Linda was born in Upland, Ca. in 1948 and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley. Her interests include interior design, sewing and Toastmasters. Linda's two businesses, Delta Draperies and Ausherman's Use What You Have Interiors, are located in our home. Linda designed the house and Duane built it. Linda has three sons. Jon, the oldest, is an attorney for the State board of Equalization. He is married and lives in Sacramento, Ca. Tom is an electrician in the Portland area and recently engaged to be married. Dan, the youngest, graduated in Economics from University of Oregon in 99 and is single and working in Portland.

    Duane was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1941. His family was in the farm equipment manufacturing business. At 16 he became an amateur radio operator. This hobby has been the main thread in an interesting career. He moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 61 and worked in antenna manufacturing, artificial heart research at the Cleveland Clinic and for NASA as a display specialist. In 1967 he moved to San Francisco, Ca. and opened a BMW repair shop. This expanded to become a franchised dealer, BMW of Marin, across the Golden Gate bridge in San Rafael, Ca. This successful business was sold in 1975. This allowed him the financial freedom to pursue several areas. He opened another BMW franchise in Fort Bidwell, Ca. It was mostly a museum of BMWs with over two dozen bikes displayed from 1921 to 1973. A succession of contract jobs, generally as project manager, took him to several locations. The most remote was in 92/93 to Antarctica. The most unusual was in 1981, as the coach for the National winning team of women's eight ball. All of the positions were in technical areas such as; Doppler radar, airport construction, cellular telephone, motorcycle accessory design and emergency medicine.

    Duane and Linda enjoy international travel and began in 1991 with a two month trip into the formerly communist Eastern Europe. This began a series of hosting of foreign exchange students. In 1997 Duane went to the Czech Republic to teach English conversation to high school students. One of them, Helena, lived in their home in Galt and is almost their adopted daughter. The families and friends have visited each others countries and become very close. Helena returned to the USA to study at Central College, in Pella, Iowa, in the fall of 1999.

    We are members of the Galt Area Historical Society. Currently the web site for GAHS is on this site. It is a collection of dedicated individuals that are interested in restoring and preserving local points of interest.