At seven weeks

      I was named Steven Clinger Stoker (Clinger for my mother and Stoker for my father. The 'Steven' was all for me).
      We left the hospital and went home to Aberdeen after a short time of rest and pampering (not real Pampers, for they had not yet been invented). I was not fussy about living arrangements in those early days. After all, I had no frame of reference. Seemed OK to me. I spent my first days in a baby buggy (you know, kind of a portable display case for babies). Later, I had a crib (more like a cage to use after the newness wears off and the cute isn't so cute anymore).

Willard Max Stoker              Eva Rebecca Clinger

     My parents met at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. My mother was a regular student there. The U.S. Army had sent my father there for training. They met in a snowball fight, and dated a few times before my father was sent to California. Later, he was sent to New Jersey and then to Camp Crowder, Missouri. He and my mother got to know each other through the mail. During a two week furlough, he went home to Utah to visit family, but traveled to Moscow to give my mother a diamond. He proposed to her on Armistice Day in 1944, shortly after her 19th birthday. After the engagement, my father returned to Missouri. Since his position there looked firm, and since he missed his fiance so much, they decided not to wait any longer. My mother took a bus to Columbus, Kansas and they were married there by a judge. After a wedding dinner of baked beans and a night in Joplin, Missouri, they set up housekeeping in a rented room in Neosho with a lot of love and a hot plate. That lasted only a couple of weeks before they were both devastated by my father's orders to overseas duty. He soon left the United States, bound for Japanese waters, and my mother went home to Aberdeen, where she began to teach school.

Mr. & Mrs. Stoker

     My father began a trip that would take 46 days. After additional training in Hawaii, my father went to the Caroline Islands to "hitch" a ride to the Ryuku Islands with a destroyer escort. He began the last leg of his overseas journey on July 26th, 1945. During that last leg of his trip, on his way to an island near Okinawa, The United states dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. The first was August 6th on Hiroshima, a city of more than 300,000. The second was three days later on Nagasaki, a city of about 250,000. The death and destruction was unlike anything the world had known. By the time my father reached his destination, Japan had sued for peace! The war in the Pacific was over! He spent his remaining overseas tour on the small island of Ie Shima, just off Okinawa.

Max in his Jeep at the motor pool on Eo Shima

 Upon my father's return to the United States, he returned to Aberdeen and settled in with my soon-to-be mother. They purchased a small house on 2nd West in Aberdeen, right next to the highway that led out of town toward American Falls. It was the first house they owned and it meant a lot to them. They built cupboards from a kit and put in a sink. Mom was once again cooking on a hot plate, but used a coal stove in the basement for baking and canning. When the weather permitted, they planted grass and a garden. It was a cute, comfortable, and cozy little home, and in that cold December of 1946, they welcomed me into it.
      Dad worked as a plasterer for awhile. He also worked as a plumber. He didn't really care for this kind of work, though. There didn't seem to be many alternatives around Aberdeen, so in 1948, we moved to Utah, where my father worked at a steel plant. They bought a new home in Spanish Fork.

Spanish Fork House

     In January of 1949, my brother, Mike, was born in Payson, Utah. Soon after, my parents had to sell their home. The post-war economy forced my father to once again move, this time to the Tooele Ordnance Depot (T.O.D.). We lived at TOD Park for a short time. I had a tendency to run off and throw rocks at trains and that worried my parents. Dad decided to build a fence in our back yard to keep me in. I even helped! Nevertheless, I managed to escape anyway, which may have contributed to my parents' decision to return to Aberdeen.

"Hey, Pop! Why do we need a fence?"

     In the winter of 1949-1950, Uncle Leland brought a big truck to Utah and loaded our entire household onto it. I do remember that day. I believe my mother was ecstatic to be moving back to Aberdeen. My father was going to become a farmer. We moved into a house on Beach Road, south of town, where Mom had lived as a little girl.
      The place was fantastic! There was a lawn out front, and trees. There was a big poplar tree in front of the house. We creatively named it — the Big Tree! There were rosebushes, chicken coop, granary, corrals, barn, haystacks, an old potato cellar, ditch banks, and eighty wonderful acres to run in. There were trees to climb, too. Of course, we were too small to climb "the Big Tree," but it had an old tire on a rope for swinging so it was not ignored.

