Half-century of marriage, big changes for Santa Rosa couple
Chris Smith, August 4, 2013, 6:00 PM
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20130804/articles/130809808#page=1 (http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20130804/articles/130809808#page=1)
Seventeen years have passed since the former Dick Giles, for more than three decades a respected professor of mathematics at Santa Rosa Junior College, took the deepest breath of his life. He announced to the world, at age 58, that he would no longer live an anguished charade and would from that day forward dress and conduct himself as a woman.
He became she. Transgender surgery would follow. Six-foot-one and 180 pounds, she had heads snapping on the SRJC campus as she arrived for class in 1996 in a dress...
But by far the most remarkable response came from the wife of the former Dick Giles. She stayed, and changed from being a man's wife to the spouse of another woman.
"I won't say it was easy," Anne Giles said at the couple's longtime country home off Sonoma Mountain Road. "There's a whole lot of adjustment, to say the least."