clients in the entertainment industry as well. In February, 1987 the firm changed its name to Gilbert & Sackman and it has kept that name even though Bob Gilbert passed away about 10 years ago and I retired about 6 years ago.

Julie graduated with me and started as an in house attorney for Flying Tigers, the cargo airline, in their LAX office and, when Tigers got bought out by Fed EX, she moved to International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) the largest aircraft leasing company in the world where she was their first in house lawyer and eventually became senior vice president and general counsel. She retired 3 years ago when our first grandson was born.

Julie and I had two daughters, Caryn in 1980 and Lara in 1982. Besides all the normal parenting, I coached them both in basketball park leagues up to high school and then watched them play for Venice High. Caryn went on to Brandeis as well where she played on the volleyball team and Lara went to University of Virginia where she played on the ice hockey team. Caryn stayed in the Boston area, got married and then had our first grandson in 2010 and Lara came back here and married a UVA classmate and has one son as well.

Besides parenting, Julie and I loved to travel to, as many of you know, some very exotic locations in very “local” or rugged circumstances. In 1976, after the bar exam we wandered around Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Japan for 2 months and that just whet our appetites – for travel and food. We have spent the majority of our time in Asia, but have also gone to many countries in Latin America as well as some in Africa and a few in Europe (we’ll go more to Europe when we get older and can’t get around). We almost always take local transportation, spend hours wandering around markets and almost never eat in any restaurant where there are other tourists. We will try almost any food. We try to spend at least 3 weeks in a country and, now that we are retired, go for as long as 5 weeks. Our most recent adventures have included, Myanmar (Burma), Borneo, Bolivia, Philippines and India but over the years have also gone to Ecuador, Peru, Botswana, Zambia, Lithuania, Belarus, Guatemala, China, Cambodia. Laos, Vietnam et al.

Sportswise, I played a little slow pitch softball in the late 1970s but the vast majority of my sports time was on the basketball court. Up until about 4 years ago, I played 3-4 times a week. In fact, after my daughters graduated from Venice High, I started coaching girls basketball there in 2001 and was an assistant varsity coach and the frosh/soph and JV coach for many years – at least until senior softball and grandchildren got in the way. I actually knew all about senior softball as my dad had played it for many years. So when I hit 54, I started playing in the Hjelte pickup games in the Valley, then at 55 started in the Tuesday Valley traveling league, then here in Manhattan Beach about 4 years ago and then at Culver City. I haven’t been able to play much tournament ball since we travel so much (besides our international travel we go back to Boston to visit the grandson 2-3 times a year) and I can’t make most tournaments.

Besides all the things mentioned above, I still have time for my gardening (vegetables, fruit trees and flowers), my stamp collection and also guitar which I started when I retired. We also babysit the LA grandson at least once a week.