My Dad

On Father's Day I was telling the Valko children about the all-around athlete that my Dad was in his high school days. This would have been taken around 1920-22. He had many medals and trophies from his track, football and basketball.

Here his hair is greased down but on close up you can see that it was very wavy and evidently it used to stand up in curls as he was nicknamed 'Snowball'.

1917-18 Freshman Brigham City then out of school one year because of flu epidemic 1918-1919 Worked in Saddle Dept of Salt Lake Hardware 1919-20 Sophmore Salt Lake City--lettered in Basketball and Track 1920-21 Junior in Blackfoot, Idaho--lettered in Basketball and Track 1921-22 Senior in Blackfoot, Idaho--lettered in Basketball, Football, Track and was Student Body President as well

First store experience in 1919 for two weeks at Golden Rule in Ogden, Utah--during summer of 1919 and 1920 he worked on building the Stakehouse in Blackfoot with his Father and two brothers Arlow and Lorin.

After graduation in 1922 (born Jan 5, 1903) he moved to Ogden, Utah to work in shoe department of the Golden Rule Store. He met Ethel Larson there and married her on Nov 6, 1923. She was the only one in her family born in America as her parents had joined the church in Sweden in the 1890's and one by one came to Ogden, Utah where she was born in 1902.

Dad's great grandfather Anders Petterson of Kalmar, Sweden was a student and lover of the bible and his conversion to the church is a good story for another day. His wife had died when she was 44 in 1865 and left him with 10 children. He was converted along with some of his children and came to America in the 1880's.

Dad's great grandfather and great grandmother Lillywhite joined the church in England in the early 1840's and they came to America in 1847 and that is also a fascinating story for another day.