This is a collection of biographical essays written by Terry Byrne for a class on memoir writing held at the Keese School for Continuing Education at Asbury Methodist Village Continuing Care Retirement Community in Gaithersburg, Maryland USA. Terry grew up in Earlham Iowa, a small town in the Midwest. Early on he was bitten by the football bug but gave up the game after moving on in his education to college at Notre Dame. He later got a PhD at Brown University in International Economics and spent his early career working in the CIA. Afterwards he moved to working at the State Department.