Deryl Parrish:
CLASS OF 1976
Highland Elementary SchoolClass of 1976
Clovis, NM
University of New Mexico - PharmacyClass of 1990
Albuquerque, NM
New Mexico State UniversityClass of 1987
Las cruces, NM
Clovis High SchoolClass of 1982
Clovis, NM
Marshall Junior High SchoolClass of 1979
Clovis, NM
Deryl's Story
Well, I have great memories of my days growing up in Clovis! I remember great times with many of you and hope that you are doing well.
To catch you up with my life:
After graduation, I went to New Mexico State University (Las Cruces.) I was a co-op work student with the Physical Science Laboratory, located on the NMSU Campus. It was the early launch days of the GPS (Geodetic Positioning System) Satellites that we are all so dependent on now and this program was one in which students went to various locations (about 70) around the globe and ensured that satellite data was collected and transmitted back for processing.
In August of 1983, I went to Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil and I lived there at the satellite tracking facility on a Brazilian military installation for about one year, returning to the States in June of 1984. It was great!
I came back and attended summer school and worked at PSL training new students in the program and keeping myself up to date. I changed my major somewhere around this point to Pre-Med with emphases in Chemistry and Biology.
I went out on PSL co-op again in January of 1985 and this time went to Catania, Italy on the island of Sicily. I was stationed at Sigonella Naval Air Station, an American/NATO Naval Base located near the town of Catania. I had a great time and made several life-long friends there.
After my return from Sicily, I changed my major again at some point during this time to pre-pharmacy and I continued my emphasis in Chemistry and Biology and worked again training students at PSL. Arlis Rhodes was my roommate during this time. Do you remember Arlis? He remains a close friend today!
I went on co-op assignment again in May of 1986, this time to Sheppard Air Force base in Wichita Falls, TX. Shortly after arriving there, I visited a church, saw a girl in the choir named Dana Formby, and I knew that she was the one for me! We were engaged to be married by late October of that year! Then, I got the news that I was being re-assigned on my co-op to a location 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle! A place called Cambridge Bay, NWT, Canada! Wow! This came as a shock since I had already been accepted to Pharmacy School for January of 1987. So, off I went to the Arctic during which Dana planned for the wedding and we ran up big phone bills!
I came home in May of 1987 and Dana and I were married at Fairway Baptist Church in Wichita Falls on July 18, 1987 (22 years now!) and we left for Albuquerque, NM just after we returned from our honeymoon. I entered pharmacy school and Dana began a job she really loved at American Home Furnishings in the Personnel Department. We joined Sandia Baptist Church in Albuquerque and we had lots of good times there. It was a very active young married couples group and we made some lifelong friends. To be brief, I finished pharmacy school (isn¿t that brief!!) and started as a pharmacist for Kmart in Rio Rancho, NM. We lived in Albuquerque until 1991.
I then took a job with Eli Lilly and Company as a Drug Sales Rep and my territory was Southern Wyoming and Fort Collins, Colorado. We moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming and lived in a very hard to find rental hou...Expand for more
se. We were there for about 6 months and decided that we¿d had enough of the harsh weather and we moved back to Texas. Plainview, TX. Joshua Bryant, our oldest son is thus a native Texan born in Plainview on January 21, 1992! He is now 17!! How'd that happen?
Caleb Benjamin was born on June 23, 1995 in Lubbock, TX. We loved living in Lubbock! It is a great city! We bought a nice house and had a wonderful time living there. We had nice neighbors, good church friends, and the boys were very happy in their schools. Dana worked as a bookkeeper for the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra and loved it. During the time that we were in Lubbock, my parents retired, sold their home in Clovis and moved to Logan, NM (Ute Lake) where they continue to live. Also, while we were there, I began working in Nuclear Pharmacy and felt like I had finally found my place. Retail had really not been for me.
I found a terrific job that, at the time, seemed just the thing as it was located in Wichita Falls. While we hated to leave Lubbock, it seemed that God was directing us to move back so that we could be close to Dana¿s Mom. Her dad had passed away from advanced prostate cancer in 2003. I also need to add here that we lost my brother, Bryan, to septicemia in 2006. He had a brief and difficult life!
I took the job. We enjoyed reuniting with friends in Wichita Falls and spending time with Dana¿s mom. The boys, at first, had a little bit of a rough time adjusting but have now become very involved in church and school activities. In fact, at times, it seems they¿re too involved. Caleb plays football, he's the ¿center¿ on the team this year and basketball for the Zundy Eagles and Joshua plays guitar in the church youth band. They both make very good grades and I am very proud of them! When I look at them sometimes, I wonder where they came from, especially as Joshua strums on his guitar or Caleb tackles somebody on the field or shoots a basket. They are great boys and have so much talent.
The job that I took that moved us to Wichita Falls turned out to be a stinker. So, I went to Dallas and worked as a Nuclear Pharmacist for about a year. It was hard on the family as I was gone except on weekends since we didn¿t want to move the boys again and by this time we felt that they were old enough to have a say and they wanted to stay where they were. In September of last year, I received a call from a recruiter who said she had a job that was week on/week off in El Paso, TX in hospital pharmacy. We thought long and hard about it and decided that being home a week at a time and being able to work in something I really enjoyed and would be challenged at was a good thing. So, I began my current job at Providence Memorial Hospital in El Paso, TX. In November of last year, Dana¿s mom died unexpectedly of a pulmonary embolism.
We continue to call Wichita Falls home and we like it there. The boys are very happy and involved and Dana works for the local school regional offices. I commuted week on, week off to El Paso and I really love my current job as a clinical pharmacist. As I write this, we are preparing for a trip to Disney World as a family!
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