My initial working career was as a teacher, coach, and administrator at the high school and university levels for 13 years. Those responsibilities certainly prepared me for the travel business which I entered in May, 1976.

I have been a partner in the business since 1981, primarily specializing in group business. My initial group efforts were with high school and college groups, especially athletic teams and high school senior trips. Then we escorted many groups doing mission efforts to France, Denmark, Norway, Australia, Korea, Brazil, Japan, Taiwan, and Great Britain, Mexico and the Holy Land. Domestically we’ve planned and escorted groups to Las Vegas, Reno, Hawaii, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Idaho.

I started in the travel business at a travel agency in Austin, Texas in 1971, and have experienced the many changes that have evolved in the industry over the last 40 years.

That experience has gone from writing out reservation cards, calling each airline, and handwriting tickets, to the wonderful computer age that does it all with a few strokes on a keyboard. It hasn’t all been for the good of the travel agent, but it is a much quicker and more efficient way to book travel.

After high school, I attended Braniff Airways travel agent/airline training academy at Dallas Love Field from Nov. 1975 to May 1976. After completing that training, I began working for Texas International Airlines at their first computerized reservation complex in May of 1976. Booking airline reservations on a computer system that also issued tickets, seat assignments, etc. had only been in existence a year or so before I began training for the industry. Under the leadership of President Carter the government had just deregulated the airlines and Texas International immediately opened the first ever discounted fares and called the “Fly For Peanuts” fares as a tribute to peanut farmer, President Jimmy Carter whose deregulation policy had made the cheap airfares possible.

Early family life was spent in a military family with my dad stationed in Germany, and as a result of that experience, and also having German relatives, I grew up with German as my first language. Thankfully I am still fluent in that language. Read more ...