George

My family moved to Grantsville in June of 1983. The next morning two kids from across the street knocked on our door and asked if the boys could play. That’s when I first met George (who went by his initials, G.A., at the time) and his younger brother Jacob.

From that day through the end of our sophomore year in college, our lives would be intertwined. We lived on the same street, in the same ward, in the same grade (I don’t think we were in the same class until Mrs. Mikelson’s third grade, but I think we were in the same class for three straight years starting then).

Our friendship would often contain a hint of rivalry, and that would increase somewhat as we got older. My first Halloween in Grantsville, I was going to be Pac-Man and George was going to be a pirate. My mom had sewn a Pac-Man costume for me. I think after Halloween was over we were talking and George informed me that I hadn’t looked *that* much like Pac-Man. I retorted that he hadn’t looked that much like a pirate, but he insisted that yes, he had.

A few years later, our common neighbor Andrew Proctor got some boxing gloves and we were trying them out in Andrew’s front yard. I had boxed before at my cousin’s house and with what I felt was some success so I was confident. But when George and I boxed he knew what he was doing and was disciplined enough to execute it. He kept his guard up the entire time and easily blocked my attempts to punch him while getting me with a jab whenever I would let my guard down. After several minutes of him just annihilating me, I lost my temper, wrestled him to the ground, took off my gloves and kneed him in the face.

Seems like I remember someone asking us several years later who would win if George and I fought. I responded that George would win if it was boxing and George chimed in that I would win if it was ultimate fighting.

(That story captures how our respective athletic careers would go. I was usually stronger and faster, but George was more technically sound and disciplined. I never played with anyone that could take a skill that a coach taught in a practice and immediately execute it in a game like George could. One specific memory I have was Coach Roger Cowan teaching the big men how to do a drop step our Freshman year of basketball. The very next game, George posted up and executed one to perfection).

While we didn’t always get along, I’d say we usually did. George and I (and his brother Jacob) would get a Calvin Hobbes or Far Side comic book and sit side by side on a couch in their basement and just read straight through, laughing the whole time.

George and Jacob got an Atari and of course we spent hours playing Pitfall and Space Invaders.

I’ve written about my childhood on Eastmoor, and George was with me through all of that. Neighborhood games, games on the trampoline, basketball in the driveway, football in the park, and forts in the fields.

When we got into high school, we both elected not to play football our freshman year (it was definitely nice to have some solidarity there because all of our other friends did play). During football season, we would get up early in the morning, go to the church, and practice basketball before school. We would be on the basketball team together throughout high school.

Our sophomore year, we repented and decided to play football. We both would become starters on the varsity our junior year and would be two of the three from Grantsville (along with Ryan Keisel) who got First-Team All-State our Senior year.

Between our junior and senior year, we attended Engineering State at Utah State together, which was a great experience and where we would meet people such as Jim Stephenson and Shelly Anderson who would become lifelong friends.

We both excelled academically and that was maybe where our rivalry was the most intense. When we were seniors and were trying to decide who should be a Sterling Scholar for what, I said I wanted to do Math and George acquiesced and he did Science. In between deciding that and the competition, George got a 36 on the Math portion of the ACT (I got a 33) and George got a 5 on the AP Calculus exam (I got a 3). He clearly should have been the Math Sterling Scholar. I ended up being the First Runner Up but always felt bad about it because George probably could have won.

We were also neck-and-neck for Valedictorian. The first time we took the ACT, I got a 31 and George got a 30. George also got an A- in a class that I didn’t take so I had a slight lead in the formula used at the time. George re-took the ACT and got a 32, which put him slightly in the lead to be Valedictorian. I hadn’t been planning to retake the ACT, but then decided that I had to. I got a 33 and would be the Valedictorian and George would be the Salutatorian. But for people that went to school with us, it was George they would consider to be the smartest person they knew.

The summer after we graduated, we both went to play in the 1A/2A vs 3A All-Star football game. The practices were held in Blanding and George drove us (and Ryan) down there in his parents’s blue Toyota Camry. The batter kept dying on us and we’d have to ask someone to give us a jump every time we stopped. George also unjustly was given a ticket when a car in front of us abruptly turned into a side road without signaling and we almost crashed into them (George would return to San Juan County to fight the ticket a few weeks later and successfully got it dismissed). While we were there, we stayed with Shana Judd’s daughter Terri Laws so we had a Grantsville connection. (I later learned that Terri was Tony Clark’s aunt). We ended up beating the 3A. It was a fun and memorable experience.

Following high school, we both decided to attend Utah State and would room together at the Pineview apartments. We both started out in Engineering, George Mechanical and me Environmental. (I would later change to Math while George would finish his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering before going on to medical school).

Neither of us was very social the first of that year (until our neighbors broke the ice by stealing our chairs). But almost anything we did do socially we did together. We would also go to the gym together early in the mornings.

Following our freshman year, we both left on LDS missions for two years (me to Mexico City and George to the Philippines).

When we returned, we went back to Pineview and roomed together one more year.

George always pushed me to be the best version of myself. I knew how hard I had to work to keep up with him and that always motivated me to do my best.

I’ve shared this story before but my favorite George story came the following year when we were no longer roommates. He had moved to a new apartment to room with our friend Jim and I had stayed at Pineview. One afternoon I was walking up 800 East toward campus and George and Jim passed me driving heading the opposite direction. George saw me and did a U-Turn and pulled over. He rolled down the window and said “hi” and I asked them where they were headed.

George: “I’m just taking Jim to the hospital. He thinks he might have appendicitis.”

Me (a bit incredulously): “Why did you stop?!”

Jim (doubled over in pain in the passenger seat): “I was kind of questioning it myself.”

It did end up being appendicitis, but thankfully, even with the brief detour, they were able to remove it in time.

George and I have remained friends through the years. When he and his wife Kimi were moving to Nebraska for medical school, Jeanell and I threw them a farewell party at our house in Ogden. Later, I went to Nebraska on a work trip and was able to meet up with George and Kimi and Jim for dinner.

My only hang-up with George is that he moved his family to Morgan of all places, where his oldest daughter became a state champion sprinter.

But even though his practice is an hour away, George was effectively Lila’s pediatrician. He was worth the drive.

Last summer, George and I, along with Kimi, Dave, and Kim Stookey hiked to Deseret Peak. The hike took a while and was a great chance to chat more than we’d been able to for several years.

George has been a great friend throughout my life. Grateful for the person he is and the great friend he has been.