Michael was born on March 28, 1955 in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the USA Hospital on Sandia Base to Shirley Richard and Doreen Marie Sturges.  His father was 34 years old at the time and his Australian born mother was 30 years old; this was Marie’s second child.  His father was a U.S. officer in the Air Force.  They would continue relocating due to Richard’s career in the service and also the space industry, taking them from Mississippi (Biloxi) to Florida (Eglin AFB) to New Mexico (Albuquerque where Michael was born) to Washington (Seattle), Alabama (Huntsville), Tennessee (Oak Ridge), Virginia (Vienna), Texas (Seabrook), and eventually, back to Seattle.

Michael graduated from Newport High School in Bellevue, Washington in 1974.  After high school that same year he joined the U.S. Coast Guard, leaving the Seattle area to eventually attend Hospital Corpsman School in 1976 located at Cape May, New Jersey.  In September 1976, he attained the title of Hospital Corpsman Third Class.  In 1977, he graduated from Basic Laboratory School to the Naval Regulatory Medical Center in Oakland, California.  He later received a Good Conduct Award for the period covering 1974-1978.  He retired from active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard in September, 1978 with an honorable discharge.  Michael didn’t feel he was a fit for future service; he was wounded during an accident on a ship in which a wooden spool of line on a ship deck rolled and smashed into his back.  He suffered years of pain after that incident.  He learned he had severe scoliosis and should not have been recruited in the first place.  He tried unsuccessfully for many years to obtain compensation for the injury that plagued him, but the quagmire of the VA was overwhelming and he gave up.

Michael did marry a troubled young girl in 1980; the marriage lasted nearly seven years.  

He enjoyed the beauty of Oregon and settled there in Tualatin, near Portland.  Between employment at the Veterans Affairs in Portland and in Martinez, California he retired in January 2020 after 25+ years of service as a Medical Assistant.

Michael loved the outdoors.  Nothing was more enjoyable to him than to camp in the mountains with his tent and dog by his side.  Both “Buddy” and “Max”, his Golden Retrievers enjoyed many years of camping near mountain streams.  He was particularly fond of large birds (raptors) and owls.  He knew their calls and could identify all of them.  Michael was quite the mechanic, especially his little MG, which always seemed out of sorts enough for lots of “tinkering”.  He loved shooting guns and when in the Coast Guard, received marksman ribbons for the M-16 and the 45-caliber pistol. 

He loved his Australian cousin and her husband and while he never made it to Australia, they visited twice and Michael made certain he was involved every single day of their visits.  

Michael was tended by Hospice while moving in with his sister, Sheryl, on August 1.  He was diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer in July and passed October 6, 2023.