Two Paths to Rico (Softcover) - Keown, Duane

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Résumé :
The author's granddad Thomas Keown was a man of many sorrows. His first wife died in childbirth and their daughter Sarah died young of diphtheria. Having been prosperous he went broke in Kansas, and with his second wife Mary and sons, Herald and Urban, they joined 4,000 other holders of $150 land drawing certificates August 8, 1908 at the site of the new town-to-be of Blanca, in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. The town development failed and they moved on to homestead near Dove Creek, Colorado. In Blanca, Herald and his brother became passionate baseball players. For their devout Christian mother their path was unblessed. Games were played on the holy Sabbath. As an impoverished homesteader, then a miner, Dad was elected Dolores County Treasurer. With only a tenth grade education, he said he was elected because he could hit the ball. Meanwhile, in Thayer, Missouri, the John Gage family with six children, prepared to leave for Dove Creek. Doctors advised they move to an arid climate to save their youngest son from an early death from rheumatic fever. With belongings and six children in the back of an old truck, and camping along the road, they arrived at their desolate homestead on Halloween, 1923. The Great Depression had begun when Mom was the Peel School teacher with fifty-four students. Dad married Bernice Gage December 1, 1934 and took her to their Rico home near the Dolores County Courthouse....

Biographie:
The author was born in the mining town of Rico, Colorado and received the doctorate degree in Biology from Ball State University in 1974. He is a retired Professor Emeritus of Science Education from the University of Wyoming. Without funds for college, and with a temporary teaching certificate, he began his education career at the isolated Hide Out Mine School in San Juan County Utah in 1960. Later he taught biology and other sciences at the Monticello High School in Monticello, Utah. He is best known in Wyoming for his work with teachers in conservation/environmental education workshops throughout Wyoming. In the University of Wyoming's Science and Math Teaching Center, with teachers from more than thirty Wyoming school districts (1995-1998), he wrote and compiled the Wild Wonderful Wyoming: Choices for the Future elementary and secondary school environmental education activity manuals, which went to one third of Wyoming's K-12 teachers. He has authored numerous professional articles in science education and environmental education journals and the book, Thirteenth Year in Zion. He was honored at the Annual Conference of the North American Association for Environmental Education in Portland, Oregon when he received the distinguished Outstanding Service to Environmental Education by an Individual Award for 2009. For his lifetime of service, November 2019, he received the Contribution to Biodiversity Conservation Award from the Biodiversity Institute at the University of Wyoming....