Of course, that was almost 50 years ago and times have changed, as has Dymalski. The affable Parkite, part-time program director for the Park City Film Series, hasn't got a shy bone in his body these days.

When The Park Record profiled him eight years ago, he attributed his transformation from shy to outgoing in part to his many years playing guitar in hard rock, blues and tribute bands. He was in a Ramones tribute band at the time. As "Johnny," he rocked the house.

"It's the wig," he explained. "It's just fun to ham it up and be somebody else."

The self-taught guitarist got his musical start in La Mesa, California, while attending high school. "My best friend and I started a garage band called KAOS, named after the bad guys in 'Get Smart,' the 1970s TV series. We weren't very good, but we got one of our songs played on a local radio station and became famous for a few minutes," he recounts.

One band led to another. Today, the easy-going computer software developer cuts loose at night, playing bass in a very theatrical ZZ Top tribute band called Trezz Hombrezz and in a local blues band called Slide Harpo.

Eight years ago, Dymalski was also volunteering as a "techie" at the fledgling Park City Film Series. "I tried to keep everything running smoothly up in the projections booth,' he says. Today, he serves as program director for the popular film series.

The avid film lover is tailor-made for the job. What is it about film?

"I think it's the way the message is delivered, combining both visual images and spoken language," he says. "It really evokes emotion. Any film that can make you both laugh and cry is very powerful."

Dymalski is excited about recent renovations to the theater space in the Jim Santy Auditorium, where the popular film series returned this month.

"We installed a new screen, upgraded our surround sound system from Dolby 5.1 to 7.1, replaced some speakers and put in better insulation. The room sounds incredible," he says.

There are challenges to scheduling films at the theater.

"Since we're a single-screen art house theater we can't get first run films," explains Dymalski. "Because of this we miss out on films that have run their course or played at the other theater chains. But I'm very proud of the eclectic mix of films we bring to our audience. A lot of them come to us through Sundance and they're excellent. Many of the documentaries we screen would never be seen by a larger audience without small theaters like ours."

Film series programming has expanded in recent years. "The Filmmakers Showcase, which started as a one-night event, will once again be a three-day weekend event this November. Dymalski credits veteran Park City documentary filmmaker and event organizer Jill Orschel with the success of the showcase.

It's not all work and no play for Dymalski, who's often seen happily pedaling around the county on his vintage 1980s, neon pink road bike. "It was custom built by Dave Tesch, the legendary California bike builder," he says proudly. His favorite rides: from Coalville to the Wyoming border on Chalk Creek Road; and from Kamas to the Wolf Creek Pass.

He also enjoys mountain biking and running. "I ran a little in high school but quit until about three-and-a-half years ago. Now I love it, it's fantastic."

"I'm just kind of experiencing life now," says Dymalski, adding with a grin, "I don't have a bucket list because I don't even have a bucket."

The post Film Series program director is no shrinking violet appeared first on Park Record.

She grew up an "Army brat," moving coast-to-coast from Washington, D.C. to California, with stopovers in Texas and Washington state. "We lived on the Presidio in San Francisco for a year before the base was closed," she recalls. "I had a view of Alcatraz from my window. I would sit there and stare out at the bay daydreaming for hours."

After high school, she attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she earned her bachelor's degree in psychology. She went on to earn a master's degree in Recreation, Parks and Tourism at the University of Florida.

Duff's passion has always been to help others. "I literally live to do so," affirms the energetic, outgoing single mother, who last week passed her board exams to become a Registered Nurse. "I have this gift that was passed down to me from my beautiful mother and grandmother," she explains. "We sort of have this 'sense' of what people need and how to help them. It's a compassion that isn't teachable. You're born with it or you're not. I can't fully explain or quantify it, it just is. I want to make a difference in people's lives, even if they don't know it was me making it."

Duff has been doing just that for 19 years in Park City. She arrived here early in 1996, fresh out of graduate school, to take a job as recreation coordinator at Marriott's Summit Watch. "I had never heard of Park City so, true to my nature, I leaped at the opportunity sight unseen and came here without knowing a soul," she says. "Park City has been my home now for almost 20 years. I love that I can take a run and pass a moose nearly every time. I can step outside our door with my children and take a nature walk at a moment's notice."

She held several jobs in her field over the next several years and worked freelance as a wedding and event planner when she finally found her footing in 2008. "I was at home with my baby late one night when a bride-to-be called me very upset about the color of her flowers," she recounts. "Something literally clicked in my head that told me I needed to do something different with my life. I just decided that I had only so much to give and I wanted to give it in a healing environment. That's when I started down this path toward health care, sort of following in my dad's footsteps." Duff's father is a doctor and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Florida.

Duff was hired as the volunteer manager at the Park City Medical Center when the hospital opened in August of 2009. Envisioning a volunteer program like that of Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, she built a comprehensive program from scratch. Over 100 volunteers at the Center are now cross-trained to do virtually every volunteer job at the facility. "Volunteers are the heart of the hospital -- they're everything," says Duff. For her outstanding accomplishments, she was named "Extraordinary Employee of the Year" in 2011.

