Terry Coleman

Author’s Bio Ancestry: All known ancestors, dating back to the 1600s, are British except for my maternal grandfather’s side, which was likely either French or Spanish. 1948 - Born in a small town in eastern Montana, U.S.A. 1966 - Graduated from high school. 1967 - Left home to attend college. 1969 - Got married the first time, to my children’s mother; first child (son) born. 1972 - Graduated from college with BA in Psychology, moved to southern California to find a job but couldn’t so… 1973 - returned to hometown to do carpentry with my father and older brother; second child (daughter) born. 1974 - Got divorced from my children’s mother. 1977 - Moved to Portland, Oregon to manage a lumber yard, which didn’t work out so… 1978 - started working in the car business, first as a salesperson, then sales manager, then finance and leasing manager. 1984 - Remarried; went into banking, first as Sales Development Officer, then Lending Center Manager and Assistant Vice President. 1988 - First trip overseas for my 40th birthday, to England and Scotland, the land of my ancestors; returned to the U.S. and started searching for a way to live overseas. 1989 - First trip to a non-English speaking country; returned home and doubled down on my search for a way to live abroad. 1990 - Bank eliminated my department and paid me severance so started grad school in linguistics to teach English in other countries. 1992 - Graduated with MA in Linguistics, got first overseas teaching job at a language school in Damascus, Syria. 1995 - Got first university teaching job as Instructor at a branch of the U.S.’ Minnesota State University in northern Japan; later promoted to Assistant Professor. 1997 - Divorced from second wife. 1999 - Remarried to a Japanese woman; my dad discovered lymph cancer, already badly metastasized and went through chemo—at 89 years old; seemed cured, but.. 2001 - it recurred so he accepted some experimental therapy, which cured it; lived to 99 years old cancer free. 2002 - First grandchild born. 2003 - Moved to southern Japan to teach at a Japanese international university. 2005 - Discovered prostate cancer cells in one quarter of the gland. 2006 - Chose to get treated with brachy therapy; moved to a Japanese National University as Associate Professor. 2014 - Reached mandatory retirement age at the university so retired but continued teaching part-time; three months after retiring, discovered metastasized prostate cancer. 2016 - After refusing standard treatment for over a year, discovered PSA at 47 and a tumor in a lymph gland in my groin so started hormone treatments; second grandchild born. 2017-Present - Hormone treatment off-and-on (intermittent ADT), no more tumors—as of yet, anyway. 2023 - Retired completely from teaching.