I have been extremely fortunate throughout my work life and career.  I have never been layed off or fired from a job.  Although my chosen profession is teaching, it has never been financially lucrative and has been supplemented by doing family history and genealogical research.  However, there have been many choices that have shaped my career.

When I left high school, I worked at Thiokol where rocket fuel was being manufactured and rockets tested for NASA (National Aeronotics and Space Association).  After the end of the summer, I went to school with the intention of studying pre-med but used scholarships in the agricultural sector for my general education requirements.  During that era I worked at Logan LDS Hospital and one summer in California working at Doctors Hospital of San Leandro and Continental Can Company in San Lorenzo.  I made more at CCC than at the hospital, but much more than working at the Logan hospital.  I made $2.00 per hour at Doctors Hospital compared to 90 cents per hour in Logan.  Because I worked the graveyard shift operating a machine that made can lids with a "fliip top" and attaching them to the can, I made more than $2.00 per hour.  Vietnam War was going on, and the cans were used primarily for beer for the troops.

After finishing my last class at Utah State Univeristy, I chose to not sign a contract in Utah, even though I had been the state representative for the Utah high school education association and worked with Utah Education Association (UEA).  Utah teachers were on "sanctions" meaning that the National Education Association (NEA) was supporting UEA in negotiations for teachers to be "on strike" to get higher salaries.  Had I signed a contract in Utah in 1968, the beginning salary would be about $3850.00 for the year.  I chose to honor sanctions, and accepted the only offer I was given.  I signed a contract with Uinta School District #4 to teach grades 7 through 12 at Mountain View Jr.-Sr. High School in Mountain View Wyoming for $6000.00!  Teachers went back to work after two weeks into the new school year with the legislature raising the beginning salary for teachers to about $5800.00 for the year.

At the end of that first year, now armed with a teaching certificate from Utah, one from Wyoming, and a Bachelor of Science degree (Biological Science Composite) essentiallly being majors in biology, zoology, and minors in chemistry and physics and secondary education, I drove to Twin Falls, Idaho (about half-way between Burns, Oregon and Mountain View, Wyoming) and signed a new contract to teach in Harney County School District (Burns, Oregon) for $6800.00 in 1969-1970 schol year.  I taught there for three years.  Then I chose to come back to Utah and worked at Brigham Young University for less money than I was making in Oregon.

After a year at the Brigham Young Univeristy Genealogical Research Center, I chose to work with my father-in-law in managing Village Kitchen Bread.  My salary was $850 per month and all the bread and cookies that I wanted.

In 1977, I chose to leave the bakery.  My father-in-law sold it (becasue I chose to move on), and I went to work with Utah Genealogical Association (now a part of FamilySearch) as a microfilm operator and negotiator in the midwest.  I did piece work, contracting for 1/2 cent per image.  Because I worked long hours when permitted by some records repositories, I was able to make more money than I had in my life.  However, this only lasted about ten months.  After a close call and having my life spared in Chicago, Illinois, my family returned back to Utah where I substitute taught and did research.  The summer of 1978 I contracted with a genealogy company in Salt Lake and had the opportunity to work on the midwestern segment of John Wayne's (the actor) ancestry.  The TV movie "Roots" by Alex Haley had just come out, and the idea was to make a similar series of episodes on the ancestry of the cowboy actor, John Wayne.  His ancestry was so fascinating that it would have had twice the episodes of "Roots", but for some reason, the investors of the project pulled out.  I did on-site research in Des Moines, Iowa and various other counties where his grandfather, Michael Marion Morrison, lived.

During the school year 1978-79, I substituted for teachers in Provo School District on a daily rate.  By the beginning of second semester, I had substituted in several classrooms, and since I had spent most of my time at Dixon Jr. High I was offered a position to teach the remainder of the school year when Bill Rawcliffe had a triple heart bypass in teaching Utah Studies because of my family history background.  After that, I was off and running!  For the next nineteen years, I taught at Farrer Jr. High School (7th and 8th grade general science).  When the new school, Centennial Middle School, opened the fall of 1996, I chose to move schools and taught eighth grade there until my retirement in May, 2005.

Once again, I had a choice to make.  I had only taught 27 years in Provo Schools and full retirement with the state of Utah was 30 years.  I had taught 31 years total, but had only contributed to the state retirement fund for almost 27 years total.  I was 3.05 years short of full retirement.  I looked at my options, and was told that if I remained teaching in Provo, I would lose the benefit of medigap insurance since the district was no longer going to pay premiums for teachers in the district.  By contract, they had to pay premiums for those who had retired under the medigap umbrella.  Along with many other teachers, I took retirement and use my savings of 27 years to pay the $65,000 for the remaining years. 

Before I did this, however, I began to look for another teaching opportunity because I now had no savings, and still had a mortgage on home that we had build in 2001 in Salem, Utah.  I found a similar teaching position in the adjoining district to Provo--Nebo School District.  Payson Jr. High School was only 4 miles from my home in Salem, and I would no longer have to commute 25 minutes each way to and from school.  I am currently in my seventh year and have been able to help each of my children build, remodel, or otherwise encourage them to become homeowners and look forward to having all indebtedness, including our home, cleared in the next few months.  Then I can finish up my career in education in the next few months.

There have been many challenges in making ends meet throughout our married lives, but we have been blessed to always have work to meet our financial obligations, and enjoy even the comparative comforts of life.  We have been extremely blessed as a family and have been able to serve many through our efforts over the years, as well.