Leaving the seminary in 1960, I finished my last year in high school at Seattle Preparatory High School in Seattle Washington – graduating in 1961. I commenced my college education at Seattle University in Seattle, Washington.  I dated & fell in love with girls, but liked them more as a fellow girl as opposed to a girlfriend. I lived for the thrill of touching and wearing female clothing. Many of my female friends enjoyed teaching me how to be a girl.  

During my senior year in college I met and married my wife of 44 years in 1967– we were married in 10 months so I was a good closer. My wife knew of my dressing but chose not to participate. 

All this time I was presenting as straight, but I had started to accumulate my own cache of female clothing. While in college, I always worked in retail sales of both male clothing and female accessories, like sweaters, blouses, scarves etc.

Fitting the girls was alway better than putting a jacket on a guy.

The two women in my life who could have had a positive impact on my dressing were absent, leaving it to me to figure it out.

In 1966, during my senior year of college, I got an internship with Arthur Anderson & Company. It was then the most prestigious CPA firm in the world. In 1967, when I did not get a job offer, I went to my intern/mentor and asked, “why wasn’t I offered a job?”  His response was, “you have been on the payroll for a year and a half, get back to work.”

My public accounting expertise centered around small businesses, helping them solve their business and tax issues. I became one of the “go-to-guys”         (not the only yet) problem solver and tax specialist.

This reputation manifests itself even today.

Now a Certified Public Accountant, and with my required internship completed I accepted a position with Equity Funding Corporation Of America, as chief accounting officer for the Company’s Insurance Divisions. The company itself was one of the fastest growing financial service companies in the world. I was 27, playing in the Big Leagues.

Arriving at my new office, I found the Company “Seized and Placed into Bankruptcy” the night before. That morning I was the highest ranking officer of the company. 

Over the next seventeen months working with the Trustee in bankruptcy, we brought the company out of bankruptcy and had warrants issued resulting in all those officers serving time in prison. I was not even thirty and had a reputation as being part of the team that brought the company out of bankruptcy. Problem solver became my Nom de plume.

At a recent cocktail party, talking with one of the founders of a National Actuarial Firm, I found out that I might be the only living savior of Equity Fund. There is a BBC Documentary called the “Billion dollar Bubble.” The documentary ends on the day I arrive. I am now the “only one” that knows it all. All  senior public accountants  and attorneys spent time in jail and lost their licenses to practice their profession. And I spent my life talking about them calling them by “their name”.

In 1974, I was recruited to help Kaufman and Broad Homes – a Worldwide Home Builder, to help consolidate their east-coast divisions, which I competed in 1976. Using my insurance background, I helped Kaufman and Broad to gain some insurance against the adverse business swings in the housing industry.

We accomplished that by buying four insurance companies and consolidating all corporate offices in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1982, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Washington and Alaska recruited me to return home as its Chief Operating Officer and incumbent CEO. The latter never happened, and I returned to the consulting field and began replicating Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, working with a large Swiss pharmaceutical company. I commuted from Seattle through Hong Kong To Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A little longer commute than my current Red Line trip, but definitely more glamorous. The government pulled the plug on the prospect, because they could no longer afford “national healthcare.”

In 1989, I was recruited to be part of a three person management team that grew an insurance company from scratch. We had $10 million in assets and grew them to $7 Billion in 6 years until Xerox decided to exit the financial services sector by retaining me to liquidate the assets over a 7 year period. 

Then I bought a hardware store, the best ten years of my life, the worst financially.

In 2006, my “only” wife was diagnosed with breast cancer which recurred as bone cancer. The last year of her life was excruciating. In 2011, during the last 3 weeks of her life, I slept in the hospital room. Until, upon the doctor’s recommendation, I executed a Do Not Resuscitate- which was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Her death gave Stefanie her life. I came out the next day. It was not the entrance I anticipated. I learned the hard way to spell euphoria-followed by waves of dysphoria.