I was born in Bucks County, PA, in a Lutheran home. My family moved around frequently until we moved to East Lansing, Michigan, where I spent most of my childhood. I graduated from Michigan State University in 1968, and completed the ROTC program as a distinguished military graduate. I went on active duty and served in Vietnam from September 1969 toSeptember 1970. I met and married my wife, Devorah, in 1964 while still in college. Throughout our lives, we were deeply involved in the church, constantly seeking the truth.

We read extensively and began asking questions. Often we were told, this is our doctrine: "It's my way or the bye way." That only spurred us on to ask more questions. After twelve years in the military, including a tour inVietnam and two tours in Germany, I transitioned to the U.S. Army Reserve and joined the pastoral staff of a New Baptist church in New Albany, Indiana. During this time, we met an evangelist named Milton Green. He taught exclusively from the Old Testament, and I developed a real affinity towards his teachings.

After eighteen years of service I left the military and joined Milton’s evangelical team, recording and editing his lectures. One day, in the spring of 1987, we encountered a Messianic Christian group and participated in a quasi-Pesach Seder with them. During that experience, something sparked inside me and Devorah.

Soon after that, Milton Green passed away suddenly. We were living in Texas and I was left without a job. One of Milton’s followers invited us to visit his property in Montana and we fell in love with the state. It reminded us of our many visits to the Alps in Germany and we enjoyed the slow pace and friendly people.

A year later, we packed everything we owned in a U-Haul truck and moved with our teenage daughter and dog to experience "Big Sky Country." We had no job and no place to live. Our friend offered us a ten-foot by forty-foot trailer on his property in the woods, without electricity or running water. That was home for the next three and a half years.

Eventually, I started a telecommunications business with a like-minded individual who lost his job at AT&T. I was then able to buy forty acres of land and build a house. Over time, we added a barn, a guest house, gardens, and a shop.

The business thrived, so I handed it over to my son. I then started another business with a fellow church member, Bob Harris. Bob was raised Episcopalian but he was born Jewish. His Pintele Yid (core essence of the Jewish soul) was asking questions and he was exploring his Jewish roots.

Over the next couple of years, our two families delved deeper into Judaism. Eventually, we took down the cross at our church and began using the Artscroll siddur on Sundays. Our group dwindled and we closed the church and then started to meet at our home on Shabbos.

From the very beginning, our mantra was, “The truth, nothing but the truth, whatever it is.” Questions led to more questions and more truth. We ended up joining a Messianic group made up of Jews who had left the wider Jewish community. They still observed Shabbos and holidays, which resonated with us. We began reading the Torah directly and learning the commentaries realizing this is where Hashem’s word is. So we decided to leave the New Testament behind.

The last time we were with the Messianic group, they hosted a Shabbaton in Helena, Montana. One of the leaders warned us, "Be careful you don't go too far." Devorah and I just looked at each other and decided, "It’s all the way or not at all. We are pursuing Judaism."

After 9/11 and the dot-com bubble burst, I lost my job in Philadelphia. My wife and I wrote to the Rebbe and decided to return to Montana. By then we had gotten used to walking to shul and having access to kosher food. All of that was gone now.

The closest Chabad Center was four-hours-and-forty-five minutes away in Calgary, Canada. I connected withRabbi Menachem Matusof and made Calgary our shul for several years. While there, we bought kosher products to bring back to Montana. We were able to get dairy from a friend of ours who had goats. Devorah would milk the goats herself ensuring the milk was chalav yisrael (processed under supervision of a Jew).

In the summer of 2004, Chaim (Rabbi Chaim Bruk) came to Montana for the first time as a Merkos Shliach, rabbinical student. He knew if he wanted something to eat other than sardines and matzah he better come visit Devorah in Kila because she would take care of him.What really impressed us was how seriously he took his job. He took it upon himself to clean up the list of names he had so he could get in touch with as many Jews as possible.Little did he know that he would come back the next year, and the following year. By then, he was sold on starting Chabad Lubavitch in Montana. During his fourth visit, he came with Chavie and once she was on board, it was a done deal.

We were excited to finally have a Chabad Center in Montana until we realized it would be in Bozeman, fifteen minutes further than Calgary! So we alternated between Bozeman and Calgary until 2014 when Rabbi Berry and Shayna Nash opened a Chabad Center only two hours away, in Missoula. Finally, in 2018, Rabbi Shneur and Chana Wolf opened a Chabad Center in Kalispell, only a thirty minute walk away.

We were excited to finally have a Chabad Center in Montana until we realized it would be in Bozeman, fifteen minutes further than Calgary! So we alternated between Bozeman and Calgary until 2014 when Rabbi Berry and Shayna Nash opened a Chabad Center only two hours away, in Missoula. Finally, in 2018, Rabbi Shneur and Chana Wolf opened a Chabad Center in Kalispell, only a thirty minute walk away.

It was just after Rabbi Yossi Laufer’s visit that we started receiving the weekly publication, "L’chaim," by mail. That is how we were able to read something from the Rebbe every week at our Shabbos table. Over the years, whenever something of concern came up we always turned to the Rebbe before making a decision.

I was so envious of people who received a dollar or had a yechidus, private audience, with the Rebbe while he was alive. There were so many times that I wanted a one-on-one with the Rebbe. I know it wasn’t meant to be, but sometimes I just craved that physical presence.

It’s mind blowing and brings me to tears that I can help carry on the Rebbe’s mission in this world. We are all Shluchim of the Rebbe and I'll keep doing his Shlichus until the day Hashem takes me.

In 2014, Devorah started getting sick. I sold our property in the forest in Kila and moved into town, in Kalispell. Devorah passed away in December of 2021 on the Alter Rebbe's birthday, the 24th of Teves. She was laid to rest in the only Halachic cemetery in Montana established by Rabbi Chaim and Chavie Bruk during Covid.

We handled the transactional part of the conversation quickly and then it became personal which is unusual for me. I could be chatty but this was different.

I told him that I was divorced and dating. Gavriel said, "Yeah, I'm starting to date too." Which wasn't true until five minutes ago. A week later, after a bad date, I was exhausted and ready for bed. I looked at my phone, and there was a text from Gavriel. All of a sudden I felt alive again and we had a delightful second conversation.I had gotten divorced only two years ago and was still figuring out my religious practice. I needed someone who loved Chabad but didn’t think I could ever cover my hair. When I realized Gavriel wears a black kippah, a black outfit, and has a long white beard, I was like, "Who is this guy?" His appearance did not jive with my imagination during our three phone conversations.

When I told him I didn’t think I could cover my hair, I figured we’d agree it wasn’t a match. He said, "My only obligation is to marry a Jewish woman, the rest is between you and Hashem." I was speechless.

After our fourth conversation, I told him that we had done enough talking and it was time we met. Without hesitating, he said, "I'll come meet you." He was in Montana and I was in Connecticut so I wasn’t expecting that. I thought, "This is a man who knows his mind."

When he flew out to meet me, we planned to see each other before Shabbos but we ran out of time. We went straight to the Chabad Center in Newtown, PA and at Shabbos dinner, people came up to me and asked, "Is that your husband?" They sure didn’t think this was our first date.

A couple of months later, in January of 2023, I flew out to visit Gavriel in Montana for our third date. I’d never been there before and there was a major snow storm. There was an inversion with no visibility so we couldn’t go anywhere. So we only had our work and daily routine.

On my last day there, the weather finally broke. We went to Glacier National Park and visited Lake McDonald. It was gorgeous. We looked across the frozen lake, and I was blown away by the surroundings.