Hi, I’m Brad. I’m a father, a husband, a genealogist, an air traffic controller, a Latter-day Saint, a nerd, and many other things. I grew up in California, had two boys in Utah, spent five years working in Boise where we had two more boys, and then finally moved back to Salt Lake. Phew, I think we’re here to stay though.
That’s a lot of info, but I haven’t been very good about masking my identity online, so I guess if someone wants to find me, they’ll find me. Thus, I guess it’s okay to tell you a little more about myself.
I grew up in the East San Francisco Bay Area, it was a great place to grow up for me. We lived in Brentwood, Concord, Antioch, and a couple other places in that area. I loved it. It was diverse, unique, and fun. Nature was close, and urban sprawl was limited by geography, so you didn’t feel like you were surrounded by the 7.6 million other people living in the metro area. But, after I left for a mission to Minneapolis and college in Idaho, I figured I’d probably never settle back down in California. Minnesota opened my eyes to “midwest-nice” and a slower pace of life. Rexburg gave me a love of the open air and the benefits of a small town. Every time I returned to California, I felt less and less attached.
I married an Idaho farm girl right out of college and we returned to live in Napa, California for a short time while we figured out what to do with life. My plan was to become a MesoAmerican anthropologist, but that didn’t seem to fit well with the family plan, so we decided to go after a career in genealogy. By a complete miracle, I got a job that taught me a lot and let me work in genealogy to my heart’s content. I was also able to start my own family history publishing company, a wonderful project and exciting venture I continue to this day. But while the publishing work was fun and lucrative, it was sporadic and unreliable for a primary occupation, and we couldn’t live on the paycheck from my day job, so we had to move on.
By another sheer miracle, I got accepted into an ATC program in SoCal, so we moved there for a semester, then waited two years to get hired. The FAA said if I wanted the job, I’d have to move to Bosie, so off we went. I worked the air traffic control tower there, as well as the radar approach control, and enjoyed the time, the place, and the people. After 5 years we transferred to Salt Lake City where I now work at the Salt Lake Terminal Radar Approach Control, or Tracon. The hiring process, transfer process, and years of training were grueling and difficult, but it’s a fun and exciting job, and it puts food on the table, so we’re grateful for it.
The two most important things in my world are my family and my faith. I love them both dearly. I have other little joys, like nerdy sci-fi shows, board games, geeky tech stuff, building and remodeling, and writing. And this site. It’s been up for more than 13 years now, and tens of thousands of people have downloaded some of my projects, more than I ever could have imagined. We’ll see where it goes from here.
Well, now you know who I am. If there’s anything I can help with, just drop me a line. See you around!