The older Stoker kids at play at the new place

  It was while living here that my sister, Becky, and my brothers, David, Dorian and Paul were born.

Ready for Church

      Over the next few years, I went through the Aberdeen school system, being very careful to do as little as possible academically and trying to fly "under the radar" so as not to raise anyone's expectations. I was active in the music department and formed a group that I called The Notations. We sang many of the folk songs, ballads, and even popular songs of the day. I graduated from Aberdeen High in 1965, attended a year at Ricks College, where I majored in music and continued with a new version of The Notations . We did our own concerts, as well as performed at school assemblies around eastern Idaho (ie. Rigby, Rexburg, Malad, Westside and Aberdeen). 

  AHS Senior Photo

The Notations

(of Ricks College)

Gary Beus, Don Adams, Steve Stoker

I graduated from Aberdeen High in 1965, attended a year at Ricks College, and then joined the United States Navy when I grew tired of attending classes. I thought perhaps I could serve like my father had done. The war in Vietnam had been escalating for years and we were fully entrenched in it. Ironically, Uncle Sam did not send me to Vietnam right away! They must have assumed that I still liked attending classes because they sent me to school!

Boot Camp Graduation

      I went through boot camp at the U.S. Naval Training Center in San Diego, California. After graduation, I returned there for Basic Electricity/Electronics Training, which I completed in February of 1967. Then I went to Treasure Island Naval Station, located in the middle of San Francisco Bay. I attended Electronics Technician School for a year and in April of 1968, I completed a school on maintaining a specific air search radar system.
      Upon completion of radar school, I was ordered to the USS Eldorado, an amphibious force flagship, but after only one day, I was sent to Boat Support Unit One at Coronado, California. I learned to maintain and operate additional electronic equipment as I trained to become part of a riverboat crew destined for Vietnam. I served aboard a "Nasty" class PTF. It was a small plywood boat, about 80 feet long, with two huge engines and top speeds that pushed 60 knots.

The "Nasty"

      After a few weeks, the USS Eldorado requested that I be returned to them, for they were about to lose the only technician they had who could maintain their air search radar system. They needed me.
      I spent nearly five years on that vessel, which included five campaigns in Vietnamese waters. There were other duties as well, not the least of which was participation in the negotiations for the return of the crew of the USS Pueblo, which had been captured by the North Koreans.

USS Eldorado (AGC-11)

Re-enlistment ceremony aboard the Eldorado

      While serving aboard the USS Eldorado, I met my wife, Peggy, a San Diego girl who worked at a company called Logicon . We were married in Las Vegas on Feb. 29th (a leap year) in 1972. We bought a home in Mira Mesa and watched as it was being built. It was a new community under development with very few homes, a gas station, and a market. (It seems to be the center of town now.) I worked for two years at the Combat Systems Training Center on Point Loma and held a second job in a company called Precision Metrology in San Diego.

There was time for work..........and time for play!

      When my shore duty ended, I was sent to the USS England, a guided missile frigate, which I met in the Philippines. It was hard to leave my wife and young daughter, Kimberly, behind and return to the waters of Asia. Kimberly was born in April of 1973. I had not even had the time to learn how to be a dad, so I missed my little family very much. After returning to San Diego, I traded duty with a technician aboard the USS John Paul Jones, a guided missile-equipped destroyer. He wanted to go to Bremerton shipyard with the USS England and I wanted to go to Long Beach with the USS John Paul Jones. The Bureau of Naval Personnel approved our "swap" and I was able to commute between Long Beach and my home in San Diego. The arrangement allowed me to spend three of every four weekends at home with my family.

      USS England (DLG-22)               USS John Paul Jones (DDG-32)

      Upon leaving that ship, I became an instructor at the Electronics Technician School at Great Lakes, Illinois and I bought a home in Waukegan, Illinois. My family had grown with the birth of my second daughter, Christy, in the latter part of 1976.
      During the years of the Vietnam war, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and suffered many of its symptoms, but I think the cold weather of Illinois exacerbated the condition. It is a devastating, crippling disease, and it's cause is still unknown. I knew my Navy days were numbered, but I held on as best I could.
     As my physical condition worsened, I was promoted to Chief Petty Officer. I left the classroom and became part of a development team that created a new curriculum for the electronics schools. I wrote the exams for all of Electronics Technician School and was awarded the Secretary of the Navy Achievement Medal, in addition to several commendation letters and Master Training Specialist (a recognition of the top 5% of Navy educators). I also received a letter for helping to quell student riots in 1979.
      While still serving on active duty at Great Lakes, North Chicago, I attended classes for eight hours a day on Saturdays and Sundays for a period of 16 months. In 1980, I was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Education from Southern Illinois University.

