Kirby

Kirby had a blessing from my father before he left for Iraq this time. In it my father mentioned a little bit about Kirby’s role in the pre-earth life and his words rang so true. He said something like: Kirby was a very outspoken advocate for Jesus in the pre-existence, I don’t remember exactly how he said it but I got the impression that Kirby may have  ticked off some folks on the other side of the exchange. Kirby is very straight talking, and he doesn’t back down when he feels he is right. He is impulsive to a fault, but most often to a good cause. He is also generous in the extreme. He will lend a hand and fix a problem if he sees it. He is the guy that, when driving alone, will pick up the hitch hiker. He will stop and help the guy on the side of the road. He once took a lady from Salt Lake to Provo after his night shift at a pizza place because she needed to go to the airport and didn’t have a ride. He is the proverbial force of nature at times, and I can imagine that Satan’s side has been after him big time for a long time.

Kirby grew up in Othello, WA, a little town in the rich farmland of the Columbia Basin. He learned to work hard at a young age. His grandpa had a farm where he moved sprinkler pipe. He had a paper route. He worked in a grocery store. He always had a job and worked. His family consists of Mom, Iola Smith, descended from Joseph’s uncle; and Bob Crowley, first generation LDS who was converted as a teenager. Good folk. They live in St. George now. Bob is a worker—still, never happy unless he has a project. He helped us put in our basement. Iola ran her own fabric store when I met her. She is the managing director and last word in that family, super nice people.

Kirby is the second of five children, like me in that way, he has an older sister who is one month younger than me, a brother Marty, a year behind him, and then 6 and 9 years later another brother Jim and a sister Patty. Marty, Kirby, and Jim have become great friends over the years and they are Kirby's four wheeling buddies who Kirby loves to go get dirty with. Jim lives in Vegas, and Marty in Reno, NV. Jim is a doctor, Marty a lawyer. Patty teaches High School, Cheryl is a nurse.

Kirby is extremely adept at almost anything he puts his mind to do, from cooking breakfast, need a short order cook anyone? To barbequing, (yes I have enjoyed his love of cooking) to making shelves and coat racks for the house, to creating a management spread sheet, or teaching a class, and he actually likes math. Can you say right brain attracts left brain now?

He can be sociable, but he has to work at it. He says he used to be really shy, and he still has that in him too. He can be the strong silent type, but he can also be the raging bull. He can be the tower of strength, but he can also be the guy with the little boy eyes that wants attention now.

He is smart, did I already say that a couple of times? He was really trying to a get a group together back in the early 90’s to get an invention idea of his off the ground. Have you ever heard of Ti-VO.? He thought of creating that little machine while working at hgm laser and tried to get a group together to start something on it, but we just didn’t have the ways and means. 

He likes to read, when he has time, but usually he will listen to books on tape while he is driving. He prefers spy thrillers, crime dramas etc. anything where the good guy wins in the end. Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Robert Ludlum, that kind of thing.  He collects things, DVD,s CD’s, tools, kids, We had to get a bigger house just to fit all of his collections into it. He has done a lot of driving in his life. He used to come home over a weekend when he was in Monterey and I was in Vegas—driving—long distances don’t bother him much. He likes to be with me. He will cross the distance to be there for a short time.

Yeah, he’s a good guy and I love him.