Tell us a little bit about your background. Where were you born, raised, etc?

I was born in Detroit a long time ago. I have two sisters - one older and one younger - who both still live in the Detroit area along with my mother. I had a typical high school period filled with things like baseball, hockey, and marching band. I got my first exposure to the game of golf in high school gym class. I enrolled at Northern Michigan University for my freshman year of college, convinced I was going to be a park ranger at some point in my life.

After just one year, I grew bored with that major and NMU and transferred to Michigan State where many of my friends had gone the year before. I changed my major to Forestry and enjoyed the campus life at MSU. One of my neighbors worked at the university golf course and would allow my friends and me to play for free whenever we wanted. This is when my love of the game really grew. It was at this time that I also found my other passion in life, playing drums in a local rock band!

My career has taken me from Michigan to Florida and now Alabama. I got married in Fort Lauderdale in 1992 to Lori whose brother just happens to be a superintendent as well. Our only child is Lola a yellow Labrador retriever. We love to travel and stay busy in our careers. I still play drums every day for therapy and hope to be performing in public again in the near future. My other hobbies include building guitars and drums, home brewing, fast cars and of course golf.

How did you get started in the golf industry?

I eventually graduated from Michigan State with a BS in Forestry, and found myself planting trees throughout the area during the day and playing drums at night. One day I was planting trees at Walnut Hills Country Club in East Lansing when I met Kurt Thuemmel, CGCS. I convinced him to put me on his crew the following spring, and 25 years later I’m still working on a golf course.

Why did you get involved with your local chapter?

I got started with local chapters back in my days in South Florida. I joined the SFGCSA Board for two reasons. The first reason was to help the chapter be successful any way that I could help. The second reason was to force myself into public speaking. I was terrified to stand before an audience and speak. It was tough to speak at the meetings at first and I was pretty rough. Now almost 20 years later I am completely at ease speaking in front of large groups.

When I moved to Mobile I volunteered to help the Gulf Coast chapter. I was appointed to the board and worked my way up through all of the chairs. During those years I had the opportunity to mentor and help many people in the area which has been tremendously rewarding. I’m now on my second turn on the local board and have served as chapter delegate for nine years.

Why volunteer as a leader?

The world would be chaos without leaders. I’ve always felt like I had something that I could add to make a chapter better. It may just be an idea, a contact or even a strong back, but everyone has something they can add to make a group stronger. Too many people in the world stand on the sidelines and never get involved. That’s just not my nature.

What does the Gulf Coast GCSA do well as a chapter? What is it proud of?

Our chapter has three areas that I think would be considered our strengths. First I would say that we are a very cohesive bunch of professionals. Everyone knows everyone else and is willing to help the member down the road with any problems that arise. Pulling together to clean up after hurricanes, solve disease issues and sharing equipment would be good examples of this. Second we provide plenty of opportunities to acquire quality education points right here on the Gulf Coast. Many of our speakers are the same you will find speaking at the Golf Industry Show. We have at least six meetings a year where you can accumulate points. Finally, we have been a big supporter of turf research in our area. I would say that we fund and sponsor as many projects as some of the largest chapters in the country.

Share your stories by emailing them to Leann Cooper.