Whether we want to acknowledge it or not meeting people and making connections is an important part of life. To quote the seventeenth-century English writer John Donne, “No man is an Island.” One of the things I wanted to do on this adventure was introduce my nephew to some friends I have known for a long time.
John and Mary Kay Turner are two of the most generous and giving people I have ever met. I had the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time. John was appointed head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1989. That brought his family to the east and their youngest son, Mark, was on the freshman football team which I coached. That was only the beginning of the connections that I remember and cherish. There are too many connections to talk about here, but I would like to pay tribute to John and Mary Kay because I looked up to them as people who knew what they were doing, especially when it came to parenting. That is saying a lot, John’s story is one to be admired for many reasons and when he finishes his memoirs, I will read the book. I think Mark put it simply when he said to me recently that he believes his father, as a consequence of his public service, is responsible for conserving more land than anyone alive today. John is both a good storyteller and a good listener. Mary Kay chose a different career path, but in my estimation her talents have inspired as many people, and I was blessed to get to know her well. She became a teacher at the same school and was teaching one classroom down from mine for many years. I enjoyed her company and appreciated her advice at many faculty room lunches over the years. Her life has been one of trying to bring the best out of the people she comes in contact with; whether they be students, colleagues, friends, or just a person in need. She was not and still is not one to shy away from difficult issues.
So to the title of this post…near the end of breakfast in a small world moment, Scott realized his advisor, Bill Lauenroth and his wife Indy Burke, the first female Dean at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, the program that Scott is enrolled in, were good friends of the Turner’s. Mary Kay said, “tell them you had breakfast with us at Dornans.” You can’t see it in the photo above, but Dornans is located between the main road from Jackson to Yellowstone in the shadow of Grand Teton. It is a fitting location, both a monument to many conservationists that chose the area as home, and a metaphor for how far we have to climb to meet the current environmental challenges. Both Scott and his friend Kiara very much appreciated the time they had with the Turner’s.
After we parted, we drove up Shadow mountain, where we had spent the night, and waited for a different socially distanced gathering; this a birthday celebration of Trevor’s mom. I spoke about him in the last post. What I did not mention, because I did not know it at the time was that she, in the midst of treatment for another illness, became patient number 6 in Teton County with covid-19. Thank you Trevor for including us. Your mother is an inspiration and as you put it, a very sweet lady.
It was an eventful day. For a few photos click here. As you can see some of the photos are still showing the impact of the wildfires in California.