LONG TRAIL WINDING:
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF MORRIS ALMA THURSTON
Edited by Morris Ashcroft Thurston

In 1996 my father, then 85 years old, delivered 150 handwritten pages of a memoir he had been working on, to me and asked for help in getting it to the next level. More than happy to oblige, I worked with Dad for several years, honing and organizing the existing text, drawing out additional stories and background material, assembling photos and illustrations, and preparing the book for publication.

Morris came from a family of ten boys, seven of whom served in World War I at the same time.

My father’s life spanned most of the Twentieth Century. Growing up in a family of ten boys during the depression, he had no expectation of being able to attend college. Nevertheless, at the age of 26 he enrolled at Utah State and graduated four years later in 1941 with a civil engineering degree.

The year of his graduation was an eventful one for Dad. The month he graduated he was married to my mother, Barbara Ashcroft, a union that lasted until she died 64 years later. The attack on Pearl Harbor also occurred that year, and eventually my father was swept up in the Second World War, serving as a Navy Sea Bee on Tinian Island.

Dad's High school Football picture.

After the end of the War, Morris and Barbara lived the rest of their lives in California, raising my five younger sisters and me and putting all of us through college.

My father’s story is a masterpiece of storytelling by a member of “the Greatest Generation.” It serves as an outstanding example of how an ordinary person, with no special claim to fame, and average writing skills, can create a fascinating life story people will really want to read.