After earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Whitman College, a Masters of Science degree in Zoology and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Marine Environmental Engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle, he worked for the State of Washington, Departments of Natural Resources and Ecology from 1969 until his retirement in 1994. 

At the Department of Natural Resources he developed and implemented a demonstration program on the value of satellite imagery for natural resource management; began development of seaweed aquaculture; established a public beach program, marine reserves, and underwater reefs;  developed aquatic land use planning and developed the Washington Marine Atlas; and established and managed the Marine Resources Research and Development Center.  He also managed for several years the Department’s forestry research section as well as served on the Shorelines Hearings Board, Puget Sound Dredge Disposal Analysis Program (PSDDA), Puget Sound Estuary Management Program, and as research chair of the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority.  He also was also the author or coauthor of fourteen scientific papers.

At the Department of Ecology, he designed and managed the production of the first digital version of the Washington Coastal Zone Atlas, the first Oil Baseline Study in Puget Sound and a dredging study for Grays Harbor . 

He represented the State of Washington on the Department of Interior’s Outer Continental Shelf Research Advisory Board and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North Pacific Regional Marine Research Board. 

He was honored by being listed in Who’s Who in the West and Who’s Who in Science and Engineering.

He served his community on the Thurston County Shoreline Advisory Committee, the LOTT Citizen Advisory Committee, and Board of the Boston Harbor Association.

Since retirement he has volunteered as a naturalist for the Salton Sea State Park in Southern California, as a naturalist for the South Sound GREEN program, as a naturalist and writer for People for Puget Sound and as a columnist on marine life for the local newspaper, The Olympian.