For medical reasons my parents were advised not to attempt a family, however they strongly desired to have children and took the chance. On the day of my delivery doctors prepared my father for the possible loss of both wife and child. I was an only child, and my parents cherished me and gave me every possible advantage for a wonderful life.

I met my wife LaRue Vail somewhere in grade school, but we didn’t get serious until junior high. Neither of us ever dated another, and the high school and undergraduate college years where preparation for a life together. LaRue worked and bought a new Chevrolet, and I went to school and spent my meager savings ($4000) for a small, unfinished, prefab house on a half-acre lot in South Lake. We were married in the Logan LDS temple the year I graduated (1950 BS – Physics), moved into our home, and made it livable. Two children were born during the graduate years (Lee Revell and Lyle Vail), and I graduated PhD –Mineralogy in September 1954. Lane William Phillips was born a few years later, and we adopted a girl (Katheryn Ånn) to complete our family.

I went to work at the Kennecott Research Center on the Utah campus as director of research for Bear Creek Mining the exploration arm of Kennecott Copper Corporation.

I wanted to teach, and the opportunity came at Louisiana Polytechnic Institute (LaTech). We moved to Ruston, Louisiana after Christmas 1955 as Asst. Professor of Geological Engineering. We built a beautiful home, loved the South, and prepared to spend a lifetime there. But the longing for home was too strong, and we moved back to Utah in the fall of 1957 as Asst. Professor of Geology at Brigham Young University and at considerable financial sacrifice. We built a home on the lake terrace east of Provo. I went through the academic ranks, served a department chairman for several years, and taught my last class Winter Semester 2004, after 47 wonderful years at BYU.

LaRue and I wanted to experience the world, and with leave from BYU, I accepted teaching grants, govt. and private, to teach at Sind University, Jamshoro, Pakistan (1963-64); Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey (1966-67); Waterloo University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (1071-72); and Haceteppe University, Ankara, Turkey (1975-76). I served as associate director of the Seila Archaeological Excavation for BYU in the Fayum of Egypt, and I served on the team to define Lehi’s trail from Jerusalem to Land Bountiful in the country of Oman. I have been in over a hundred countries and have lived at least briefly in five. LaRue and I have directed tours for BYU and three other tour companies to many countries on every continent except Antarctica and specialized in tours to the Middle East and Russia.

I am eager to rejoin LaRue and see what the next existence has to offer.