Richard Okelberry:  

Life Nobody ever seems to fill this out so here goes nothing. I guess in this case the beginning was the end of High School. I ran off and joined the Navy where I had a great time. I got to experience port calls in eleven different countries and learned more about the world than any geography/sociology class would or had ever taught me. Unfortunately, I was prematurely released from service for a degenerative knee condition and a strained muscle in my back. Several years later, after following my family to Utah, I found out that the strained muscle in my back was actually a tumor that had grown around my sciatic nerve at the connection to my spine. The tumor was successfully removed at the VA hospital in Salt Lake City, but the steroids used prior to its resection cause Avascular Necrosis in both of my femurs (hips). Basically, the bone in both of my femurs at the hip had died. So another doctor removed both of my fibulas from my lower leg and grafted them into my femur. While mostly successful, I have had to have several revisions, 5 surgeries in all to save my hips, but will eventually have to have them both replace. So if you see me around in a chair or with a cane, it’s not as bad as it looks. Now to the good stuff. While living in Utah and negotiating a few medical mine fields, I attended college at Utah State University. I dual majored in Photography and Sculpture. My photography studies where under a brilliant man by the name of Craig Law who is a premiere zone system photography professor. I also married a young girl named Heather during school. Unfortunately, my increasing medical problems took a toll on both my school work and my marriage. I was forced to leave Utah State and my marriage fell apart shortly after. I limped back to Nebraska to I started over again in Lincoln where my younger brother Dan was a...Expand for more