Graduation from Southern Illinois University

      In March of 1982, a medical board determined that I was no longer physically fit for duty and I was placed on the Temporarily Disabled Retired List (TDRL) and left active duty. Five years later, I retired and was placed on the Permanently Disabled Retired List (PDRL). I was officially classified as a 100% service-connected disabled veteran just prior to my navy retirement. 
      From 1982 to 1990, I worked as an instructor for both the College of Lake County and San Diego Community College. Both schools were contracted to teach electronics at the Great Lakes Naval Station.
      I worked as a civilian instructor for eight years, teaching electronics and mathematics to naval personnel. Peggy worked in a variety of positions, some of which included work at the CPO/Officer Club at Great Lakes Naval Station, clerking on a Kmart service desk, and some waitressing work. She attended some University of Wisconsin classes and qualified to supervise canning operations at the church-sponsored cannery in Naperville, Illinois. After more classes, she became a successful real estate salesperson. Life was good!
      In 1988, my mother convinced me to accompany her, along with my Aunt Jackie and Aunt Laurel, to Athens, Greece to see a doctor, a microbiologist. His nutrition-based cancer treatment had shown positive side effects on arthritic symptoms of some cancer patients who also suffered with arthritis. Laurel had multiple sclerosis, and went for the treatments in the hope that they also might help her symptoms. For two weeks, the good doctor came to our hotel room every day at lunchtime. Laurel and I endured daily injections of the doctor's nutrient-laden serum. I assumed that niacin was part of the serum, as those injections left us "beet red," hot, and exhausted for hours. I do not believe Laurel enjoyed any positive effects, but I have always believed that I did. It was subtle, to be sure, but after I returned to my routine medical regimen, I was soon removed from all arthritis drugs. After years of gold injections, penicillamine, and steroids, my rheumatologist determined that my disease was in a state of dormancy. I have never again had active inflammation in my joints. However, the damage was already done, and in the latter part of 1988, I had both knees replaced at Lutheran General Hospital in Chicago. Those surgeries occurred seven weeks apart. It was a tough time.
       Soon after, we began a journey through even tougher times. My wife's mother, Lori, came to live with us in December of 1988. She was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease and seldom even recognized her daughter, let alone the rest of us. Peggy had to give up her promising real estate career to care for her mother and, as she did, we became more aware that I could not maintain my work much longer either as my condition worsened. My hips had been destroyed by disease and ambulation became almost impossible, even with new knees.
      During Christmas break in 1989, we bought a home in Tempe, Arizona and on March 1, 1990, we began our move back to the west. Since arriving in Arizona, I have had a gall bladder removed, both hips replaced, and an ankle fused and screwed together. I have learned to live in a recliner and to use a wheelchair. I relish the computer age and how my computer provides me a "window to the world." I became part of an Alzheimer Caregiver Support Group via computer, which led to my first "Aberdeen Stories" which were written in an effort to divert caregivers' attention from the hum-drum lives of caring for their family members.
      After many years of suffering, Peggy's mother died in January of 2000. It was long road - one that can never be understood by anyone that has not traveled it themselves.
      We remain busy. I continue to write and research genealogy while Peggy does anything and everything, much to the amazement of friends and family.
      Our daughters have grown and left the nest. The oldest, Kimberly, married a forester (and seasonal wildfire fighter) who works for the Arizona Land Department. They have provided us with three wonderful grandchildren, Sierra, Jeffrey, and Mackenzie. They live a couple of hours away in Chino Valley. Chris, our youngest, has become an R.N. and works as a pool nurse at Arizona Spine & Joint Hospital and as a registry nurse at various other hospitals around the Valley of the Sun. She works primarily in orthopedic and cardiac units, but has also gained experience in Arizona's only burn unit and at a gender re-assignment hospital. She owns a home in Mesa, just a few minutes away.
      During our ride on the roller coaster of life, we have learned to enjoy the high points and to realize that the plunge to the low points only propels us to more high points. All in all, life is good!