Bobby Jones Society Vice-Chairman
I was born and raised in Fort Pierce, Florida, which is where I met my wife, Katie, during our junior year of High School. After both graduating from the University of Florida, we married in 2009 and began the next chapter of our lives in Montclair, NJ. I began work as a junior Landscape Architect at ARGOS Design and was involved in various stages of the design/construction process from residential sized to large scale community master planning projects. My career was short-lived, as 18 months later I accepted an opportunity to relocate back down to Vero Beach, Florida and work alongside my father-in-law supplying clean petroleum products to various domestic and international customers.
Amongst the many blessings in our lives are our four children Sadie, Liza, Easton, and Beau. It was through Easton’s experiences and subsequent discoveries that our family crossed paths with the Bobby Jones Foundation and its’ wonderfully supportive cast. After suffering from a longer than normal seizure episode in the summer of 2020, Easton underwent further neurological testing and was incidentally diagnosed with Type 1 Chiari Malformation in addition to platybasia and childhood epilepsy. The trajectory we had envisioned for our family’s future had quickly spun 180 degrees in a matter of minutes. Soon after this diagnosis, on September 3, 2020, Easton underwent decompression surgery at the tender age of six.
The sheer magnitude of the diagnosis, let alone the emotional trauma associated with having to watch your child undergo and recover from such an invasive surgical procedure was all but destroying Katie and I’s mental well-being. It was difficult to find anyone who truly understood the gravity of the situation, the emotional and physical toll from both a child’s and parent’s perspective. Enter the Bobby Jones Foundation. Through newfound connections, seminars, fundraising events, and support groups our family has been able to comprehend, cope with, and ultimately fully accept the implications associated with this disease. Two and a half years into our journey, our hope is to be able to provide further support to those suffering from the effects of Chiari malformation and related disorders via a continued involvement with the Bobby Jones Chiari & Syringomyelia Foundation and its quest to find a cure.
