On October 10, 1937, a child was born to parents whose home had been a tent near the Old West town of Deadwood, South Dakota, located in the Black Hills; sacred to the Sioux Indian Nation.

In June of 1969, that same individual began a 17-year teaching career as a university biology professor. Later, he utilized his expertise as an entomologist to combat insect vectors - carriers of human diseases - in his home county, Ventura California.

How did all of that come about? What were his motivations, feelings and dreams? What role did the negative and positive aspects of his youth with an extended family in poverty during the 50's and other interpersonal relationships play?

How did he and his wife manage to support themselves through college during the turbulent 60's; earning Ph.D.s while they had two small children, survived a tornado and she battled cancer?

Is life as a university professor as idyllic and conflict-free as it appears from the outside? Can a soulmate be found at first sight in midlife?

What changes have occurred in people, places, economies, and society's mores from the days of the Great Depression to the Twenty-First Century?

This true life story reveals the answers to all of these questions, and much more with Andy Rooneysque observations. Among other things, you will discover: Sex education available during the 50's; a natural method to increase the probability of having a child of desired gender; differences between bugs, insects, spiders and mites; the identity and use of Rocky Mountain oysters; how to avoid infection by parasites and other important aspects of personal health, such as the best diet of all time.

My Nickel's Worth has something of value for everyone, whether it is information important to one's health, or simply enjoyment of traveling from Deadwood to the winding country roads of Oregon, back to Kansas then to Southern California, with a return to rural Oregon that includes detours to Tahiti, London, Paris, Barcelona, Switzerland, Mediterranean Regions, Scandinavian Capitals and Down Under, all intertwined with humor, love, faith and science.

His birth in 1937 in Deadwood, South Dakota, was followed two years later by a move with his family (mother, stepfather and older sister) to the heart of Oregon's Willamette Valley; a rich agricultural region surrounded by timbered mountain ranges. The family's hope was to escape extreme poverty that afflicted many following the Great Depression.

Work ethic (innate and exemplified by his parents) propelled the author into different jobs, which began when he was 10 by picking field beans to buy his clothing. Subsequent jobs paid for his cars for commuting to high school, then to Oregon State University. Eventually, he and his wife earned Ph.D.s from Kansas State University while raising two small children.

Dr. Nickel had a 17-year teaching career as a biology professor at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. He taught a variety of biology courses: Priciples of Biology, Human Biology, Entomology, Parasitology, Marine Biology, Invertebrate Zoology, Arachnology and Ornithology as well as Creation Science vs. Evolution. During his tenure, he served as Department Chairperson and Director of the Medical Technology Program before leaving the teaching profession to apply his expertise in entomology and parasitology with The County of Ventura's Environmental Health Department.

Professional recognition came with biographies in American Men and Women of Science, Who's Who in the West and the Internaional Who's Who in Education as well as being listed in the Directory of North American Entomologists and Acarologists, Directory of Acarologists of the World and Society for Vector Ecology.

Proving the adage that you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy, he and his soulmate-wife of 24 years, Ann, retired to a beautiful rural region of Southwestern Oregon. Retirement proved to be wonderful, but not entirely restful as they developed landscape for much of their four acres while combating natural pest and adjusting to a different way of life. However, their work was rewarded in 2001 with the unexpected honor of exhibiting their landscaped yard in the local Annual Art in the Garden Tour.