johnlamrohoopes

John Lamro Hoopes

The original "baby-boomer," I was born on 20 Nov 1946, eleven months after my parents were married, which was about two months after dad, Grover Lamro Hoopes, called Lamro, returned from serving as a Medic in the Army. My mother, Margaret Elaine, called Elaine, was a pretty 19 year old high school graduate, who met dad, a returned missionary, at a church dance the night before he went into the service. I was born in Safford, Arizona, at the clinic of an osteopath, Spencer Ellsworth, D.O., for whom my mother had worked during the war as an un-licensed practical nurse. Mother says, unabashedly, that I was an ugly baby who cried a lot. I liked to take baths and stay clean; my uncles called me "Fish," my parents and friends, "Johnny."

We first lived in an rental apartment my Grandfather Fred Russell had built behind his home in Safford, while my dad was building our home three miles west in Thatcher, on property given him as a wedding present by his parents. When I was about a year old we moved to that new house at 700 First Street, where I lived until I left for my mission in 1965.

I had a pretty typical childhood, having two sisters and a brother, Jean, Jan and Fred. Jean and I tap danced together and I endured piano lessons. I enjoyed hunting and fishing with my dad and Grandfather Hoopes and became an Eagle Scout, with my mother teaching me the Morse code with flags. I graduated from Thatcher High School, attended a year at Eastern Arizona College, and then served a two and one-half year mission to Italy.

My parents took me to the airport in Phoenix to go on my mission. Mother wasn't bashful-she asked President N. Eldon Tanner, who was waiting for the same plane, to take good care of me. He delivered me to the mission home next to Temple Square in Salt Lake, where everyone wondered what celebrity I was. I played the organ at the Assembly Hall for our farewell, at which Jesse Evans Smith sang the 4^th Section of the D. & C.

I enjoyed my mission, learning Italian with companions who spoke German (they were transplants from German missions). I was able to help translate materials into Italian, including the children's song book, and spent time as a companion with Apostle Ezra Taft Benson, who was over the European Mission. I served as a branch president in Pisa before returning home, having previously served in Pordenone, Torino, Napoli, Bergamo, Firenze and Livorno.

Coming home, I went to summer school at ASU in Tempe, but returned to Thatcher to Eastern Arizona College to get an associate degree that next spring. I worked at the Jiffy Market and in the summer for the state on a road crew and, the next summer, at the state boy's prison at Ft. Grant.

Enrolling my junior year at the University of Arizona in Tucson, I lived at an LDS fraternity house, where I was asked to be the permanent cook, paying for my room and board. My specialties were Italian and Mexican food. I graduated with a BA in sociology, expecting to go on to graduate school in the fall. However, I filled out an IBM punch card, dropped it into the slot at the Alumni Building and received a personalized computer generated (this was unusual in 1971) post card saying there was a job for someone with my "qualifications" at Cochise County Hospital in Douglas, Arizona. I was so intrigued to learn what I was qualified for I called, and ended up being employed as a Social Worker.

That fall, when we both started attending the Douglas Ward, I met the new LDS home ec. teacher, Myrna Gale, who was living with Bishop LaVell and Arlene Haymore. We dated that winter, much to the delight of Myrna's students, and were married in the Salt Lake Temple during her spring vacation, March 27, 1972.

With more disposable income than we have had since, we took a delayed honeymoon to Europe the next summer. Myrna then became pregnant and on March 18, 1973, David John was born. Driving two hours to the hospital with Myrna laboring in the back seat of a VW bug, I changed a blowout in St. David. Myrna had pre-eclampsia-we didn't know enough to be scared, and David weighed only 3 pounds 2 ounces when he was born in Tucson at the University of Arizona Hospital. They warned us that he could be retarded, and for years we kept going back for developmental studies and to learn to work with him. (He isn't retarded.)(David now maintains a blog, and you can read more about his family here.)

A year later, October 11, 1975, Amy Lynn, was born at the hospital in Douglas where I had been promoted to Assistant Administrator. Myrna developed Hepatitis A, a nosocomial infection, and Amy was cared for by Bonnie Stock while I was at work, during Myrna's recuperation.