Not satisfied with only one job, from 2012 through 2014 Duff also worked as the health unit coordinator of the Emergency Department and later became a patient care assistant and scrub technician for the Women and Newborn Unit. Then there was school, always school. Duff graduated last month from the Salt Lake Community College Nursing Program with honors and a 4.0 grade average.

The last five years have been both challenging and rewarding for Duff on her path to find her calling. But she says it's all been worth it. She began her new job as a nurse at Primary Children's Hospital on January 5th. She's working in the newborn intensive care unit, nurturing newborns and their families during "the most difficult experience of their lives."

The journey is just beginning for Duff, who will surely be putting her "gift" to good use at last.

VITAL STATISTICS

Favorite things to do: paddle-board, hike, camp, travel

Favorite foods: sushi, popcorn and cheese

Favorite authors/reading: Jodi Piccoult, "The Book Thief," "The Art of Dancing in the Rain"

Favorite performers/music: Snow Patrol, "I like a huge variety of music, including country. Don't laugh, but I am currently a huge Taylor Swift fan, largely due to my children."

Bucket List: "I long to stay in one of those huts on the water in Tahiti or Bora Bora." Also travel with her children to Europe.

The post Park City single mom lands dream job at hospital appeared first on Park Record.

He and his wife, Gina Coccimiglio (Cognition's co-owner and CFO), live comfortably in an Old Town condo. The couple met in 1995 at a restaurant/bar in Salt Lake City. "I remember it was karaoke night, but neither one of us sang anything," he chuckles. They married the following year and share a blended family of seven children and seven grandchildren.

Cognition Winery is the culmination of a dream that took form 15 years ago, when Romankowski began making wine at home. In the mid-1990s, he and his wife owned and operated "Miglio's," a posh Italian eatery on Salt Lake's east side. As the manager and wine steward, he created wine lists and suggested wine pairings for diners. "I got infatuated with it and began studying wine making," he says. "I took a few classes and started experimenting."

Impressively, Romankowski did all this in his spare time while also managing Encore Environmental, Inc., his own environmental consulting firm. Before Miglio's, the Ohio native forged a long and distinguished career as an environmental scientist, specializing in waste management and reduction. In the mid-1990s he was director of engineering and permitting for U.S. Pollution Control, the job that brought him to Utah.

Romankowski likes to stay busy. He's focused on his wine making, but also devotes some time to his consulting work and his duties as co-owner of Kestrel Investments, LLC, a real estate investment and property management firm.

The ultimate catalyst for Cognition Winery came not long after Romankowski's 58th birthday. "Gina and I sat down together, took stock of our lives so far and decided what we wanted to do from here on out," he says. "We were both still in good health and wanted new and rewarding challenges. Gina went back to school to get her Doctorate of Nursing Practice and I decided to open a winery, simple as that."

In 2012, he earned his first level of the coveted Court of Master Sommeliers certification, acknowledging him as having a certain level of wine knowledge and tasting proficiency. Romankowski interned at vineyards and wineries in California, Italy and France in 2013, working the fields and studying the esoteric art of vinification.

By November that year, it was time to get to work and submit the necessary applications for a winery. He leased a storefront and vinification space in the business park near Home Depot, installed two fermentation tanks, custom-made in Italy, and other essential equipment. Within days he drove to Sonoma Valley, harvested his contracted grapes for his first generation, Utah-vinified wines and trailered them home himself. Gambling on eventually receiving a winery license in Utah, Romankowski had previously vinified his present offerings in Napa and brought them in to blend and bottle once all licenses were finalized in May 2014. The results: about 2,000 bottles of a Bordeaux blend and a Sauvignon Blanc, available now at his store and in Park City area restaurants; a 2014 "Chalk Hill" Chardonnay, available soon; and a Russian River Cabernet Sauvignon, scheduled for release in about two years.

The spacious Cognition Winery/Tasting Room is set up for special events and wine tastings. His chief wine taster, he adds, is Gina, his wife. "Women usually have a better palate and nose than men," he explains.

Romankowski is licensed by the state to sell his wines over-the-counter, for off-site consumption. Cognition white wines sell for under $20 and reds are priced at under $30. The newly-minted vintner is most excited about his Cabernet, now aging in vintage oak casks. "I think it's going to be good," he grins. "Making wine is my passion now, second only to my wife and family," he concludes.

Though Cognition's grapes will continue to come from California, Oregon and Washington (and, with any luck, Italy), all the vinification, blending, bottling and aging will happen right here. Our very own hometown winery. Nice.

VITAL STATISTICS

Favorite activities: make wine, sail, fly fish, hike, bike, play the saxophone

Favorite foods: Italian, French, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese and all variations of grilling

Favorite reading: fiction travel novels, Civil War and Roman Empire history, wine magazines

Favorite music: smooth jazz, "chill," classical and country

Bucket list: paragliding, extended ocean sails, more European travel and a vineyard in Russian River, California

Animal companions: "A Toy Schnauzer named Cooper (my winery dog). He makes me laugh all the time."

The post Park City man dreamed of making fine wines appeared first on Park Record.

