Stanley Ware Stetson

STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

Four years at Sequoia prepared me well for life. I enjoyed many different experiences and real diversity in the staff and student body. Many friends I don't see often, or not at all, still fill my thoughts. Bob Anderson played a big role in my junior year; he took me duck hunting, and forced me to box, keeping my head on straight during a rough time for our family. Marino Mangiola taught me soccer, and I went on to play goalie at Humboldt State.

I worked summers for the US Forest Service during college and spent a summer commercial fishing. After graduation I was accepted to the Teacher Corps to get a Masters and credential. Life in the mountains of Trinity County and the lure of wildland firefighting all over the west made me decide to make my stand in Hayfork, California. Forty-eight years later, I think I made a good choice.

I

Young Life!. Going to Malabu Canada with Andy Elliott and coming back and starting Young Life at Sequoia. At 16 you just didn't know vespers, at the overlook, was the best place to get to know girls. Not necessarily, in the Biblical sense. Still have a relationship with a girl,family and God. Organized religion, not so much. Tim Hansel and Pam Givens were great role models and mentored many of us during those formative years.
I ran a Young Adult Conservation Corps program for two years for the Forest Service. I tried to pass on some of the life lessons and guiding wisdom I learned from folks like Pam and Tim to the 16-23 year old kids I took into the woods each day.