From a Dime a Dozen to Priceless: An Orphan’s 70 Year Quest for a Family

Born in 1940 as the thirteenth child of unmarried parents, I was committed to St.Francis Orphan Asylum in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania at the age of two. At the age eleven I transferred to St. Joseph’s House for Homeless and Industrious Boys, in Philadelphia. I ran away at the age of fourteen from the sexual abuse by a Catholic layman there and learned how to survive on streets of Philadelphia. At the age of sixteen, my employer at Gimble’s Department store informed me I was a ＂Dime a Dozen＂. I stole ＄25,000 worth of tires to prove I was not. A four year stint in the USAF introduced me to Republican politics where I met the John Birch Society’s founder, Robert Welch, and Ronald Reagan before he became California’s governor. I quit the job I had for four years as a salesman for the California Fruit Exchange because I did not get a promotion I thought I deserved and embarked on a career with the Southern Pacific Railroad while pursuing a formal education in both journalism and the law. I moved from Sacramento to Pollock Pines California and took with me Judith Nelson, whose mother thought I was much too old for her. Judy and I founded and published the town newspaper for two years. My relationships continued to implode and I found myself committing a horrendous crime for which I was sentence to Folsom State Prison in California for twenty years. I was released early because the Board of Prison terms deemed my sentence to be disparate. I started a career as a public servant with the State of California as a secretary and retired in 2004 as an Information Systems Analyst. Having the burden of being a registered sex offender, I decided to write my autobiography because it would be one way I could pay for my grave sin and help to prevent the victimization of children. In 1998, I found a family of Russian immigrants - The Klimovs - who informally adopted me and showed me the way to eternal salvation. In 2004 I retired from the state and moved to Christmas Valley, Oregon where I currently reside. I returned to grace and was baptized in 2009 at Grace Family Church in Carmichael, California. I consider this part of my life to be priceless. Although I started my life orphaned from a dysfunctional family, I believe it is God’s plan that I became a part of both the Klimov family and the family of brothers and sisters I have in the Baptist church. In retirement I travel, making large, panoramic prints of nature on canvas. I market them at vistagraphs.net.