Hi Mike! Goldbludgeon was the last name of the first ever character I rolled for DnD. His full name was Ricamross Goldbludgeon, he was a alcoholic dwarf fighter. He first entered the story line by being thrown through the tavern wall by a troll. He was a fun character. Mike, you sound like an awesome guy. It really blows that you got stuck with cancer, ( incurable at that ) but it sounds like it has made you into who you are now, which is awesome. Your hobbies are rocking. I love that you graduated from the Ringling Brothers College. That blows my mind.
I think my first DnD character was Norrin the Barbarian, straight from the first Basic D&D set. This must have been around 1980. I don't remember what the stock adventure was called (anyone?) I do remember it had a big building and caves underneath. We finished the building and instead of going back to town and leveling up, we went down into the caves and met level 2 monsters. The first wandering monster we met was a carrion crawler and it killed the entire party. So much for Norrin the Barbarian.