Back in 2021, I received an email from a man, Joe Storer, who grew up in Iona, Idaho.   He was 4 or 5 years older than me and lived across the street from our first house in Iona.  At the time mentioned in this email, I would have been quite young and Dad would have been very busy helping his father with the Iona Grocery Store.   I know we sometimes talk about Dad’s temper and some of his funny ways, but this story tells you about the type of man he was.  He was caring, loving and was always thinking of others in the best possible way.  I know that most of you have already read this story, but I wanted to put it out here for all to read again, so that we don’t forget how great this man was.

Richard,

You are very close to me.   I bowl every Thursday night at Jack and Jills Bowling alley in American Fork.  I wanted to know if your Father is still living and if so how can I contact him.

Your Father is one of those truly priceless individuals that has touched the life directly and indirectly of Millions of People from all over the world.

I will never forget as a boy growing up in Iona that I was extremely small for my size and had zero confidence in my athletic abilities. My Father was a great Man who took use fishing and hunting every weekend during those seasons, but never had much time to spend teaching me about sports.  I don’t know how or why he understood this.

I know you and Doug would have been babies at the time, if you were even born, but your Dad, I believe, had the greatest love of anyone I ever knew for the young men of Iona.  I remember one afternoon in early spring sitting on my front steps of my house (when your family lived across the street) with my baseball mitt, most likely trying to figure which hand I should put it on. Your Dad came home from working at your Family Market and called me over to your house.   He then proceeded to talk to me about Baseball and then proceeded to tell that when the Baseball season began that year that I was going to be his starting Junior Pitcher for his Baseball team. He then proceeded to spend time with me almost every day until I was able to be his starting Junior Pitcher and my cousin Dale was the starting Senior pitcher and my Brother Rick was our catcher.

Looking back, I think that I most likely stunk but your dad never let me believe that fact. Rather he supported me and continued to work with me until by the Season that I could be a starting Pitcher, due to having a strong arm, but when I did was extremely wild. It was at this point that I moved to play left field where I started a lifetime love for the game and I developed confidence.

While I never played beyond high school, that confidence carried me a long way from Idaho and the power to achieve great success as an International Sales VP selling High Tech Medical products and being part of the launch of items like the pulse oximeter and high-end imaging equipment.

I have mentioned this story at every conference that I have spoken at, to demonstrate how the attention of one man, not famous or rich in the things of this earth, is rich in the lives he indirectly touched.  So many, like me, have achieved so many things by the fact that your dad had that unique talent of seeing in the face of young boys the qualities of the men we could become and reached out and guided so many of us to become men of value.

Add to that the love your mother always showed to all of us.   They touched the lives of so many people on this planet by seeing in us young men, that spark we never even knew we had.

Today when greatness seems to be all about how much you earn, I am so thankful to have grown up with men like your dad and mine that helped us to become so much more than we would ever believe we could be.  I hope that we can give back as much as they did. So if he is still here let me know as I would love to call and tell him how important he was in my life. If you are ever around Jack and Jills on a Thursday night just ask for me as every knows me and I will be easy to find.

If you ever have time for lunch please give a call and be my guest, however do so quickly as we’ll be moving back to Florida in a couple of weeks. You can call me anytime at 954-540-0515. Joe Storer