My native language is English. I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. My university studies there included a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy and an M.A. in (Medieval) History and Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin where I also did some training in literary translations from Italian in association with the National Translation Center. This gave me a strong background in many fields of the Social Sciences.

After moving to The Netherlands in 1972 I received my Doctoraal degree in Medieval History and later completed a 5 year doctoraal study in Theology receiving the Catholic degree "Kerkelijke Exam". During that last period, among other translations, I translated academic papers and speeches for members of the university staff and the Ministry of Education from Dutch into English. I also edited or revised English translations made by Dutch native speakers. This work of revision was often more time consuming than translating.

I lived in Italy from 1963 until 1966 studying for 2 years at the University of Naples and have been there regularly for long periods ever since. After being pensioned in 2005 I got a second house there and spend at least half the year in Italy. My translating experience in Italy has, until now, been limited to helping out academic friends with their publications.