Biographical Notes reCharles A. (Chuck) StonePage 3 of 4 Pages, of Chapter 11,SCHOOL DAZE |
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| As my course studies moved forward, I asked permission to take a 2 hour credit course where I would write and publish a book on self-help picture framing through use of relatively primitive materials. The Industrial Education Department (IE) gave me an OK. About this time the school had received a large shipment of military surplus printing equipment. They had found a room for it, but still had no teacher or preliminary check-out and servicing of the equipment. As the course proceeded, I had developed and illustrated my proposed publication and needed a publisher. I asked them if I could use the graphics classroom equipment, seeing as how it was just sitting there, unused. They said OK. I proceeded to try and do it myself, learning day by day. I began to experiment with making printing plates. When I had a few plates made, they cried for a test run on one of the presses. I selected a press that looked operable, and began to fire it up. As I got into the printing mode I was having great problems with too-little or too-much ink. When I would transition from one extreme to the other, I would occasionally get a perfect print, but nothing consistent enough to get the job done. When I looked up and saw ink splashing on the ceiling, I shut her down and looked for plan B. I found a local printer that would take my typed masters, copy them and run off a few hundred books for me. The book was finally published, entitled “Frame Your Own Pictures, and Enjoy It”. Ink on the ceiling, or not, my teachers gave me an A for that course. I was getting lots of A’s and a few B’s, a real change from my Elementary and High School experience in Park Rapids as a youth. The University PR Department latched on to the project and gave it considerable news coverage. It was even published in the Phoenix newspaper. Whatever, I never really found the key to market the book where it would be a paying proposition and, besides, there were other fish to fry that wouldn’t’ wait. [If you want to look at one of the news clippings, click here to review and have an easy return to this page.] Before going into this exercise, I had offered the Popular Mechanics Magazine my original draft. Their correspondence indicated a real interest on the part of their content people, but their sales department gave it thumbs down. Months later I had the non- monitary satisfction to see the magazine publish a major story on the very same subject. They took all of the ideas, developed their own illustrations, and went to press. Such is the story of my life. In the meantime, Sandie was turning out some beautiful works of pottery and sculpture. She was a natural for any art courses she chose to take and did well in all of her course work, but working with clay was something that really took her interest. It was a satisfying and rewarding experience to be walking down one of the NAU halls of learning, meet Sandie, see her wave, and she would say “Hi Dad,” and move on. The other students would look rather wide eyed as they tried to figure out what they had just seen and heard. Our choice to transition from the military to civilian life in Flagstaff seemed like a good decision, then, and, in retrospect, I wouldn’t want to change a thing. Our finances were never flush, but they were adequate. Having a military retirement check coming in, monthly, made so many things possible, opened up so many additional options, I thanked God every day for permitting me to finish out my 20 active years in the USAF. Those experiences fulfilled my childhood dreams and here we were in Flagstaff, creating a whole new set of goals as we learned new skills and gained new knowledge at Northern Arizona University. We made a few summer trips back to Minnesota. On one occasion, in Little Falls, I was introduced to the local School Superintendent by a friend who had known me since the late 1930’s. I explained my educational goals to him and said that Nell and I were considering coming back to Little Falls to make our home. My question was, “Would you have any interest in having me on your staff as a teacher?” His answer was a resounding, “Yes!” We discussed the courses I could choose from to finish up my studies and he asked me to keep in touch, which I did. That is until he left his position in Little Falls to pursue his PHD and later moved on to another position. Back at NAU the teacher recruiters were beating the bushes at a great rate, so my plan seemed to be on track, anyway. In the early summer of 1972, I signed up to take some advanced studies in the teaching of construction methods at the High School level. Teachers from all over Arizona came in to get some of their supplemental teaching credits. I enjoyed the course, but, for the first time, got an insight into something I had only had a glimmer of before. In my hearing, intentional or not, I heard teachers condemning other teachers who were military retiree’s. Their anger related to these teachers drawing retirement pay and maybe not being sufficiently ardent fighters for higher salaries through teacher union membership. Up to this time, and on a number of occasions, since, I have discovered an occasional sense of jealousy regarding my military retired status. There are times where I believed that some people believed that, if I were hired, they would be threatened by the experiential history that I would bring with me to whatever job I was assigned. Their thought apparently was, “Will this guy come in and be moved ahead of me, because of his experience?” Later that summer, my family and I drove to Minnesota for an extended vacation. One of our goals was to look for property in Little Falls where we might build our home. With the help of Nell’s brother, Norris, a building contractor, we purchased a series of two and a half lots north of town. The property was well located for our purposes. As we returned to Flagstaff and got back into our routines, on of our tasks was to select a house plan that would be used to start construction in the spring of 1973, prior to our arrival, bag and baggage. |
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