Travis B. Fields

Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, he attended Georgia Tech's Industrial Engineering College in Atlanta for one year before dropping out to join the US Air Force, which stationed him at Yokota Air Force Base, Tokyo, Japan (Far East Headquarters). A few months before his 4-year enlistment was up, he was one of 10 servicemen to get a surprise invitation to a Head of State Dinner with President George H.W. Bush, but had to decline because he'd grown 2 inches and gained 20 pounds since he last wore his civilian suit! Worked in finance on 3 occasions: for the Bank of America, Charles Schwab, and Merrill Lynch, where his best call was recommending buying Ford stock when it was briefly beaten down to one dollar per share by "The Great Recession". He counts himself fortunate to have lived in San Francisco for years where "sometimes it felt like living in a postcard" when it was possible for regular people to live there. He has also lived and worked in Chapel Hill, New York, Seattl