Hardman, who answers to Jenn, is an anomaly in Park City. She's a fifth-generation local on her mother's side, a descendent of 19th-century pioneers who flocked to the fledgling mining town in the late 1800s. Her father is a prominent Park City builder who moved here with his family in the 1970s, all for the love of skiing. She started life in a house on Park Avenue, later moving to the Canyons area (then called Park West), Park Meadows and finally Jeremy Ranch, where she lives today.

Skiing adventures with her father are among Hardman's earliest memories. "As the first-born of an extremely passionate and very skilled skier, my father had dreams I would follow in his footsteps," she recounts. "Dad always told me to 'squish the grapes,' a.k.a. bend my knees on the way down scary black diamond mogul runs. In spite of frozen hands and toes, and completely fogged goggles from crying, I would eventually make it to the bottom each time. Needless to say, I'm now forever grateful to dad for forcing me to learn to ski."

A born performer, Hardman took to the stage in 1st grade. She was enrolled in VocalWorks and StageWorks, Egyptian Theatre youth programs in the early 1990s. "Singing on that stage was one of the biggest parts of my childhood," she says. A gifted actor as well, she still appears annually in the Egyptian Theatre's Park City Follies.

Hardman began playing the piano at age 6 and was a natural at the keyboard. By age 15 she was teaching piano, her first real job. She still finds time to teach a few select students today.

In junior high and high school, Hardman was an avid fan of the annual Sundance Film Festival. "That was when movie tickets were easy to get. No big-name celebrities attended so it was all about the films. We dressed like the 'PIBs' [people in black] so we'd fit in with the movie gurus."

Hardman attended Park City High School, graduating in 2003. She credits Chris Maddux, who taught a TV production class at the school, for steering her toward a career in television. "He inspired me and encouraged me to put my 'gift of gab' to good use. Sadly, he passed away in 2011."

She went on to the University of Utah, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Mass Communication in 2007. While studying there she lived in the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City. In 2005 she studied abroad at Griffith University on Australia's Gold Coast. The following year found her at Dante Alighieri University in Siena, Italy. Her college years marked the only time she's lived away from Park City.

Hardman's first job after college in 2008 was as the host and producer of Park City Television's morning show.

"I got to be a pretty good meteorologist there," she quips.

In 2012, Hardman was offered the job at KSL 5 TV. "I went from gabbing my way through the two-hour Mountain Morning Show to distilling it down to two-minute segments during the morning news," she laughs.

Her morning gig has taken Hardman far and wide. She's covered stories throughout the state and points west. "I meet and interview people from all walks of life," she says. "I've skydived with the U.S. Army Golden Knights, been touched by the 'Make-a-Wish' kids and inspired by the families with kids at Primary Children's Hospital. I've been a firefighter, farmer, zookeeper, biologist, mechanic and so many other 'professions du jour.' I've been to Disneyland, what some people call 'the happiest place on earth' and to Hawaii, which I actually think is the happiest place on earth. Every day I go to work I get to check something else off my bucket list."

This spring Hardman will likely be off to southern California again for another round of fascinating interviews. Let's hope this homegrown talent brightens our early-morning TV screen for many more years to come.

VITAL STATISTICS:

Favorite activities: Travel, running, hiking, piano, singing and performing in the Park City Follies every year

Favorite foods: "I could live off of cheese and olives." Also sushi, hummus, pomegranates and pepperoni pizza.

Favorite music/performers: "Give me jazz or give me EDM [electronic dance music]."

Bucket list: "You'd be hard pressed to name a city that isn't on my bucket list to travel to."

The post Perky KSL morning talent is homegrown Parkite appeared first on Park Record.

There were challenges along the way and Kanten rose to them. "After that first lesson, my father said if I wanted to ski I'd have to figure out a way to pay for it. I found out there was a 50-cent bounty on gophers because livestock would step into their holes and break their legs. So I learned how to set up a trap line and became a bounty hunter. For the next six years I earned enough money every year to buy a season pass at the local resort, new skis and equipment."

Kanten moved with his family to Minneapolis/St. Paul when he was 15 years old. By age 18, he was a member of the National Ski Patrol and the Professional Ski Instructors of America. After high school he attended the University of Minnesota. It was the first phase of an educational odyssey that led him from Minnesota to California and eventually to Utah and the University of Utah, where he earned a doctorate degree in sports psychology in 1984. Along the way he worked as a ski instructor at Holiday Hill, a small resort near Big Bear in Southern California, and at Alta.

Kanten's other interests contributed to his lengthy educational pursuit. An avid motorcyclist and fly fisherman, he combined the two in the late 1970s when he embarked on a 17,000 mile motorcycle ride circumnavigating the United States. "I rode all the way up the West Coast, across Canada, down the East Coast and back to California. I camped and fished all along the way," he says. Kanten also enjoys both road and mountain biking. In 1975, he rode his vintage 10-speed road bike from Sun Valley to San Diego, and in 2009 completed a two-week bicycle/fishing trip in Costa Rica.

While working toward his doctorate, at the U of U, Kanten took a teaching assistant post as director of the university's ski instructor program. While there he trained about 200 instructors a year.

