50th Class Reunion

The evening of Saturday, August 4th was Dad's 50th Senior Class Reunion from Marsh Valley High School. We went with Gene and Lynn. Thirty-three out of his graduating class of seventy-six were in attendance. It is known that at least eight classmates have passed away. Although some traveled from far across the country it was interesting to note that many still lived in their original home towns or nearby. We had a delicious meal and were taken on a tour of the buildings. Dad's class was the first class to attend all four years at this new high school prior to graduation. He could hardly recognize much of the facility now because so much has changed or been added. He also commented how the cliques of jocks, cheerleaders, popular kids and etc. seemed to melt away with the years to where all are on a much more equal footing. In addition, Dad was a late bloomer at only about 5'4" tall at graduation, shorter even than many of the girls in his class, which didn't help his social life either. However, we conversed freely with all that were there while in his high school days that would not have happened.

1962 MVHS Yearbook Pictures (It is appropriate that Gene and Dad appear next to each other as they were/are like brothers as well as best friends.)



Group Picture


Catching Up On Old Times

Delicious Buffet Dinner

Dad's history as submitted for the reunion follows:
Home/Family/House (Kids, # & accomplishments, etc.)
As many of you know I came from rather humble beginnings. As the eldest in my family of four siblings I lost my Dad at seven years old and the need to help my Mom with chores and later in high school running our small business to support our family left me out of many high school extra-curricular sports and activities. However I was eventually lucky enough to marry Bonnie Carson from Jerome, Idaho. We met while both were attending ISU. She is beautiful and the love of my life and has been an amazing and wonderful wife and mother. She is five years my junior and I have occasionally been accused of robbing the cradle. Nevertheless we've had seven children including a still-born son (Lenn), four daughters (Laurie, LaRinda, Leslie, Lindsy) and two sons (Leon, Lance). Both sons served foreign LDS missions. All are now married and we currently have twenty-one grandchildren, three of whom have also recently married. We lived in Salt Lake City for eight years out of school at ISU then moved to Pocatello where we lived for twenty-two years. We then built a home near Inkom on the property where I grew up on Indian Creek and have been here for thirteen years. As our family grew we have always both worked and played together enjoying camping, boating, primarily on Lake Powell, fishing and four-wheeling on little-traveled mountain roads in our dune buggy which we've owned for many years. In fact nearly all of our children learned to drive a "stick shift" in that beloved little car. I must include in family a lifelong and cherished friendship with Gene Liljenquist in our class whom I consider more a brother than just a friend. We became friends even before starting first grade in Inkom and have maintained this friendship all these many years. We have vacationed with he and his family many summers, taken cruises together, meet regularly with other friends for Friday night dates, etc. Three summers ago we even traveled for three months with Gene and his wife to Alaska and back in our RV's and had the time of our lives. This past two winters we have spent four of the winter months traveling to and from Apache Junction, just east of Phoenix, Arizona where we have lived most of the winter. There we have made many new friends from much of the Midwestern US and Canada in the RV park where we stay. We have learned to explore and love the desert environment "in winter only" which is a nice break from the cold and snow of Idaho.
Work/Employment
Out of school I worked for a few months engineering for "Ma Bell" in Salt Lake City. I then took a job as an electronics engineering technician for a small company called Telemation that designed and built broadcast television studio equipment in Salt Lake where I stayed until we moved back to Pocatello. There I first taught in the Electronics Program at ISU Vo-Tech for three years. I then took a job at AMI Semiconductor in Pocatello where I worked the next thirty years in several occupations. First as a production line maintenance technician, then engineer. I then took a position managing the R&D lab followed by work as a system administrator in the IT department. For the final twenty years I was a software engineer. A close friend coworker and I initiated a new factory automation department within the company and designed from scratch, developed and deployed the factory automation system used by AMI for a number of years and which currently runs the Pocatello fab now owned by ON Semiconductor. This same system was also ported to support a semiconductor fab in Belgium and the company's test facility in the Philippines. Three years ago I retired but was called back for a three-month contract to work in our Belgium fab last summer. My friend, Dave Gardner and I were both invited and our wives went with us. We enjoyed getting better acquainted with the European culture and touring around Western Europe on weekends.
Personal Goals/Accomplishments
Our greatest happiness in life has not been so much in material possessions but in our children and grandchildren. It is in their accomplishments, education, talents and the manner in which they manage their lives and families that brings so much pride and joy. We are so proud of each one. We also had the opportunity to sponsor a vivacious young lady from Warsaw, Poland as a foreign exchange student during our youngest daughter's senior year in high school. That was a memorable and fun experience and we still have occasional contact with her where she is currently living in Perth, Western Australia. Our youngest daughter was blessed with both height (6'4") and athletic talent and was offered full-ride scholarships in both volleyball and basketball from BYU as well as offers from universities in several western states including ISU. She played volleyball at BYU for five years and married Ben (6'8"), an older brother of Noah Hartsock, who just finished his basketball career at BYU last year.
Church / Civic contributions:
Between my first and second years of school at ISU I served an LDS mission in Brazil. Last November Bonnie and I had our first opportunity to return to Brazil on a cruise we took with friends that originated in Milan, Italy and ended in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We visited several coastal Brazilian cities including Recife where I had been assigned for the final three months of my mission. There we had the choice opportunity to renew friendships with several members of a cherished family we had converted. It was incredible to see how the LDS church had progressed from one small branch just building their first chapel in 1964 to six stakes and a beautiful temple today. Bonnie and I have served in a number of church callings through the years and we are currently planning to serve a "senior" mission within the next couple of years, hopefully to return to Brazil.