Michael Peterson:  

I'm letting my subscription to Classmates lapse as of 3 November 2011. 1971-1974 US Army Europe. This tracks me from the year of my graduation from Layton High School in Layton, Utah. A friend and I joined the military on the Buddy System, which was part of VOLAR (Volunteer Army) at the time. We enlisted in SLC. On that day we went to a car dealer down the block and saw the only 12-cylinder 1971 gull wing Lamborghini Espada, which was West of the Mississippi. The hood was almost as long as a driveway and when you sat down inside it, the feeling was that you were going to be flying an airplane. We went through basic training at Fort Lewis, Washington and AIT (Advanced Individual Training) at Fort Sill, Oklahoma before being stationed in Schwaebisch Gmeund, Germany. I was there until 1973 when I was recruited to be part of a 'roadshow' that was trying to get enlisted personnel without HS diplomas to complete the Graduate Equivalency Degrees. I traveled throughout Germany with the US Army 7th Corps Roadshow for my last nine months while doing 118 shows at every Army post in the US sector. 1974-1975. One Year at Weber State College before accepting a mission call to the Tokyo, Japan mission. 1975 - 1977. Assigned to the Tokyo, Japan mission, my mission home was on the site where the Tokyo Temple now stands. The areas in which I served were: Kumagaya City in the Saitama prefecture, Chiba City (a bed town for Tokyo workers), in Chiba prefecture. Matsumoto City, in Nagano prefecture. (Matsumoto was, and may still be, a sister city to Salt Lake City, Utah - we often were called upon to translate for incoming representatives of SLC). I then was transferred to Tokyo 3rd Ward, which was in the Setagaya Ward, of Tokyo. It was during my time in Setagaya that my father, John S. Peterson, passed away due to cancer. My companion at the time was Elder Asay, son of a general authority, whose grandfather passed away within days of when my father passed. It was a blessing to serve with Elder Asay. My last location was in Kiryu City of Gunma prefecture, which is noted for being a silk weaving district. 1977-78. I spent one more year at Weber State College where I was attempting a double major of Music Education and Theater, primarily studying voice with Lyneer Smith and one semester with Evelyn Harris before I felt the need to challenge myself in a larger university setting, and transferred to the School of Music at Indiana University. 1978-1981. I lived in Bloomington, Indiana supporting myself on the GI Bill and being in the resident scholar / resident assistant programs while taking out student loans to complete my choral/vocal music education degree. I studied with distinguished professor of voice, Margaret Harshaw - noted Metropolitan Opera Wagnerian Soprano who performed more Wagnerian roles than any other soprano in history. This was due to her debuting as a contralto as one of the three Norns in Reingold, and working through various mezzo and dramatic soprano roles on up to the role of Brunhilde in a career that spanned 1942 into the early 1960's when she became a professor of voice at Indiana University. I also spent one year studying with Metropolitan Opera mezzo Marcia Baldwin who was instrumental in helping me overcome complications due to an extreme bronchial infection. In my last year at IU, I debuted on the IU opera stage in the Rigoletto role of Borsa when Tim Noble sang the title role, and Sylvia McNair played the role of his daughter Gilda. This was the first time Tim ever performed the role. 1981. I first moved home in May to Layton, Utah to be with my mother Hazel, and my two sisters Ann and Mary. It was my first time home to stay since the one year following my return from my mission in Japan. I was home less than two weeks and feeling somewhat depressed after turning down an opportunity to work on the Americana Cruise Lines as a performer that summer, because the last year at IU saw me completing my student teaching in Elletsville, Indiana, directing a show for a school district in Bloomfield, Indiana and performing in the IU opera theater - so I was worn out and felt the need to go home. At the end of that two weeks, I received a phone call from the superintendent of schools at Bloomfield, Indiana where the choir director was ready to retire if I was willing to move back to Indiana to take her job as choral director and musical director. I moved back to Indiana. 1981-1982. It was after this move, and just shortly into 1982 that I was called to be a single adult stake representative for the Bloomington Stake. My counterpart had already set up a meeting for all representatives within the stake, and called to let me know that she wasn't going to be able to attend but had called a replacement. January 3rd, our planning meeting date, was a blustery, icy night in which only two people showed up - my future wife Susan, who was the replacement, & myself. Well, three others were in attendance but they were only the hamsters I'd purchased at a pet store in the mall that evening before the meeting just to have something that would make noise in my apartment. Susan and I married 12 August 1982. 