Forks in the Road

My writings began approximately four years ago after receiving a comprehensive genealogy study on my father's side of the family. It prompted many questions about where we came from and how and why we ended up at the tip of Texas. Realizing that while the information was complete, it was lacking in stories. In pursuing more information to fill in some of the gaps, I realized that my children had no idea of my life's history, including my younger years, schooling, sports, military, college, and my thirty-plus-year career. My daughter had blessed me with an iPad, so I began.

It is my life story from birth through retirement, and the data is factual, including the side and supplemental descriptions and stories.

The youngest of seven children, born during the Depression in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, on the Mexican border, and my life and experiences growing up there on three separate occasions. The forks appearing in my life's road began almost immediately upon graduation from high school when I accepted an athletic scholarship only to drop out during my first semester to join the military before the GI Bill benefits were to expire.

After my military obligation and college periods were complete, I accepted my first position as an entry-level accountant with the Bureau of Reclamation in 1961 and proceeded up a career ladder for twelve years before reaching the top rung with an offer to transfer to Denver, Colorado, as regional finance officer in 1973. Five years later, I was asked to assume the first finance officer position with the newly created agency under the Department of Energy of the Western Area Power Administration. In 1980, I was approached to return to Reclamation as a finance officer in Salt Lake City, which was Reclamation's largest and most active region, and had assumed the finance functions for the nation's youth programs as well.

The final career movement would come only three years later when the regional management received approval to combine the finance and budget functions in a reorganization effort and changing my title and expanded responsibilities to regional financial manager.

Each of these career movements would provide new and different challenges containing many separate forks in my road.

I enjoyed them all.