Ronald Banks ’53

Most of my time, 28-hours/week, was spent working at Emil Villa’s Hick’ry Pit as a busboy and dishwasher, along with Frank Higham and Chuck Engberson, so I didn’t have much time for other activities. The one outstanding memory was with [she shall remain nameless] in Study Hall and driving her to school on many cold and rainy mornings. (We got “re-connected” at the 2003 Reunion.)

The other was a short-term business of selling fire crackers. [Three other nameless] friends would take us to downtown Oakland to either individuals sitting on upside-down boxes on curbs with a carton of crackers underneath and we’d do a “roadside transaction.” If we were buying several cartons, we’d be guided inside warehouses where Grandpa was typically standing guard. We “marked-up” the prices for single packages and earned some extra gas money.

Gym classes with John Brodie were memorable too. Hand-lettering Graduation Certificates for Tech High is about the only “activity” I was able to participate in while attending school. I learned an alphabet from my Architectural Drawing instructor which I used for certificates for 114 launch viewers from South America of the Apollo 14 launch vehicle. I had to get a lady from Panama to assist me because some Hispanic names cannot be shortened for any reason. I also did the certificates for The Ford Foundation musical winners at the University of Utah, and many other social services.

I worked in Engineering Supportive Services from 1955-2001. Electro-Mechanical Drafting & Design–CAD-CAM, Proposal Writing. Directed a three-year employment program for the Salt Lake City Corporation for then-Mayor “Jake” Garn (later Utah Senator & Astronaut) to hire the socio-economically disadvantaged and incorporate EEO & Affirmative Action procedures. At that time I wrote an unsolicited proposal for the building-equipping of the first on-campus Fire Station #15 at the University of Utah. I also completed a two-year program in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling and served a 9-month supervised Counseling Internship where I administered/interpreted MMPI’s and other tests the LCSW’s hadn’t been trained to do. I spent some time as an Executive Recruiter, Personal Counselor, Proposal-Prospectus, and Resume Writer, and Commercial Organizational Developer.