Bill Dutcher is a fun-loving, risk-taking entrepreneur, seeking to balance his family life as a husband, father and grandfather with his love of basketball, business and writing. Except for four years as a Navy officer during the Vietnam war era, he has lived his entire life in Oklahoma. In this book, he looks back on his exploits to date, a life described as a balancing act on a roller coaster.

Growing up in the oil company town of Bartlesville, writing has always been an important part of his life. His first autobiography, written in the third grade, was dramatically entitled “What I Have Lived Through.” The current version, written as a septuagenarian sesquipedalian, updates his earlier effort.

After graduating from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in journalism, he worked as a magazine editor in Oklahoma City. His Navy career was launched by attending the Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, where he earned his commission as an Ensign. His first assignment was a two-year stint at the Subic Bay Navy Base in the Philippines, where he managed the base newspaper and radio station, worked in media and community relations, and served as the player-coach of the base basketball team. He was then assigned to the Pentagon. His duties there included responding to news media queries about the Navy’s activities in Vietnam and editing a magazine for Navy public affairs officers.