Below are two photos and
Justin Mutrux's Bio
Justin writes, "The first of my
wife and me. The other is my
dramatic impersonation of John Wesley Powell. Mr. Powell, of course,
is the
one-armed explorer who first floated the length of the Colorado
River
successfully back in 1870 or so. I floated the Colorado last month.
It was
my first trip back to the Grand Canyon since I hiked in and out
with Tom
Houston, Alan Cohn, and Austin Rust back in the summer of 1968."
Bio-
Back in the 70's my wife and I found teaching jobs in the Ozarks
and moved
our family to a farm in Texas County not far from Montauk State
Park. The
place is very rural, rocky and weedy, but with a beautiful creek,
lots of
woods, and of course deer and turkey. It wasn't long before we
had a few
horses, chickens, cows, and even a couple of goats. We loved living
in the
country and it was a great place for us to raise our 7 kids.
I taught 8th grade in a self-contained classroom (teaching all
subjects,
just like 4th grade) at Raymondville School, an old-fashion rural
school. My
teaching career was an interesting one. For years my students
and I had a
"stream team" and monitored water quality in the Current
River. Our team
became quite good at not only monitoring but presenting and publishing
our
findings, winning some awards in the process.
Teaching science was my claim to fame in a sense. I won a Presidential
Award
for teaching elementary science in 1997. (A teacher has to blow
his own
horn, you know!) I traveled to DC to get the award. Bill didn't
show, but
Hillary had the dignity to do a group photo with us.
On-line educational projects lead me to some great adventures
and several
"cool" experiences. Once I visited Yellowknife, NWT,
in the winter, which
was cool. Even cooler, I traveled to Antarctica to conduct an
on-line
project. Then later, and literally the coolest, I got to drive
my snow
machine with the Serum Run group for 800 miles across the Alaskan
bush.
Sadly, my wife of 29 years died of cancer several years ago, but
fortune
smiled on me. I'm happily remarried and happily retired. As of
October 2004
I have 15 grandchildren. I still live in the Ozarks, enjoy canoeing,
camping, hunting, fishing, biking, and of course traveling. I'm
also an
amateur wine maker in my retirement and gladly invite any of you
to visit
and sample my finest.
- Justin
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