A Regular American Guy - Bell, Bob

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Résumé :
A Regular American Guy is the story of one American guy. It begins with recounting his family's eight generations of American citizenship. Then his relatively normal childhood and transition into adulthood. He manages to get through high school and works his way through college. He was thrust into the Vietnam War in 1968. All he accomplished until then, and all he would achieve later, was put at risk. A battle where you are almost killed can be a profound experience. Reflecting on that traumatic event convinced him of two things. First, war is a terrible thing, and we need to find a way to stop it in the future. Second, thinking about that dramatic and frighting battle instilled in him a determination to make his life count regarding his fellow citizens and his family. So, he built an engineering and surveying firm from scratch employing hundreds of people. He served in elective offices and on community boards and commissions. He and Candace raised a family of five kids, who were well cared for materially and emotionally, and all grew up to be happy and productive adults. He made his life count. That fight in Vietnam was not so much a major event in his life as it was a tipping point. It refocused his life plan. So marriage, the birth of children, business success, and public service were the major event, just like so many American men and women....

Sommaire:
Bob Bell grew up in the small eastern Washington town of Ephrata. He spent his early years chasing jack rabbits, upland birds and mule deer through the sagebrush of the surrounding country. After graduating from Ephrata High School, he enrolled in the civil engineering program at Washington State University where he earned a bachelors degree. He was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He spent the next year as a platoon leader at Fort Belvoir, Virginia and then a year in Viet Nam. All his life he had listened to stories about Alaska from his mom and dad who had lived in Naknek in the early 1930's and from his granddad who was United States Commissioner of Fisheries under President Franklin Roosevelt and therefore spent a lot of time in Alaska. So in 1969 when he had completed his obligation to the Army, he packed up his very pregnant wife, his German shepherd dog and his 1966 Mustang and headed north. He has been working and recreating throughout Alaska ever since. He served six years on the Anchorage Municipal Assembly, ran for mayor of Anchorage and still operates his engineering and surveying firm headquartered in Anchorage....