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After graduating from North Toole County High School, I farmed in the summers and attended MSC in Bozeman, graduating in 1962. I ran my parents ranch the summer of 1962 while they travelled around Europe. That fall I entered graduate school at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario on a Government of Ontario Fellowship. There I worked on a Master of Psychology degree and met and married Carolyn Binks in May 1963. Carolyn completed an Honours BSc. in Psychology from Queen’s and won a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to attend graduate school.
I received my Draft notice in June and was inducted into the US Army in August. My father and I had met with each member of the Toole County Draft Board in December 1962. I asked for a deferment to September to allow me time to complete my thesis for a masters degree at Queen's. Each of them said, "Butch, you already have one college degree and that's more than anyone really needs. If you were working on your Dad's ranch or even at a service station, anything that would do the country some good, we could consider a deferment. But you're going to school in a foreign country for another degree. That looks like Draft dodging. No deferment.”
I was inducted into the US Army in August 1963 and sent to Fort Ord for Basic Training. Because I knew the Army system from three years of Reserve Officer Training (ROTC) as MSC, I was able to get posted to the Human Resources Research Unit (HumRRO) at the Presidio of Monterey. I worked for Dr. John Caylor developing a proficiency based basic training program until my release from active duty in August 1965. It was like two years of graduate school studying program development and program evaluation research.
Carolyn used here Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to attend Stanford University in psychology so she and I saw each other every weekend after I completed Basic Training. However, we were young, in love, and horny so some weekends ended Sunday night when Carolyn dropped me off at the HumRRO barracks and began Wednesday night when she arrived from Palo Alto and we spent the next two nights dodging security and sleeping on my office floor, making sure she was clear of the facility before anyone showed up in the morning. After completing her first year of graduate studies at Stanford, Carolyn moved to Monterey, got a job editing "new" math text books, and we lived happily together in Monterey, visiting such places as Indio and Los Angeles to the south and San Francisco and the wine country to the north.
In September 1965 we entered the graduate program in Psychology at the University of Alberta. We both had teaching and research assistantships from the university that provided ample money to live comfortably while taking a full load of courses. My research was in the Department of Psychiatry where I set up a psychophysiology lab and conducted drug research. I got the job in Psychiatry because one of my jobs while attending MSC was in the MSC Instrument Service.
The level of financial support at the U. of A. improved as we both did well in our studies and research. Carolyn completed a MA. in Psychology and I completed a MSc. & PhD. in Psychology.
Before marrying we had decided that we wanted two boys and two girls. By the time we were ready to start having children in 1967, we believed world population was expanding much too rapidly and thus we should procreate no more than two children, our replacements. Our solution was to have a child, adopt one of the other sex, have another child, and adopt another of the other sex. That is what we did. Our daughters are homemade and our sons adopted. They are all in their own ways wonderful. Three of them are much better people than I could have designed. And then there is the youngest, Nate.
In 1972 when we adopted two weeks old Nate, there was no English language literature on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder. Nate has none of the visible physical symptoms of FASD. His disabilities are cognitive. He has average IQ but almost no empathy and is incapable of making wise decisions - he cannot predict the consequences of his actions. He would be well placed in a monastery with a stout monk on each side to keep on the straight and narrow. Alas, these kinds of placements are no longer available.
I continued as a university teacher/researcher until I retired from the University of Calgary, Faculty of Social Work (Edmonton Division) in 1996. Since then I have continued consulting, primarily in child protection/child welfare and the social determinants of health.
Carolyn decided she liked social work when we team taught research to social work students so she enrolled in and completed a Master of Social Work degree. Since then she has been employed as a program evaluation manager and later in senior administration positions with addictions agencies in Edmonton and Toronto, retiring from the Center for Addictions and Mental Health in Toronto in 2000.
We have both been involved in civic life from many years. I made my first presentation to Edmonton City Council in September 1968 and my most recently in November 2008. Carolyn ran for City Council in 1981, losing by 75 votes.
Now we have spend November thru April in Edmonton where we are primarily engaged with children and grandchildren and in volunteering with the Greater Edmonton Alliance (GEA). GEA is a broad based non-partisan organization for the common good. GEA is an organization whose members are dues paying faith and labor organizations and small independent locally owned businesses. For more information see greateredmontonalliance.com. Carolyn has been leading the affordable housing team and I have been working with both the affordable house team and the local food team.
We spend May through October at our place on the Gatineau River in Quebec. This has become our annual sabbatical. As a child Carolyn spent her summers here with her grandparents. Now we look forward to the summer arrivals of our children and grandchildren. For a satellite view of our place Google Celsea, Quebec J9B 2B7. Ours is the blue roof on the point jutting northwest into the Gatineau River.
