Vern was born in Central City, KY. Him and his best friend headed to Chicago right after high school and Vern stayed for about 40 years. He now considers Chicago his hometown and is a diehard Cubs fan!
Vern graduated from DeVry University with a degree in Electronics, but his love for the toy business kept him from moving into this field. He also attended Truman College focusing on business courses. Vern landed a job with Playskool stocking production lines and spent 12 years working his way up to managing one of their Chicago facilities. He spent another 20 plus years as Plant Manager/General Manager at two other toy manufactures in Chicago. Vern left the toy business in 2000 and joined Pyramid Mouldings, a metal roll form company producing parts primarily for the large truck market. He worked as the GM in Chicago and transferred to Green Cove Springs, Florida in 2006 to manage their corporate division. Vern retired in August 2016 to pursue his interest in real estate that he has had for many years!
Vern loves baseball and football, but he loves babysitting his grandson Connor (born June 15, 2015) even more. His dad taught him as a child to repair cars and still to this day he does most of his own mechanical work.