After college, Kanten faced yet another challenge. "When I got my Ph.D., I had three potential job tracks ahead of me: university faculty, private practice or an offer to work for Franklin Covey. As a lifelong teacher, I enjoyed the corporate work most and found it most fulfilling," he says.

In 1990, Kanten "went independent" and formed Kanten Communications International (KCI) Training, www.KCItraining.com, a consulting group that specializes in one- to three-day seminars on presentation, writing and conflict-management skills for Fortune 500 companies. "I work personally with technical, management and sales groups and travel about 100,000 miles a year producing seminars. I love to teach and help people be more successful. I do about 30 seminars a year and I'm still having too much fun to quit," he says.

Kanten, married for 20 years and divorced for 10, has two grown children. Son Christopher, 24, recently graduated from the U of U in biomedical engineering. Daughter Bethany, 22, is a senior at Harvard and will graduate in electrical engineering next spring. Though comfortably single, he admits he's always on the lookout for "a good woman with a sense of humor."

Aside from the obvious, Kanten insists the word "God" is also an acronym for the "Great Out Doors." He continues to pursue his passions when he's not traveling. "I still ski about 70 days a year and I try to ride my bike, hike or go fly fishing almost every day in the summer."

The veteran Parkite enjoys volunteering at the Egyptian Theatre and the Deer Valley summer concert series. "I've always been an athletic and outdoor person and everything I've done has been in that environment. Volunteering at the Egyptian and Deer Valley gets me around a whole new group of people, a whole new way of thinking and I really like that. It gets me out of the house and exposed to new people and entertainment," he says.

Kanten is bullish about his longtime Utah mountain home. "Everyone who lives here should get outside every day and enjoy this wonderful part of the world. For me, to live in a place like Park City and do what I love to do is just ideal."

VITAL STATISTICS

Favorite activities: Ski, hike, bicycle, fish, attend outdoor concerts

Favorite foods: "Spicy Italian seafood and any fresh fish that I just caught."

Favorite reading: Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Scientific American and professional journals

Favorite music: Anything live

Bucket list: More bicycling and fishing in new places

The post Wisconsin man came to study and ski, stayed to teach appeared first on Park Record.

Fast-forward 35 years and Duran, who recently moved here from Hailey, Idaho, has a decidedly different take on the town. "The people here are friendly and outgoing, the mountain biking is phenomenal, the views are beautiful everywhere you look and the public school system is awesome," says the mother of two young boys. Why the change of heart? It's a long story.

Duran was born and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, about as far away from snow country as you can get on this continent. Though they settled in the Deep South, her parents were from Germany and yearned for their familiar winter sports. She learned to ski at age 13 when the family trekked to Crested Butte for their first ski vacation. Over the next several years Duran escaped to ski country once a year. She became an avid alpine skier and secretly dreamed of one day working as a ski instructor.

That dream was put on hold when she went off to college, graduating with a bachelor's degree from Auburn University in 1982. It was an eventful year for Duran. An aspiring athlete, she qualified and competed in the 1986 U.S. Triathlon Series national championships at Hilton Head, South Carolina. "That was a different era," she says. "I had no coaching, no training partners, no Power Bars or Clif Bars."

Later that year she met Terry, her husband-to-be, while on a bike ride. Soon after they began dating, she gave up triathlon. "He was a bike racer and competing was much more important to him than it was to me," she explains. "I realized if I ever wanted to see him on weekends I would have to go to his races. It was all good because we met and rode with lots of fun people on fast, intense group rides. It was our lifestyle."

The couple married in 1988 and eventually settled in Atlanta, Georgia. Duran worked in real estate advertising and marketing while her husband completed his degree in industrial engineering at Southern Polytechnic State University. In 1995 they moved back to Birmingham after Terry got a job there with Wesco, an electrical engineering company. Still an avid cyclist, he went on to take sales jobs with Cannondale Bicycle Company and, in 2004, with Scott USA, another bicycle company. Snow skiing was no longer a priority for Duran, as the young couple built their future in Birmingham. Her dream of becoming a ski instructor gradually faded away.

In 2000, Duran turned a childhood hobby into her new profession. "My dad gave me a camera when I was 10 years old and I took photos of just about everything. I loved it," she recalls. "I always had in my mind to be a professional photographer, but I never thought I could make a living at it. In Birmingham, I started working part-time on weekends assisting a wedding photographer and really enjoyed it. With encouragement and support from another photographer, I quit my day job in pharmaceutical sales, bought professional equipment and started my own business. I advertised in local magazines and business boomed! I was privileged to be the photographer for so many beautiful, lavish southern weddings over the next 11 years," she says.

The Durans' two sons arrived in the early 2000s, Ethan in '01 and Kristofer in '03. Duran reluctantly closed up shop in 2011 when Terry was promoted to national sales manager for Scott USA and transferred to Hailey, Idaho.