After Amy, Kristin Gale came into our lives on April 1, 1977. This was a pretty normal event, compared with the previous two.

During our time in Douglas, I was working on a master's degree in hospital administration, which I finally received from the University of Minnesota in 1979. I started looking for a hospital CEO job, and landed one with Brim Healthcare in Cottage Grove, Oregon, where we moved during October,1979.

Oregon was a pleasant place. It was also fairly close to Myrna's parents, who lived in Richland, Washington. We had lots of good experiences there, including the births of our next three boys: Mark DeMar, on Feb. 14,1980, Jeffrey Lamro (who also maintains a family blog), on June 20, 1983 and Kevin Michael, on June 21, 1986-all born at the hospital where I was administrator. We had lots of opportunities for church and community service. I was president of the Lion's Club, Chamber of Commerce and Hospital Council, and served in many capacities in the ward and stake, including young men's president, bishop's counselor, ward and stake organist (with a wonderful tracker action pipe organ at the stake center in Eugene) and finally as bishop of the Cottage Grove First Ward.

When the Portland Temple was dedicated we were on the cleaning crew, which was a spiritual experience. While playing the great organ in the assembly room during the open house, accompanying angelic singing, and was a singer myself during the temple dedication. I stood right behind the First Presidency in the Celestial Room and could have touched their bald heads.

We made good friends in Cottage Grove, including the Giffords, Potters and Kinkades.

As an employee of Brim, I was sent for five months to be an interim hospital CEO in Portola, California, in the Sierra Nevadas, commuting every other weekend. Then we moved to Globe, Arizona for a full-time CEO assignment, which lasted six years. Here we lived close to my parents and it was here that Amy, Kristin and Mark graduated from high school.

Amy attended BYU, meeting Richard Carter, who she married in 1996 in the Arizona Temple. We had their reception in Globe and had lots of help from friends we have there, notably the Crocketts, Standage's and Scholls. David, who was also attending BYU, received his mission call to the Spanish Canary Islands, leaving from and returning to the Globe First Ward. Kristin also decided to serve a full-time mission, and was called to Durban, South Africa.

In Globe, I was active in community and church affairs, serving as ward and stake young men's president, high counselor, ward and stake organist, and Rotary Club president. During this time Amy gave birth to our first grandchild, Taylor Richard Carter in 1998, and graduated from BYU with a degree in sociology.

I left Brim after 18 years, when it was sold, and found a job in Bullhead City, Arizona with Sierra Health Services from Las Vegas, Nevada. I commuted to Bullhead, a 6 hour ride in my black Nissan pickup, each week for six months, living at the Edgewater hotel/casino in Laughlin during the week. I was the CEO of a hospital owned by the HMO. We moved the family there in the fall of 1998, rented, then bought a nice home.

Mark attended Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher, and was called on his mission to Johannesburg, South Africa from the Bullhead Second Ward. I served as high priest's group leader and Myrna as Relief Society president, and we were beginning to feel at home in the ward and community, where it is 120 degrees in the summer. However, after a year and a half, the HMO closed the hospital, so I was unemployed for the first time in my career. We sold the home we had just purchased and rented again.

David, who had graduated from BYU, worked a year at the NIH in Maryland and completed his first year of medical school, married Megan Osmond, an Air Force Nurse, in the Salt Lake Temple on August 3, 1999. After the wedding we headed for a job interview in Soda Springs, Idaho, which I readily accepted, wanting to get the boys in school.

Soda Springs is a town of 3,111, about 85% LDS, with six wards and a stake. Here it can get 20 degrees below, quite a change from Bullhead. I became the CEO of Caribou Memorial Hospital, owned by the county. It was losing money, but over the next 15 years it became very profitable and we spent millions, not needing to borrow, to make many improvements, including a new surgery center. I served as scoutmaster, high counselor over family history, Logan Temple worker, high priest group leader, and, as throughout my life, organist.

After retiring in 2015, Myrna and I were called to the Italy Milan Mission for 18 months, fulfilling a life goal. We worked in the office, I as finance secretary. Sorella Hoopes helped the missionaries with their permits and apartments, and recorded baptisms, and we catered many meals. We returned home Aug 2017, and are working on the rest of our life.