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Today's Featured Biography

Lawrence Wangler

Hi all:

Verna and I have lived in Scottsdale for 12 years now. We live in the Northern part of the city in a semi-rural environment with lots of wildlife. As a result we have become avid birders (over twenty different species visit our property frequently), as well as local animal life watchers, e.g. bobcats, javelinas, snakes (yes the poisonous kind), and Harris squirrels.

The Arizona Sky Islands are major flyway stopping points for a wide variety of birds migrating from Mexico and South America, and we used to enjoy frequent expeditions to these areas in Southern Arizona. However, because of illegal immigration and drug cartel activity these areas are no longer safe, a sad commentary on our border security. We have found a very secluded place to visit in Southern Arizona called Muleshoe Ranch, if you want to get away from everything this is the place with good birding. We have continued our international travel most recently to South America and Eastern Europe. Last year we bought a townhome in Glen Allen, Virginia and are spending about 50% of our time in Virginia. We hope to move there full time in the not too distant future. I retired January 2001 and Verna retired soon thereafter. Verna and I both finished our PhDs at Claremont University after retirement. We actually met in 1999 through friends at Claremont University where we both attended classes.

Verna’s daughter has a law practice in Richmond, Virginia specializing in criminal law. My oldest daughter works for a credit union in Las Vegas and just finished her MBA; my youngest works for EarthColor and lives in New Jersey, but all her clients are in Las Vegas so she sees her sister frequently. As our children are spread out around the country, we only see them infrequently, but the telephone and internet keeps us in close contact weekly. Two of the three are married, but we have no grandchildren at this point.

We are working closely with our local Congressman on his reelection as well as other Republican politicians we support in Arizona. We have gotten very active in politics and find it interesting to see the inner workings of a political party and campaign. Our interests are continually expanding, and we enjoy exploring both physical places and new ideas; thus, in another five years you may see an entirely different list of interests and our residence may be in a different part of the country or even the world, yes we have explored Chili and the island of Madera which is part of Portugal but about 120 miles off the African coast in the Atlantic ocean.
That’s about it. Enjoying retirement, staying active and working on staying health.

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