Personal Bio

I was born March 31, 1983 in Provo, Utah.  By age 3 my family had moved from Utah to Boston, then to Clearwater, Florida, following opportunity for my Father, a Chemical Engineer.  From a child's perspective, those 5 years in Florida were comprised of little more than frequent trips to the surrounding beaches and yearly season passes to Disney World in Orlando.

As the cliché goes, all good things must come to an end, so in 1991, shortly after the death of my Grandfather, we packed up and moved to Knoxville, Tennessee to be closer to my Grandmother and my Father began Law School at the University of Tennessee.  Most of my childhood memories were formed in Knoxville, living between Grandparents from both sides of the family.  And while I've lived a majority of my life outside of Tennessee, to this day, I still claim Knoxville as my home. 

Elementary school in Knoxville was a seemingly average experience for me, marked by the typical experiences of a preteen.  Perhaps the academic highlight of my 5 years in elementary school was winning our 5th grade spelling bee and competing in the county spelling bee.  I was eliminated in the second round with the three letter word "emu".  Fifth grade must have been a memorable year for me, because I also recall the low point of my elementary education that year, dancing the May Pole and making it on the news.

Middle school brought the normal growing pains of early adolescence and developing interests in sports and hobbies.  I played tennis for a couple of years in middle school, primarily due to the low barriers to entry when compared with other sports for a family struggling to pay back law school debts at the time.  In middle school I began to realize that school came rather easily for me and, with minimal effort, I made grades sufficient to be enrolled in the National Junior Honor Society and also took 3rd place in the school science fair.  My science fair project was on temperature and light effects on sugar and salt crystals.  Yet again, the county competition didn't fair so well for me.

A year into high school, we were free from a majority of my Father's law school debt and finally purchased a home in Knoxville, switching roles with my last remaining Grandmother who moved in with us this time.  A welcomed change, I switched high schools and began my Sophomore year at Farragut High School.  FHS catered to a slightly higher income area than my previous high school, and while there were still significant economic differences between my new classmates and I, I found that I had much more in common with them than I did the previous student body.  I quickly joined the wrestling team under the pressure of several friends, unaware that doing so would exclude me from my real interest, baseball, due to a longstanding grudge between the two coaches. I decided to stick with wrestling for the remainder of my high school years, as a team captain my Senior year, but failed to make the state tournament that last year due to what I still believe was a bogus non-call by a referee.

During high school I was active in the Boy Scouts of America and our church youth group.  I held leadership positions in both, which I feel laid the foundation for many of my personal convictions and beliefs today.  I earned my Eagle Scout award late in my teens and still participate in many of the recreational activities I learned as a Boy Scout.  Every second not spent working at a local pharmacy, schooling, or wrestling was spent whitewater kayaking, rock climbing, mountain biking or participating in more "conventional" sports.

After graduation I drove out to college at Brigham Young University-Idaho.  Idaho brought massive change from the status quo of Tennessee, including small-town Rexburg, ridiculous amounts of snow, and unusually high numbers of fellow Mormons.  I adapted well to these changes, taking up skiing rather than studying, while preparing for an ecclesiastical mission for the church, which had always been more assumed than actually planned.

The time for said mission approached quickly and I will forever remember opening the assignment letter calling me to Guayaquil (gwī-ə-ˈkēl) Ecuador for two years of service and proselyting.  The experience of a lifetime, this mission was exhausting, exhilarating and above all personally defining.  I found the Ecuadorian people to be the most humble, giving and genuine people I have ever met.  While we were called to assist and teach them, they were the ones feeding us, taking us in, and allowing us into their lives with open arms.  It truly was the greatest time of my life learning about their culture and doing my best to enrich their lives with truth.  Aside from the spiritual aspects of my time in Ecuador, I learned invaluable lessons about life on my own, management and leadership.  It was in Ecuador that I learned real work ethic, dedication, persistence, organization and how to best represent myself.


I returned to college in 2004, this time at the primary campus of Brigham Young University in Utah.  Admittedly, I floundered for a time, switching majors from Civil Engineering to the Business Core major, finally ending up in International Relations.  I kind of coasted through college for a couple of years, focused more on the world class skiing, abundant rock climbing, and accessible kayaking that is found in the mountains of Utah, rather than the economics, language credits, and political science classes which comprised the majority of my major's requirements.  


I got a bit more serious about life when I realized that the girl I was dating was likely to become my wife.  We met in our college apartment complex and got to know each other better as she had been dating one of my climbing buddies.  Once they had broken up I saw my chance and made a move.  We found ourselves engaged just under a year later. 


Shortly after graduation and passing her NCLEX, Becca got a job at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah.  2 weeks into her new job on the Labor and Delivery floor of the hospital, Becca began feeling a continual sickness that made her night-shift position nearly impossible.  Unexpectedly, this sickness was the obvious symptom of pregnancy.


The next 9 months brought a furious dedication to graduation and job hunting.  Unfortunately, I graduated in December of 2009, at the peak of the economic recession, and finding a job was beyond difficult.  The final 4 months of the pregnancy brought more anxiety and stress than success.  February 1 we went to the hospital at 3 am, jobless and stressed.  Later that morning our first son, Bryant, was born.  We watched his first Super Bowl in the hospital that next night, Groundhog Day, and the emotions that come with your first born outweighed the feelings of hopelessness.  

The next Monday I got a call from Novell, in Provo, for an interview as a Online Training Program Manager.  The interviews went well and I got the position.  During my time at Novell, Becca has been fortunate enough to remain home with Bryant, who refers to himself as Bubba, and we have since purchased a home in Lehi, Utah, splitting the distance between Salt Lake City and Provo.