Duran didn't resume her photography business in Hailey, choosing instead to spend more time at home with her growing children. Back in ski country at last, a distant dream stirred. "Ski instructing was a lifelong dream of 'wow,' that would be fun to do. I immediately knew I wanted to be a ski instructor at Sun Valley," she says. After training hard and earning her Level One Alpine Certification, Duran's dream was finally realized. She worked as a ski instructor at Sun Valley for the next three years.

When her husband took a top-level management job last summer with Willier Triestina, a venerable Italian bicycle maker, they made the move to Park City. "Hailey was pretty isolated and there wasn't much opportunity there for the boys. We needed to be closer to a major airport so Terry could travel. Also, we wanted better schools and a place where we could enjoy an active, fulfilling lifestyle," explains Duran.

Though she only arrived last July, Duran is very enthusiastic about her new home, noting it's not the "super-small town" she remembers from 35 years ago. "Here we are in Park City, with so much to offer for everyone in the family: skateboarding, skiing, mountain biking, arts programs and lots of photography opportunities.

"My major goal right now is to make sure my kids make good grades in school and go on to college," she continues. Son Ethan, now 13, attends Ecker Hill Middle School and Kristofer, 11, is at Trailside Elementary.

The newly minted Parkite plans to start up her photography business again, this time specializing in maternity, newborn and baby portraits. She's already taking lifestyle photos for a slick, Sun Valley-based magazine called Big Life, which is expanding its circulation and advertising base into the Park City area. Go to www.monikaduranphoto.com to see some of her photos.

Duran says she had two other goals when she moved here -- to be a ski instructor at Park City Mountain Resort and to earn her Level Two Alpine Certification. She's halfway there already, having recently been hired as a ski instructor at Park City Mountain Resort. The dream lives on.

VITAL STATISTICS

Favorite activities: Skiing, road and mountain biking, photography

Favorite foods: Tacos, hamburgers, fajitas, mashed potatoes, spaghetti and chicken salad

Favorite reading: "I am reading for the third time the Professional Ski Instructors of America manual on ski instruction and Core Concepts for Snowsports Instructors."

Favorite performers/music: "I like upbeat, fun, catchy dance music to work out to. I love Jack Johnson, Chris Isaak, Jimmy Buffett, Sheryl Crow and Eva Cassidy."

Bucket list: Heli-skiing; France, Italy and Germany; a week on a houseboat on Lake Powell; buying a house in Park City

Steve Phillips is a Park City-based writer and actor. Send your profile comments and suggestions to him at stevep2631@comcast.net

The post Southern girl realizes her dream in Park City appeared first on Park Record.

Wells, or "JW" as his friends call him, forged a highly successful career in high-tech senior sales management while living in Boston, Massachusetts, but it came at a price. "I had been traveling almost every week since 1974 and logged over four million frequent-flyer miles. In 2000 I just decided to take a break from technology and do some things I was not able to do before," he explains.

Those things included spending a lot more time with his family. He coached his son's basketball and baseball teams, learned to paint and sculpt in classes at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and served on the board of several Boston-area nonprofit organizations. His break from work proved to be a turning point in his life.

Wells was born in Baltimore and grew up on the move with his family, from Maryland, to New York, to Massachusetts. Though he was a good student through school, he had a mischievous side. He tells the story of an ill-considered adventure when, at age 10, he and a friend attempted to start a helicopter on display at an FBI-sponsored picnic. "I loved helicopters. My best friend Bobby and I waited for half-an-hour to sit in that Bell 47. We took the tape off a couple of plugs, stuck them together and immediately the gauges lit up and a loud whining sound started. The bored FBI guy manning the display was suddenly very interested in us. We got in some trouble," he chuckles.

In high school Wells ran afoul of his English teacher when he blurted out in class that the only reason Henry David Thoreau went to Walden Pond was because his mother booted him out of the house. "My college friend John told me that and I thought Miss Thistead should know. She turned red, started yelling and spit flew out of her mouth. She took me to the principal's office and demanded that I be suspended for a few days. She was quite fond of her Henry," he recalls.

After high school Wells attended the University of Maryland, taking a degree in business. "I put myself through college, so I had a lot of jobs and worked every summer, but I couldn't have been happier. Personal responsibility was intimidating at first and I wrestled with money issues, but once I got it down I found freedom exhilarating," he says.

Degree in hand, he went to work in sales and steadily advanced in sales management over the next two decades. He married and had two children, now grown. Jacquelyn, now 27, has a successful jewelry business in Boston. Johnnie, 22, lives and works as a software test engineer in Charlotte, North Carolina. His marriage ended in 2007.

When he took his break almost 15 years ago, Wells was senior director of the eastern U.S. and Canada and the federal division for Net App, a company that designed and built high-performance, reliable storage systems. The company had gone public and become a member of the Fortune 500. Wells could relax in relative comfort. During the break, he served as president and chairman of the board for the Lowell Transitional Living Center, a 90-bed shelter near Boston with a kitchen that served 45,000 meals a year. "When the executive director quit we couldn't afford to hire another one, so I took on the job for two years," says Wells. "Our 'clients' were mostly beautiful people who had situations in their lives that were not necessarily their fault. I naturally gravitated toward them because they were really good people with really big problems. While my career in technology was great, my time at the shelter was the most gratifying."