1984-1988. I remained teaching at Bloomfield until 1984 when my step children showed signs of me needing to be closer at home than where I was driving 50 miles one way to Bloomfield every day. Victoria, Brandon and Aaron are now all in their late 30's to early 40's. It was a good decision to pull closer to home. Our son Christopher was born in 1983, and Nicholas came along in 1985 while I was working on a master’s degree in order to fill the Indiana State Requirement to professional my teaching license. Through that, I have a life license in choral vocal music. During this time, I worked first at a Hardee's, because the hours allowed me the time to work on my masters, which wasn't possible during my long days of teaching, directing and managing concerts for choirs in Bloomfield. We were living in Martinsville, Indiana on Centennial Road to the East of the town. I was only flipping burgers for a short time before the store asked me to take management training, so I completed that in an Indianapolis facility and store. I was with Hardee's for about a year when I was given an opportunity to step into a management position with a Ponderosa Restaurant in Mooresville, Indiana. I was there for two years while I continued work on my masters, finally completing the Masters in Secondary Education in 1988. 1987-1988. I was contacted by a principal in Danville, Indiana based upon a recommendation he received from the Indiana University Schools of Music. This school had been going through music teachers like water. The original choral director quite and took a counselors position in another district. From August to September, 5 other music teachers / substitutes walked in and walked out of the door due to evident problems. I was recommended by Dr. Leon Fosha, one of the Dean's of Music Education who had also recommended me to Bloomfield when they were looking for someone who could direct a stage play in 1980 upon which my hiring call to Bloomfield came in that two week span after moving back to Utah. After a brief interview and walk through of the school by the principal along with my wife, Susan, I was offered the job. Within a weeks, it was obvious why others had gone quickly, but I stayed through the course of the year into May, when I was asked to come back and be a training relief manager for Ponderosa in the Indianapolis / Mooresville area due to my familiarity and background. In April of 1988 I interviewed at an Indiana University Career Day to get back into teaching, and met with Harlan Clark, principal of Frankfort Community High School in Frankfort, Indiana. There were no positions open in the school, but Harlan and the interview impressed within me so great a sense of direction, that I went home and told my wife that I was going to end up in Frankfort. It was a matter of about a month when I received a phone call from Frankfort asking me to come and interview for the opening of a choral music position. When I drove into the front of the school after making a two hour drive north from Martinsville to Frankfort, I sat and laughed that the mascot was a Dachshund. The school is known as home to the Frankfort “Hot Dogs”. I went home and was getting ready to go for my night shift at Ponderosa when I got the job offer over the telephone. It took some doing, and I ended up moving ahead of the family to live with a family from the local church branch while trying to find a house for us. We settled on a house and closed on it in early November 1988 while I was teaching. 1988-1995. During my time at Frankfort, I became the choral director, stage director, musical director, show choir builder, part time show choir choreographer and All State Choir Rehearsal Conductor, Audition adjudicator and Chairman of Zone 3B for the state of Indiana. I also found out that Frankfort was interested in starting a Japanese program due to the building of a Subaru-Isuzu Automotive plant just to the north of Frankfort in Lafayette, Indiana adjacent to Interstate 65. I also became involved in the local Red Barn Summer Stock Theater as music director during this entire time period. I was busy. Trying to teach 3 levels of Japanese, direct 4 choirs, stage every theater production and aid in directing the other auditorium programs had me nearly develop a stutter that was chronic from lack of sleep. I contacted another school district in Lafayette to see if their Japanese teacher wanted to share materials and work, only to find out that their Japanese program had been plagued by a five year span in which they had 5 different teachers of Japanese who came and went with no cohesive instruction. Within a day, I got another phone call asking me if I would be willing to...Expand for more