I was born February 4, 1950 in Watervliet, Michigan. I am the firstborn of nine children. Our farm was over 400 acres in Van Buren County, Michigan and we all contributed to the fruit, cattle and grain crop farming operation. We attended public school until 1960, when the bus which would allow us to be transported to the Catholic school first traveled down our dirt road. When I was 14 my parents moved us to Chicago. I attended a seminary in Donaldson, Indiana for freshman year in high school, then St. Laurence High School in the Chicago suburbs. While there, I participated in forensics, drama and intramural sports. I graduated with honors and was awarded the English medallion. Through college preparatory testing, I was awarded a National Merit Letter of Commendation, the Illinois State Scholarship, and was offered a Sloan Scholar program admission to the University of Illinois.

In the fall of 1968 I enrolled at Loyola University of Chicago. I studied and received my degree in English there in 1972. My college activities included writer, news editor and editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, the Loyola Phoenix; contributor to the campus literary magazine and yearbook. The university president appointed me to the Undergraduate Academic Coordinating Board, and I was elected to the Residence Hall Council and Blue Key National Honor Fraternity.

I spent the next year as an intern with the Illinois Legislature through the University of Illinois Department of Government and Public Affairs. Assigned to the Senate Executive Committee, I did research, staffed committee hearings, wrote speeches and provided other support for the legislators.

I attended Loyola University School of Law in Chicago from 1973 through 1976. While there, I served as an intern at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office (the equivalent of the County Prosecutor). This led to my first legal employment after admission to the bar in November 1976, as an Assistant State’s Attorney.

I then served as a law clerk/research attorney for Justice John M. O’Connor of the Illinois Appellate Court for nearly two years, writing drafts of legal opinions for the Appellate Court.

I accepted an opportunity to return to West Michigan in 1978 to direct the Center for Continuing Legal Education at Western Michigan University. For two years I developed and presented seminars for lawyers and judges on such topics as trial advocacy, criminal and juvenile law, banking law, and appellate practice.

I entered the private practice of law in Kalamazoo as an associate with a small established firm in 1980. I became employed in a firm specializing in representing injured persons and worked my way to partner in that firm after three years. I left there, with two of those partners, to create Benefiel, Farrer & Glista in 1988. We helped over 5,100 persons and families to obtain compensation for lost income and medical bills over the following 17 years, until I commenced my sabbatical in April 2005.

Sandra and I met while undergraduates at Loyola, and we married in 1974. Our children Steven, Anne and Michael are all graduates of Loy Norrix High School. Steven earned his bachelor’s degree at Caltech and is working for Charles Schwab. He married Peggy Kingsley in 2004, and they make their home in the San Francisco Bay area. Our daughter Anne received her Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude from Western Michigan University in 2003. She is employed as a legislative assistant to State Rep. Gary McDowell. Michael, who attended Kalamazoo College on an academic scholarship from the Heyl Foundation, has commenced his Medical Scientist studies at the University of Chicago. He will earn both the M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at the conclusion of the program.
Sandra is a faculty member in the Speech Pathology and Audiology department at Western Michigan University. She serves this year as president of the Michigan Speech, Language and Hearing Association.

Both of my sons earned the rank of Eagle Scout with our Boy Scout Troop. For sixteen years I have been a uniformed Assistant Scoutmaster, volunteering upwards of 1000 hours annually to provide leadership, good example and an opportunity for outdoor challenges to our large, urban troop. I have led expeditions canoeing in Minnesota Boundary Waters, Canada and northern Maine; backpacking in Philmont, New Mexico and Isle Royale; and skiing in Michigan, Canada and the Rockies. We returned to South Manitou Island in the summer of 2003 for my third time. Most recently, I led a two-week canoeing expedition to the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska in August, 2004.

Since October, 2003, I serve on the board of directors for Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes, the not-for-profit food bank for our community that last year provided more than 750,000 pounds of emergency food supplies to over 58,000 people. I was elected president of the board in February, 2006.

I have built three boats. I garden and landscape, do home maintenance and repairs, and cook when I can. I am learning to build furniture. I enjoy almost all kinds of fishing, and I am a member of Trout Unlimited, where I occasionally cook on a weekend excursion to the Au Sable River for 20 people.

We belong to, and financially support, St. Thomas More Student Parish. Sandra and I spent many evenings with the school booster organization working sports and performance events at the high school, and all three Project Graduation overnight lock-ins for our children’s classes. I read whenever I can, and enjoy listening to piano and vocal jazz.