Don was born and raised in Oregon, USA, served a church mission for the LDS (Mormon) church in Guatemala after graduating high school, and then earned a BS Information Systems from Brigham Young University. He began his career for a large oil and gas company in Texas where he currently resides with his wife and family (as of 2022). After he began his career, he returned to school part time and earned an MBA Finance from Southern Methodist University.
He came to Stoicism after going through a rough patch in 2014. After working with a psychology therapist who used Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, he quickly found the links to Donald Robertson and Stoicism. From there he explored more Stoic philosophy by reading Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Pierre Hadot and then eventually found and listened to the Stoicism on Fire podcast where he learned of the College of Stoic Philosophers. From there he enrolled in and graduated from SES in 2020 and then enrolled in and graduated from MAP in 2021 and has been mentoring in the College since.
Don is pursuing a BA Philosophy from American Public University with an expected graduation date of 2024, after which he plans to begin a MS Psychology to attain licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist in the hopes of making a career change after retiring from his IT career.
His hobbies are playing basketball and chess. You may also find his writings on his blog at rockyrook.com.