I
graduated form Coopersville High School in 1955. I skipped the class trip
to Washington so I could go to work for Air Control Products. After working
there for three months, I joined the Air Force. I spent most of my four-year
hitch, thirty-eight of the forty-eight months in fact, stationed at Malmstrom
Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana.
Juanita
Williams from Red Lodge Montana was taking her nurses training in Great
Falls at the time. We met, I finished my air force hitch and I brought
her back to Coopersville, we married in May of 1960. I went back to work
for Air Control Products, which in the meantime, had been changed to Leigh
Products. I worked there for about six months.
It was
during my time at Leigh Products that I was offered a job from the Federal
Aviation Agency back in Great Falls. We moved back there and I began work
in June of 1960.
The FAA
often sent it’s employees to school in Oklahoma City which is where
our first daughter, Gwenda Lynne was born in April of 1961. When my schooling
was ended, we went back to live in Great Falls. Our second daughter, Deanna
Ruth was born there in May of 1962.
I was
next transferred to Lovell, Wyoming in September of ‘62’.
I went to work at FAA radar site high atop the Big Horn Mountains, remaining
at that job until my retirement in October of 1991.
During
our time in Lovell, we lived in three different homes, my favorite being
the one in which I live now. It’s an 80-acre ranchette, about one
mile east of Lovell, which I purchased in 1973.
My wife
died in December of 1987. Both of my daughters are married and also live
in Lovell. Gwen has two daughters, now both in College. Deanna has two
sons, one recently served in Iraq and just went back to school this fall.
The second boy is married is a diesel mechanic in Billings Montana. They
had a baby girl born in November of 2003 making me a great-grandfather.
I remarried
in July of 1996. She was my grandchildren’s 5th grade teacher. Through
my marriage to Phyllis, I acquired two more children and two grandsons.
She retired from teaching in 2003 and dabbles in writing for our local
newspaper.
I classify
myself as a computer buff, having the small herd of Buelingo Cattle and
three horses, it all keeps me busy. Life is good! |