Michael J. Lippe

I was born in 1943 in Columbus, Ohio, but I grew up in places like Cuba, Singapore, and Belgium. It sounds exciting and it was, but it also meant that I didn't really get to know my own country until much later.

After law school, well, to be honest, during law school, I decided that a legal career was not really in my future, and I joined the Peace Corps, where I served three years in Botswana, in southern Africa. As many others have said of their time in the Peace Corps, it was the job of a lifetime. I met my first wife there, married and adopted her three boys, and we decided to continue an international-style life. This led us to places such as Kenya, Tunisia, and the Ivory Coast, during the next twenty years. We also added one more son to our family.

I retired in 1996, but continued to work internationally as a consultant. I remarried in 2003 and we settled (and still live) in delightful little Shepherdstown, West Virginia, about 70 miles from both Washington and Baltimore.

Botswana had been a defining moment in my life. What came next was also one. In December 2007, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I fully expected to die in 2008, but when this did not happen, I decided to write a book on this experience with my amazing oncologist, Dung T. Le, MD.

At this point in my life, at an age I never expected to reach, I take things very slowly. I don't plan too far into the future. I do, however, think about another book, and may just try it.