List at least five people who have had a memorable influence on your life. What did they do that had such an influence on you?

Ms. Manweiller  Business teacher in high school.  Miss Manweiller was a young teacher, new to our school.  She made a good effort to show the business students what it would be like out in the business world.  I planned to be a secretary and I zeroed in on her because she was my idea of how you should dress and act if you were in business.

My father.  He was an honest, hard working man that always supported his family, maybe not in an outward way, because he wasn't demonstrative as far as hugging, telling us he loved us.  But we all knew through his actions.  He was a fair man.

My Mother.  Mom was as hard a worker as you would find.  Not many of us could imagine raising seven kids in a three bedroom, one bath house.  She did an excellent job.  Everyone one of us were raised with good values, well balanced, and a sense of loving each other and those around us.  Again, Mom did not hug or say she loved us.  It was demonstrated in her actions every day.  The best kind of love.

Wilma Todish I remember because she did what I wanted to do.  Get a job out at Hanford as a secretary.

Ironically, I went to business school for five months, got a job as a secretary for less than five years and then became a technician, spending about 35 years in the technical field.  So much for the secretarial field.  It was just a jump off point.

That's it.  Can't come up with a fifth one.

What are some of the personal values that are very important to you? Share some examples of what have you done and what are you doing now to teach these values to your children, grandchildren and others.

The primary value I try to impress on my kids and grandkids is that you have one thing that people cannot take away from you.  Your reputation.  Be honest with everyone.  Be the person that people can trust.  If you say you are going to do something do it.  If you are given a secret, keep it.  If you can't keep the secret, don't let someone tell you the secret.  Life can take away everything you have, but they can't take away your  honesty, reputation and integrity.

I value education. Money spent on education is money well spent.

I tell my kids that there is no shame in failure.  The only failures in life come from not trying.  If you try something and fail, you learn something.  If you never try, you have already failed.  

I try to advise my kids as they experience life.

I also try to advise my kids to not spend more than they earn.  You need to always save some money.  It allows you to make wiser decisions when life turns against you, and that is inevitable.

What are some of your life philosophies or life views that you would share with others?

Tell the truth.  There is nothing worse than being a lier.

The Golden Rule.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Keep your promises.

Treasure your reputation.  That is one thing no person can take from you.

Do not cheat.  Do not cheat in games.  Do not cheat at life.

Never stop learning.  Fear is born out of ignorance.

Describe some of the major community, national, and world events you lived through. How did these events change your life?

The first world event that I lived though was when John F. Kennedy was shot.  I was in fifth grade and I remember being in school and wondering if we would have to go to war.

I remember the cold way with Russia.  My parents put food and water into the "fruit room" in the basement in case we had to go down there to get away from radiation if a nuclear bomb was dropped near us.  That was during the time I was in grade school.  I wasn't really scared because I didn't think it would happen.

I remember when Mt. St. Helens volcano erupted.  It was around 1980.  Sunday morning.  I went down to Albertson's to get groceries.  When I came out of the store there were huge strange clouds in the sky, blotting out the sun.  I went home and called my Mother.  I asked her what she had done the night before because I thought we were seeing the end of the world.  She laughed and told me to turn on the radio or tv.  The volcano had erupted.

I remember seeing the Beetles on the Ed Sullivan show.  They were great. (1963?)

I don't think any of these events impacted my life.

How many children do you have? List their names and share a few memories about each one.

I have three children

Jason was born January 15, 1973. Kerry Michael Lynch is his father.  Jason has been a wonderful son.  A little bit wild and a little bit dependable, trustworthy and just a nice person.  Everyone loves Jason!  Jason has a tendency to joke about everything, even the serious stuff.  That is how he handles his stress.  He is the guy that you are just not very sure when he tells you something if it is really true.  You have to dig a little bit to find out if he is serious about some things.  Jason is the great cook in our family and the guy is amazing when you put a microphone in his hand.
This is where you are supposed to tell stories about your kids and I am just not a story teller.
If I was I might tell you of the time we discovered tiny be-be size holes in the ceiling of the living room.  Upon grilling Jason, we find out that he had been shooting at a spider on the ceiling when he was home along one afternoon.  What?  Are you kidding me?

I could tell you about the time we went camping when Jason was about 8 and sent Jason, Brad (Mark's step son) and Scott (Mark's stepson) out to go snipe hunting.  Mark and I went out into the forest at Priest Lake and watched the boys.  Funniest thing I ever saw as the boys eventually came back into camp and Brad and Scott locked Jason out of the camper and Jason stood by the camp fire and shouted into the forest for us.  (Kinda sounds like child abuse now that I tell the story.....)


Lindsey was born January 7, 1982.  Lindsey is my more serious child.  Has a lot of her father in her personality.  Lindsey takes a while to get to know people and can be a little stand offish, but once she becomes your friend, you know you have a friend for life that you can depend on and you always know where you stand with Lindsey.
Lindsey always functions best when she has structure around her.  I believe that is why she tended to lean towards sports.  The structure of the game is her comfortable spot and as it turns out, she is a very gifted athlete.  This is where I am supposed to tell a story about Lindsey.  I am not a very good story teller, but if I was I might tell you of the night we found out she made the varsity soccer team as a freshman.  On the way home we passed her good friend, Ann Giesa, with her Mother, Mardi, driving down 10th street.  For some crazy reason, we decided that Lindsey would hang a BA out the window, so I held onto her arm so she wouldn't fall out and she pulled her pants down and hung her butt out the window when we passed Mardi and Ann!  Another case of child abuse where I could possibly get arrested?  What kind of mother was I?

Kyle was born July 10, 1984.  He was the cutie pie of the bunch.  With a head of blonde curls and a sweet personality he was hard to beat.  Kyle was rather a blend between Jason's wild jokester personality and Lindsey's serious side.
Our little Kyle was the first to break a bone.  He pushed his big-wheel up the driveway and rode it down standing on the seat, ran into the wall Dad was building along the driveway at the end and broke his leg!  Kamikaze pilot!  Kyle was also the first to wreck a car.  He blew through a stop sign while driving his sister's car while in high school and t-boned another car.  (Quit messing with the stereo while driving!)
Our big surprise with Kyle came when he entered college.  He spent a lot of time skiing and boating with the family during his youth.  His father was a great water skier.  Kyle tubed and wakeboarded but would never learn to ski.  When he entered college, he joined the water ski team!  What?  He learned to ski with them and spent four years and beyond, with the ski team, traveling to Oregon and California and made a bunch of life long friends.  Never say never.

Share some stories about your spouse.

When we first met, we spent a lot of time water skiing on the weekends.  It was summer.  During the fall Mark would hunt for pheasant mostly.  Together we lived a rather mundane life because we both had full time jobs and a family, Jason.  Winter time we did some skiing.  Mark had to learn to ski as he had never done that before.  I wasn't that good but I could get down a hill.  Took a few trips with the Desert Ski Club.  Sun Valley was a fun time.  Went with Jack and Sandy.  Mark seems to take most of his enjoyment in life from working, whether at work or doing jobs around the house.  He is not one to have casual guy friends or activities with other guys.