Born in 1940, I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, blessed with a superb John Burroughs School education. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts with a BA in Zoology, I studied medicine at the University of Missouri (MD 1966) and also trained there in Dermatology. My career encompassed academic dermatology at Stanford, the University of Illinois (Chicago and Peoria) and the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo (now part of the University of Toledo).

My dermatologist husband and I practiced together while we raised 3 children and published several dermatologic textbooks. We lived on a “farmette” with numerous animals. After he died in 2009, I wrote 3 children’s books (The Helium series) based on our animals, beautifully illustrated by Nora Hutton.

In recent years I opened a second hand bookstore, Library House Books and Art, LLC in Grand Rapids, Ohio, where I live. This has led me into the fascinating worlds of books, art, and antiques – visual fields, just like dermatology. I particularly enjoy estate auctions and library sales.