My wife, Jackie, and I have owned Rainbow Bay Resort since the spring of 1999.  We take pride in the improvements we've made since becoming the owners.  As Jackie and I are both educated in the natural resources field, we do our best to respect mother nature and be gentle on our piece of Benoit Lake and the northwoods.  Jackie is homeschooling our two children, Jake and Ben, and they too are learning to be naturalists.

We came to the Spooner area from Maryland, only 10 miles from Washington, D.C.  I was employed as a waterfowl biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and worked mostly on determining the status of waterfowl populations and assessing the impacts of hunting regulations.  Before that, we lived in Indiana, where I was a waterfowl biologist for the State of Indiana.  Jackie earned a teaching certificate from Purdue University while we were in Indiana.

I attended college for 11 years and have B.S., M.S., and Doctoral degrees in wildlife or related majors.  Jackie and I met while we were undergraduates at Stevens Point, Wisconsin.  After Point, we married and lived in Tennessee.  From there, we moved to Carbondale, Illinois.

Jackie enjoys living in a rural setting.  Spooner itself is similar to Port Clinton, Ohio, where she was born and raised.  Port Clinton is also a small town with lots of summer tourists and much water-related recreation.  Her father and grandfather were commercial fishermen on Lake Erie.  Jackie grew up sailing on "The Lake" and taught sailing lessons at the Port Clinton Yacht Club.  Now, she enjoys reading, gardening, and spending time with her boys.

I grew up in Brookfield, Illinois near the Brookfield Zoo on the west side of Chicago.  As a child, my parents, grandfather, and uncle often took me to Aunt's fishing resort about 20 miles from our resort.  These childhood fishing trips were the seed that grew into a lifelong interest in nature and living on a lake in northern Wisconsin.  For the past 2 winters I have taught freshmen biology at the University of Wisconsin - Barron County in Rice Lake.  I also continue to work part-time as a consultant wildlife biologist.  Since 2003, I've been working on a addition to our home.  In 2005 I completed a course on home inspection and am a licensed home inspector.  I enjoy fishing, ducks and duck hunting, prairie restoration, the Green Bay Packers, and learning new things.

We have 2 dogs: Marni and Gretchen.  Marni and Gretchen were adopted from a no-kill shelter in Iowa and love chasing squirrels and chipmunks.  They are not too keen on chasing birds, which is disappointing because I had hopes that one would be a duck retriever for me.