Occupation: I’m an art director/designer and creative director of my own branding agency called One Brain Marketing in Wilton. It’s an advertising and design agency that does everything from websites to advertising to logo design to promote the whole image of a business.

Family: My wife, Mary, and my son, Patrick. Patrick is 17 and a senior at Kent School. My wife is a writer and part of the administration of Earthplace Nursery School in Westport.

Pets: We had a wonderful golden retriever until September. Molly was 13 years old when she passed away. But now we are going to wait a little bit before getting another dog or cat.

How long have you lived in Newtown? We have been here for 2½ years. We moved here from Westport, where we were for 13 years. We were in Westchester County for ten years before that and moved to the East from San Francisco in the 80s.

What do you like to do in your free time? I like to cook and I like to garden. I like to tramp around in the woods. I restore old furniture and I love photography. But cooking is my passion.

Is there a chef who has inspired you? Gordon Ramsey, believe it or not. He’s an English chef with several TV shows. His motto is “Fresh ingredients, simply prepared,” which I think is the best way to approach food. If you approach something simply, you usually end up with something good. And there is so much fresh food available now.

Do you have a favorite travel destination? We love Italy, and would love to go back with our son; maybe after he graduates from college. We love Cape Cod, too, and spend a lot of time there. We rented an old lighthouse in Orleans for about six years when our son was small.

What is the best thing about Newtown? We always talk about how friendly everyone is here. You always get a “Hello!” from someone. People are outgoing and friendly and very sincere. We just love that.

If you could time travel, would you go to the past or the future? I would go to the past. I love history. I love reading about how things were the last few centuries. I’d probably go back to the 1700s before the Revolution, not only to see what it was like physically, but what the people were like.

Do you have a personal philosophy? My father was a fighter pilot in World War II and a crop duster in rural California where I grew up, and he would say, “I don’t care what you do, but do it well.” That’s the philosophy I’ve always lived by. Whatever I do, I try to do it to the best of my ability and that’s all I ask of anyone else.

Do you have a guilty pleasure? I love dark chocolate. I like Lindt and I also like the chocolate that the Newtown Chocolatier, Jack, makes.