Al or "Nick" as he is known to close friends and family was born in the upstairs bedroom of his grandfather and grandmother's house in Troy, Kansas on May 24, 1933. His family lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the time of his unexpected early birth and were just visiting his mother's family in Troy. He soon moved to Albuquerque.  His arrival  raised the population of Albuquerque to 30,001 souls.

He attended St. Mary elementary school and Albuquerque High School. He worked part time at the Market Basket grocery store and Chaplin Bowling Alley while attending school. When the United States became embroiled in the Korean "conflict" he followed his brother into the US military. But unlike his brother's choice of the Army he chose the US Air Force. His first enlistment was highlighted by a tour of duty in Thule, Greenland.

He reenlisted after four years and returned to Albuquerque and Kirtland AFB. He remained in the Albuquerque area as a Military Personnel Specialist at Kirtland until 1964 when he applied for and received a special assignment to Zweibrucken, Germany. He wound up his European tour by moving to Frankfurt, Germany. He left Germany and returned to Kirtland AFB in December 1967. After 2 years back at Kirtland, he applied for and was accepted for assignment at the USAF Recruiting Office in Albuquerque as the Operations Superintendent of recruiting efforts in West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. He retired as a Chief Master Sergeant on July 1, 1973.

He worked as a real estate agent for Brazie Realty and attended TVI's electronics course until August 1974 when he applied for and was selected for the Chief, Non-appropriated Fund Personnel Section at Kirtland AFB. He provided personnel services such as staffing, data management and employee relations. He moved from there to the Employee Relations Section of the Central Civilian Personnel Office where he spent five years as an Employee Relations Specialist. In 1985 he was appointed as the Civilian Personnel Management Specialist for Data Management. His last 11 years at Kirtland AFB were spent in that position. He retired from civil service on October 1, 1996.

Not content to be retired, he spent the time immediately following retirement attending the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. On October 15, 1996 he went to work for PC Support, Inc. a computer technology company as a software instructor.  He worked with such companies as Citibank, Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), the Department of Energy, and Sandia National Labs at Kirtland AFB. He submitted a bid for the PNM contract with his own company "Mr. Computer Tutor" in January 1999. He was awarded the contract to teach Web Page Design using HTML as well as three levels of MS FrontPage.

He married Annabell Youker (now deceased) in June 1954. They had four children , Elizabeth Anne, now married to Larry Reisinger, and employed as a civil servant as a personnel specialist, Nicholas John who is a manager with a building management firm, Cecilia Jeanne, who work for the US Postal Service and William Anthony who married his wife Deborah and is the Sales Manager for Franks Supply, A commercial equipment rental company in Albuquerque.

He married Kay Chitwood in November 1987 and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada to work at Nellis AFB. After seven months he returned to Kirtland AFB.

He has three step-children, Lori  who is a school teacher just returned to Albuquerque after a 9 year stay in Lander, Wyoming; Teri who is a homemaker living in Farmington, New Mexico; and Sheri who is a Real Estate Broker with Coldwell Banker in Albuquerque

Nick's hobbies are as varied as his work history. He began bowling at age 14 and won many tournaments throughout New Mexico and Texas. His first league series score was 686 (a 228 average). He bowled throughout his military career winning his command's tournament in 1957 and leading the ARDC team to a second place finish in the Air Force Tournament. He sang tenor in his church's choir and the Albuquerque Civic Chorus. He sang for seven years under John Clark's leadership with the Albuquerque Symphony Chorus (later the New Mexico Symphony chorus). He has written music for church choir as well as comical ditties while playing the guitar. He plays the organ from time to time just to soothe the pressures of the work-a-day week. His most loved hobby is ballooning. He got his first ride in Midnight Angel with pilot Sam Baxter at the Taos Mountain Balloon Rally in 1987 and has been hooked since. He served as Bob Woodall's crew chief until 1998 when he realized he couldn't climb trees to help retrieve the balloon anymore. So he turned it over to a younger person.  Nick also enjoys walking, going four miles almost every day so, as he puts it: "I don't vegetate". He also wants to learn new things, especially new computer programs to keep his mind active. His motto is "Smiling keeps you young"!