When I posted the first incarnation of this Web site in August 1997, my brother complained that there were pictures of my cats, but none of him. Here, then, is Kasey's family page.

My little family consists of my mother, my brother and my niece. And not a day goes by that I don't think about my late father.

My mother Winnie is a retired college professor. She lives in a retirement community about 40 miles from me. She goes with me on most of my tropical vacations. We talk several times a week and get together at least once a month.

My brother Ken is a firefighter for a large West Coast city. I couldn't be prouder of him. He's a single dad to ...

My teen-age niece Rachel. She is smart and beautiful and talented, and has a great life ahead of her.

My father, by nothing more than his own hard work and determination, rose from a childhood in a dirt-poor family in North Carolina to become chairman of the English Department at a historically black college. Along the way, he fought in the Pacific Theater in World War II, where he was awarded two Purple Hearts.

Through the GI ill, Dad got his bachelor's and master's degrees in three years from Howard University in Washington, D.C. In 1954, he started teaching English at then-Morgan State College (now Morgan State University) in Baltimore, MD. Shakespeare was his specialty.

In 1967, my father became the first black student to receive a Ph.D. in English from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Dad was known as a gifted speaker and traveled around the country lecturing. He instilled in me the value of education and a love of writing. And he inspired hundreds of students to make the best of themselves.