BLIND DATE
ABOUT US
As of March 1, Joyce and I will have been married 58 years. We like this photograph because it was taken at Glacier Park Inn, Hungry Horse, Montana (huckleberry capital of the world) while we were still very active in our careers. We preferred a sort of street clothes version, rather than the stuffy studio kind.
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Although we both have advanced degrees, we still think of ourselves as simply Bill and Joyce. Boasting just isn't our thing. The book documents--as accurately and honestly as possible--the major personal and family events, activities, educational efforts, and the many follies of a boy and girl that fell in love after a blind date, to the birth of two beautiful daughters, to the joys of living and working on two Indian Reservations.
The Journey has been challenging, exciting, painful, enlightening, much fun and, most of all, rewarding. Indeed, we fulfilled our bucket lists several times over. It is an extraordinary adventure still deeply embedded in our hearts and minds--an adventure we simply wanted to share.
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A few names and places were changed to protect the privacy of individuals involved. And while memories can be faulty, all the stories are presented with the best of our recollection without exaggeration.
Admittedly, I am a proud member of the first class of boomers. We should be honored to be the grand generation that immediately followed the great war--remembering that it was the past, and we were the future.
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​With that in mind, I have to think I was born to be a teacher. I fell backwards into teaching while searching for a career after college. I was newly married and a father. The only thing lacking was what to do with my life--and how to support a family of three. More aware of my capabilities than I was, my college advisors recommended teaching. Teaching? Really? Abruptly, my life took on a whole new dimension; for the first time, thanks to my mentors, I was experiencing an all-consuming passion. Following a Master's degree, I became a college biology instructor by 26.
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After six years, two on the Navajo, I decided to pursue a terminal degree that would make me an even better teacher. I became highly proficient in lecturing, using the board, evaluating for reasoning skills, group discovery, watching students become life-long learners as I insisted they were beginning their professional careers in my courses. It was more rewarding than I ever dreamed.
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Among numerous awards I was included in Outstanding Young Men in America, nominated six times for Who's Who Among America's Teachers, and selected Faculty Member of the Year twice.
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My final career move was to the Flathead Nation in Montana and the most challenging teaching position of all. Along with numerous teaching responsibilities, strongly promoting social justice became a priority as injustice still prevails in Indian country.
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Unwilling to allow teaching to totally consume my life, I became a proficient skier, skydiver, pilot and author of many editorials and letters-to-the editor. It's been a life full of joy, wonder and real contributions for which I am very proud. And with my loving family by my side, there is no doubt I'd gladly do it again.
When Bill decided to write this book he asked me many questions about all of the places we had lived. Sometimes our memories were slightly different or mine were from a woman's point of view. So I decided it would be best if I wrote my own reflections and included them after each of his chapters. I hope this provides an added element of interest for women.
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Since I was a young girl, I, too, had wanted to be a teacher. I took a different path to becoming qualified for teaching, however. My first goal was to help Bill get his degree, advanced degrees and land his teaching career which took us to six states.
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My second goal was to raise two daughters through high school which as any mother knows is not an easy task, and my third goal was to become qualified myself to teach college with a Masters degree. In order to make it happen, I worked full time as a secretary to the Director of the CETA Program at The College of Ganado, secretary to the Alumni Director at Idaho State University, secretary to the Dean of Military Programs at Pikes Peak Community College and secretary to the Training Manager at the City of Colorado Springs.
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During the entire time I was working, I took college classes. After earning my BS degree at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and we had moved to Montana, I went on to earn a Master of Education at MSU Billings and to teach on the Flathead Indian Reservation. I was the first in my family to earn a college degree and it was a difficult journey. But I learned early on it was not the destination, but the life's journey that motivated me, and it was with the strong support of my husband of now 57 years that it all came true.
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Since retirement, I've turned my interests to designing and selling jewelry and to traveling around the West after having moved back to our native state of Colorado.
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Click on "CHAPTERS" for an overview