More about Chris

Chris grew up in Hendersonville and attended public schools and Immaculata School.  He attended the University of Notre Dame and then, after two years left college to work and travel. After 8 years, Chris enrolled at UNC-Asheville and graduated with a history degree and teaching certificate. When he was in elementary school, Chris began a life-long interest in music, art, and poetry, and the study of nature.

Before Chris  became a teacher, he worked as a construction worker, a janitor, one year as an attendant in a psychiatric hospital, a groundskeeper in a cemetery, and a restaurant worker.  In the 1970s, he travelled north and worked for two years on the Alaska oil pipeline at a work camp at Isabel Pass south of Fairbanks. He was a member of Alaska Laborers Union local 942 and learned the value of good union representation. Besides getting workers high wages, the union looked out for their health and well-being while working on dangerous jobs.

Professionally, Chris worked in education for 34 years. This includes 8 years in Migrant Head Start and 26 years as a teacher in elementary and middle school (15 years as 8th grade English Language Arts teacher.) Chris has worked persistently for higher teacher pay and better funding for schools.

Chris is one of twelve children. Seven of his brothers and sisters live in Western North Carolina.