The Grade Stood.
The Bird Honked.

I’ve always wanted to write a book. I started with theory. It was so boring.

Then I started writing stories.

The first was about my brother Ben and an ice cream cart we pushed around our neighborhood as kids. More followed. Early jobs. Summers in Glacier. Family. Friends who became family. My students. People and moments that had stayed with me, some for decades.

The stories span forty years of my life, from fourteen to fifty-four. From washing dishes and riding my bike home to carrying a yellow parrot into a college classroom.

Eventually, the stories began to fit together. Teaching became the bookends. Early work led into family. Some stories had to go.

I could see more in these people than I had understood at the time. A supervisor I’d found unreasonable. A mother whose decisions made more sense years later. A father I was still coming to know. I could also see how much they had given me.

The Grade Stood. The Bird Honked. is a short book about work, family, and the people we come to know. It’s a memoir, and it’s also a management book because so much of working with people involves figuring one another out. There’s humor in it, some difficult moments, and a lot of gratitude.

I started with stories about my life. Writing them helped me understand more of the people in it.

I hope reading them brings someone to mind for you.