About the Old Man

Seasoned knowledge, steady wisdom.

The name

They call me the Old Man with a Cane. The old man is a lifetime of knowledge and experience. The cane is the wisdom that only comes after the mistakes, the hard questions, and the long years of learning. Today I offer you both.

A life spent around learning

I was raised on the campus of an agricultural university, the son of a soil-science professor, surrounded from my earliest days by students, books, and the patient work of learning. In a way, I never left that world.

I became a Board Certified Entomologist, and for twenty-three years I ran the pest and sanitation program for one of the largest counties in California. Over more than forty years I have worked across three countries, served on a state board and a federal science panel, and helped companies, agencies, and communities around the world with problems large and small.

How I work

My method has never really changed. Listen closely. Dig honestly. Come back with something you can actually use. I reach for the gentlest tool that will do the job, I prize prevention over brute force, and I would far rather tell you a plain truth than a pleasing guess.

A few words of my own

When I am not consulting, I write, under a pen name I keep in memory of someone dear to me. Words have always been how I make sense of the world, and how I try to be useful in it.

Come and ask

If any of that sounds like the help you have been looking for, I would be glad to hear from you. There is no question too small, and no honest one unwelcome.