Synopsis: On Palm Sunday 2012, I realized I was already 65 years older than our first two grands in diapers. We might not have many years for heavy adult conversations on family history, fun times, travel, etc. So, I resolved to email two stories every Monday to our sons and their wives as "Granddad's Mondays." Every December, I would take about 120 stories to a local printer to bind them into Christmas books for each grand, their parents, and ourselves. Now we have four grands and 1,516 stories in 12 years. All that will survive me. I retired in 2006 and am having an absolute ball writing in my senior years to proudly create a heritage for generations to come.

Author of eight family history books. Born June 12, 1944. Degree in Electrical Engineering plus an MBA. Worked 40 years for Caterpillar in Peoria, IL with 2 patents, 3.5 years in Seoul, South Korea, and 1.5 years in Hong Kong. Met President Jimmy Carter 13 times and built Habitat houses in Vietnam, Nepal, Canada, Mongolia, New Zealand, and 12 U.S. cities.

I wrote this book of 85 stories and its companion book of 94 more stories for two reasons:

(1) Document 190 years of history on the Reiss Family Farm which dates from 1838 in St. Clair County, Illinois.

(2) Encourage all seniors to do the same "write stories thing" for their next generations. Your book of stories is an autobiography written in slow motion on auto-pilot. You are a self-published author and prizewinner to your progeny and friends. Congrats!