An avid skier, Wells had been coming to Park City with friends every winter since 1989. The town beckoned inexorably until he finally moved here in 2010, settling in Park Meadows. "I was an empty nester, divorced and ready for a change after living in the Boston area for most of my life. I was also ready for an adventure, which it has been.

"I'll tell you why I love living here," he elaborates. "Only three percent of Park City's population was born here. That means 97 percent of the population came from somewhere else. They wanted to live here for the mountains and the lifestyle. That's unique. The important thing is they want to be here and they're happy. I like living in a town like that."

Though he was "officially relaxed," Wells admits he was offered and accepted a position soon after he moved here. "My college roommate Frank of the No Name Saloon, wanted me to come to work for him. I said no until he offered me a job as Intergalactic Atmosphere Coordinator, which sounded pretty good to me. I interacted with customers, mostly from this galaxy, and bought them shots. I did the job for about a month and figured out it wasn't in the best interest of my health."

Wells volunteered at Park City Television for several months before he transitioned to his current volunteer posts at KPCW radio. The choice came easily to the outgoing, talkative newcomer. "I absolutely love music! I love listening to it and talking about it. I'm also fascinated by science and new technology," he explains. That combination of interests led to multiple volunteer positions as an afternoon disc jockey, substitute DJ, co-host of "Cool Science Radio" on Thursday mornings and the "Morning Mix" on Friday mornings. He's reluctant to take sole credit for his service. "The entire staff works behind the scenes to help put the best possible show on the air. I can't say enough about this small group of people under the leadership of Larry Warren."

Wells is looking forward to fresh powder this winter. In the meantime, he's passionately pursuing dual goals of being officially relaxed and "an authentic person."

VITAL STATISTICS

• Favorite foods: "I enjoy all food."
• Favorite music: "I enjoy it all but I prefer live music because it's so much more soulful."
• Favorite reading: "The Killer Angels," by Michael Shaara, a story of the Battle of Gettysburg; also Stephen Ambrose history books, techno-thrillers, science and technology journals.
• Animal companions: A five-month-old puppy named Pork Chop.

Steve Phillips is a Park City-based writer and actor. Send your profile comments and suggestions to him at stevep2631@comcast.net

The post Boston transplant ‘officially relaxed’ in Park City appeared first on Park Record.

He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, the son of a radio and television repairman. "My dad was brilliant," says Fosgate. "He built the first television and antenna in Indianapolis from spare parts. He really understood what made radios sound good. I must have inherited it from him, but I understood electronics and audio just like I was born with it. It was normal and natural to me, like it was already programmed into me. He taught me a lot, how to be a seat-of-the-pants designer who could think and figure things out."

In his early teens, he built a portable radio from scavenged parts and installed it on his cruiser bicycle. "I rode it all over Indianapolis and was quite a hit," he grins.

Fosgate survived high school with "D" grades in English, but straight "As" in mathematics and electronics classes. He moved to California in 1964, later relocating to Arizona.

An avid radio-controlled model airplane builder and flyer, he was frustrated with early radio transmitters. In characteristic fashion, he designed and built a RC transmitter vastly superior to anything on the market at the time. The innovative radio soon evolved into the "Pro-line" RC transmitter and Fosgate's first business was launched. Success was short-lived, however, when Japanese "copycat radios" soon flooded the market and undercut prices.

In the 1970s he turned his attention and his ear back to his first love -- sound. Though completely self-taught, he approached the challenge with confidence. "I always had a good ear and I can tell when something sounds good and when it doesn't. I don't come from the theoretical or mathematical end of things. I just sit down with something and make it sound the way I want it to. It's intuitive." The result was a wellspring of sound innovation.

He designed, built and marketed the first truly high-performance car stereo systems. His innovative "Punch EQ" equalizer introduced bass boost to car stereo and started a sound revolution in that industry. In the '80s, he was among the pioneers of "quadraphonic" sound.

Though he had some success, there were casualties along the way. The designs and products he created were always good, but the marketing and timing were not. Other companies, some with deeper pockets, some without scruples, all with stables of lawyers, proved his nemesis on more than one occasion. Failed businesses and bankruptcy followed, but Fosgate never gave up.

Though he took a few day jobs through the years, he was always at his best on his own. "I never worked well for other people in an office or factory environment," he confesses. In the late 1970s, he was working on yet another sound project in Prescott when Norma, his soul mate, knocked on the door.

"She came by one day because she always heard music when she walked by. We hit it off and one thing led to another. She's a wonderful person," he says lovingly. They were married in 1981.

In the mid-1980s they moved to Heber. Norma grew up in Salt Lake City and had family in the area. Soon, they had opened Fosgate Audio in Heber, where they manufactured and sold top quality pre-amps. The company did well for years, but never reached "critical mass." Fosgate sold the company in the 1990s.

The stage was set for his greatest accomplishment (so far). After years of trial and error, he perfected a ground-breaking design for a matrix surround processor. When he demonstrated it to the engineers at Dolby in 2000, they immediately recognized it as a true technological breakthrough in television and audio surround sound. His years and years of struggle were about to pay off. Within two years, Dolby Pro Logic II was on the market and Fosgate's genius was finally financially rewarded, and then some.

