Jan was born in Indonesia, raised in the Netherlands and moved to the US to attend graduate school;  questions persist over whether he ever grew up.  He had a variety of jobs in public opinion research, lived in Washington, DC for 25 years, and promptly moved back to Houston when it was time to wrap up working life.   

Looking at the mistakes his parents made in retirement, mostly a rapidly shrinking social life and loneliness, he decided he would not make the same ones.  Enter cohousing: he was an early joiner in Houston CoHousing.  It is probably the second smartest thing he's done.  The smartest was to marry Sandra Tirey.