Biography

I was a Hoosier from birth in Evansville, Indiana through high school.  I grew up in Gary, Indiana in the 60’s and 70’s.  After college in Chicago, dreams took me to Boston, and then love to the Monadnock region in 1986.  New love planted me in Brattleboro, Vermont. 

I have had multiple careers – social worker, polarity therapist, service dispatcher, network administrator, and now woodworker.  I find this work to be the most satisfying of any that I have done – the design process with people, the hands-on shaping and the beauty of the wood, the attention and concentration required all conspire to please me in ways that prior work has not. 

Joanna and I were married in 1991, at which point I became step-father to Jennifer.  Joanna has her own business, Breathing Space: Home and Office Organizing.  My sister Rebecca Rueter and her daughter Emma moved to Brattleboro in 1999, from Seattle, and my parents moved here in 2002, from Valparaiso, Indiana.  It is a huge blessing to have this family here rather than far away.  I have a brother, Allen, in St. Louis, Missouri. 

I love to sing and dance.  My singing is mostly with the Centre Congregational Church choir, and the Brattleboro Community Chorus, with the occasional solo at church.  My dance is mostly of the Improv variety, at the Brattleboro School of Dance.    

Experience

About 15 years ago I was touring my cousin’s house in Wisconsin.  Chris and his wife Vicki, along with his brother, Bruce, brother-in-law, Virgil, father, sister, mother, etc rehabbed a farmhouse they lived in with their 4 children.  I was amazed and entranced by all they did, and asked “How did you learn to do all of this?”  “Bob, you just do it,” he replied.  I did not understand. 

Then we bought our first house, and I began doing projects on it.  I helped a friend build a woodshed.  I took a week-long course at Heartwood in Massachusetts on finish carpentry.  We hired a contractor to put on an addition, and I wired the electrical and framed out the window trim, put in the floor.  I replaced a set of outdoor steps.  We moved to a bigger house. I rehabbed a basement room to make a TV room. 

I tore out walls and built a new big master bedroom, including the closet and several other walls.Then I began to get into finer work.  A curved shelf across a post-and-beam corner that hung behind our bed.    A mirror frame, etc, etc.

We decided it was time to pursue my dream whole heartedly.  In the winter of 2005 I left my full-time network administrator job and spent 12 weeks in Maine at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship.  Along with 10 other students, I did several projects, including two you see on the gallery page.  Since then I have developed the fully adjustable music stand.  How?  I just did it!  I do what I can, and I get help when I need it.  Now I understand.