In 2003, he was honored with the ultimate recognition in his field. At a posh ceremony at the Trump Towers Hotel in New York City, Fosgate was awarded an Emmy for his remarkable achievements in the development of surround sound for television.

Fosgate is philosophical about the Emmy, his 18 patents for sound technology and his many other achievements. "Audio doesn't give away its secrets easily. I worked hard to make things sound the way I wanted and it finally paid off. But I just never expected it [the Emmy], never worked toward it. It was pretty fantastic really, something I'm really proud of."

Life hasn't always been easy for Fosgate, especially from a monetary standpoint. But he wouldn't have had it any other way. "Until the money from Pro Logic II started coming in 2002, we were just like most everybody else, scraping from day to day. I was never working for the money, but the money finally followed. It's kind of weird to finally make it because you've still got that mentality that you had and you always will. That's probably a good thing," notes Fosgate, whose daily work routine hasn't changed much.

Though he no longer needs the money, he's still working toward perfection with his pre-amps, still chasing his dream. "I just sent a drawing to an electronics company in China and they'll be in production of my latest design soon."

As Fosgate eases into his late 70s, life for him and Norma is good. It's been a lifelong labor of love for the man, who offers this advice to others on the long road: "A lot of people are trying to figure out what they want to do in life. If you can find something you love to do and you're just passionate about it and good at it, make it your work. That is the very best because the time will just fly by and you will enjoy it."

VITAL STATISTICS:

• Favorite activities: Working in his lab and flying radio-controlled airplanes
• Favorite food: Mexican
• Favorite reading: Audio and electronics trade journals
• Favorite performers/music: Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Moody Blues, new age and some rock
• Bucket List: Just keep working
• Animal companions: Two Dachshunds and a Yorkie/mutt mix

Steve Phillips is a Park City-based writer and actor. Send your profile comments and suggestions to him at stevep2631@comcast.net

The post Jim Fosgate spent decades pursuing perfect sound appeared first on Park Record.

It all started 10 years ago when Moffitt was in the show. "I noticed there wasn't any music and offered to help put in some numbers. That's grown to about 10 musical numbers in the show for the last few years," she says. Disciples of the show come back year after year now to see and hear her cleverly choreographed show-stoppers.

A longtime Park City resident, Moffitt knows her adopted hometown better than most. Her journey here began in Minnesota, where she grew up playing sports, camping and canoeing with her family on the state's abundant lakes and rivers. During long and frigid winters, she went ice skating. "As a teenager, I routinely fell in love with whichever high school boy was in charge of the warming shed," she admits. She remembers a series of clubs she formed as a kid. "I had the movie club, the horse club, the 'Monkees' fan club and, my favorite, the secret club. Of, course, I was in charge of all of them," she grins.

Moffitt insists she's proud she grew up in the Midwest. "You don't whine, complain or procrastinate. You just get things done. And you love potluck."

After high school, Moffitt moved west to attend Oregon State University in Corvallis, where she took a degree in broadcasting and speech communications. She met her husband, Larry, at college. They married a week after she graduated. Larry was a Navy pilot and the couple bounced around the country for the next few years. Moffitt began her broadcasting career while they were stationed in Corpus Christie, Texas. "I was a TV reporter for the very worst station in probably all of Texas," she says. "When one of the noon anchors passed out with a hangover, I was put on the air to anchor the noon news. I had 15 minutes to prepare but thought, hey, I couldn't be any worse than anyone else at that station."

After the Navy, Larry signed on as a pilot with Delta and they moved to Portland, Maine. He flew out of Delta's Boston hub; she got a job as a reporter and fill-in anchor at a Portland TV station. "It was a much better station," she laughs. The Moffitts began their family in Maine. They have two daughters, Lauren and Sarah.

The fledgling family moved to Park City almost 25 years ago, soon after Delta opened its Salt Lake City hub. "It was a good move for us and got us closer to family. We chose Park City for its great outdoor recreation and small town feel," says Moffitt. She took a few years off while shepherding her growing family before returning to work. She's worked for several years as a copywriter with Clear Channel Communications in Salt Lake.

Though her creative collaboration on the Follies is her greatest joy as a writer, it's not all fun and games for Moffitt. She has a long history of volunteering for worthy causes in town. She volunteered in the schools her girls attended and served on the boards of "Friends of the Library" and "Friends of the Farm." For the last several years her nonprofit-of-choice has been the People's Health Clinic, where she handles their media needs.

"People are often surprised when they learn about the clinic," she says. "They don't understand how there could possibly be such a need in this town. Well, there is. This is a recreation ski town and there are a lot of people here who work two or three jobs to make this engine go. A lot of those people don't have health insurance."

The Moffitt daughters are grown and have moved away. Lauren is married and lives in San Diego. Sarah, a former Park Record reporter, lives in San Francisco. "It's great when your kids live in places you like to visit," says Moffitt. She bubbles when she reveals she'll be a grandmother in another month or so. "I'll be taking a little time off to go down to San Diego and meet my first grandchild."

