A graduate of Glenville State College in 1974, he has spent nearly five decades building a career in professional land surveying and developing extensive practical knowledge of tree and wood identification.

He began his surveying career with the Planning and Development Division of the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, where he spent two years performing surveying work at West Virginia State Parks. He became a licensed Professional Land Surveyor in 1976 and subsequently worked for Swecker Engineering for 12 years, completing boundary surveys and providing surveying services in support of a variety of engineering projects.

For the past 40 years, he has been engaged in private practice, with much of his professional work involving boundary surveying, boundary line retracement, and the identification and marking of property lines.

His interest and experience in tree and wood identification have developed over a lifetime. He completed formal coursework in tree identification at Glenville State College and has continued to expand his knowledge through decades of professional surveying, boundary line marking, timber and firewood cutting, woodworking, and hands-on experience gained while growing up on his family farm. His early education in forestry and woodcraft was further developed through instruction from his father and participation in 4-H projects.
Since 1986, he and his family have lived on the former farm property of his grandparents near Montrose, West Virginia. He and his wife have one son.

He has presented several tree and wood identification seminars for the Elkins Chapter of the West Virginia Society of Professional Surveyors and has also presented for WVSPS programs and at the 2025 Pennsylvania surveying conference. His seminars emphasize practical, hands-on learning through the use of actual leaf, bark, and wood samples, along with green poles and field demonstrations illustrating techniques for tree identification and boundary line marking.