After her return, The Follies conspirators will resume meeting every Wednesday night at the Moffitt's house to brainstorm for next spring's show. "We meet at my house because I like to cook," says Moffitt. She's tight lipped about the show. "There's always plenty of material to work with in this town. We've got some ideas," she adds with a twinkle.

VITAL STATISTICS

• Favorite things: Hiking, snowshoeing, volunteering, Farmer's Market and outdoor concerts, exercising next to Olympians at the gym, summer evenings in my backyard with friends and a bottle of wine
• Favorite foods: Caramel-ripple ice cream, Volker's focaccia bread, fresh nectarines and my husband's vegetarian burgers
• Favorite reading: Historical fiction, Wallace Stegner, Amy Tan, David Sedaris and Tom Clyde's column
• Favorite performers: James Taylor, Train, Bruno Mars and Barry Manilow. Yes, Barry Manilow.
• Animal companions: Gilbert, an 18-year-old goldfish. "I babysit my friend's' dogs when I can."
• Bucket list: Live in Italy for a while; drive around New Zealand's South Island in a camper van for a couple of months; learn to play the harmonica; have an advice column

The post Park City Follies conspirator revealed appeared first on Park Record.

Justin Pickard, a volunteer track and field coach, will head up a select group of Park City track and field athletes this spring. A couple of things are unusual about this. First of all, Justin Pickard is a 9th grader at Treasure Mountain Junior High. Oh, and the athletes are children and young adults with intellectual disabilities, training for the Special Olympics.

He will coach the athletes, selected by the National Ability Center (NAC), in the basic running, jumping and throwing techniques required in track and field events. The program is the first of its kind in Park City. Practices start next week, leading up to their first track and field meet on May 31st. Both able-bodied and intellectually disabled athletes will participate.

Pickard, who answers to the nickname "J.J.," is a rising star on both the lacrosse and track and field teams at Park City High School. The teenage shot put phenom was undefeated in his age group last year and set a new indoor American record in his age group at 48 feet, 5 inches.

He sees his volunteer work and the NAC project as a responsibility, not a duty. He started volunteering at the NAC two years ago mucking out horse stalls and doing odd jobs. "I think you should always give back. This year I wanted to do something for them that I know how to do pretty well," he says. I try to do everything I can to help younger athletes." His enthusiasm for public service is a rare trait in someone so young.

Pickard moved to Park City from Mercer Island, Wash., in 2011. He grew up in West Mercer and was a self-confessed risk-taker from an early age. "My worst childhood memory is when I was 10 years old, jumping off my roof onto a trampoline and breaking my arm," he says. "I saw some older kids do it and it looked like fun. Anyway, I bounced pretty high."

Pickard admits the move to Park City was rough. "It was hard to get used to at first, but it's a beautiful place. I fell in love with the city, pretty much, just because of the environment."

He attended Ecker Hill Middle School for a year before moving up to Treasure Mountain Junior High. He's been playing lacrosse since the sixth grade and was twice selected for the Utah Under-15 National Lacrosse Team. Though only a freshman, he made the Park City High varsity lacrosse team this year. The team has won 10 of its 12 games, including tournament play, so far this year and is second in the conference.

His coaches have nothing but praise for Pickard. Coach David Yocum, who works with him on speed and agility, says he's never seen a young athlete work any harder. "From my first encounter with Justin, I noticed how engaged he was in what I was attempting to teach him. At age 13 you don't often see that. I've watched him spend hours and hours by himself working on his lacrosse."

But it's Pickard's work with NAC that really impresses Yocum. "The program is still in its infancy but, like everything else he does, Justin will embrace the challenge and work diligently to make it a success," he says.

Young Pickard credits his Park City coaches for helping him develop and improve as an athlete and a person. He specifically mentions coaches Yocum, Acee, Bell, Durling, Bilzi and Arrhenius. "I have some very special mentors who have made a huge difference in my life. I am so thankful to them." He singles out Laurence "Coach" Shuler, the man who taught him to ski at age three at Snoqualmie Mountain in Washington and remained his coach and friend until his untimely death last month. "He pretty much taught me some of the greatest life lessons ever, to always keep a smile on your face and try to see the good in everything and everyone. I'm still working on that one," admits Pickard. "He always inspired others by example; that's what I want to do."

Pickard and volunteers from the National Honor Society will take the Dozier field next week to coach of the Center's fledgling track and field training program. Coaching may well be his destiny. "I love to compete and I love to coach," he says. "It's the coolest thing in the world to see the smiles on kids' faces after they try and succeed at something new. It makes them happy and it makes me happy. I feel like I'm a better person, at least for that day."

VITAL STATISTICS

• Favorite activities: Volunteer coaching, lacrosse, weight lifting
• Favorite foods: "Nachos, period."
• Favorite performers/music: Eminem, Dr. Dre, Tupac, G-Easy
• Favorite reading: Anything to do with the military
• Bucket list: Become an Army Ranger, skydive, meet Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton

The post Park City 9th-grader to coach special athletes at NAC appeared first on Park Record.