My Brief Personal History
I was born the youngest of seven children, five boys and two girls. The children were, Daniel, Larry, Jill, Hank, Draza, George and me, Wendell. My parents Daniel and Thella Brock were married during World War II.
We lived in the hills of Los Angeles, in a neighborhood called Echo Park. We lived on a long corner lot, at the intersection of Echo Park Avenue and Cerro Gordo Street. At one end up the very steep hill was the house, at the other end on the corner at the bottom of the hill was an old corner grocery store, which my father converted into his photographic studio. Between the two was a large empty lot.
As a lad, my friends and I, played in all the back empty lots in the neighborhood, which were many. We built forts from bamboo in these empty lots. We dug holes and built hiding places. We had dirt clod fights, played army, cowboys and Indians, and explored everywhere. With our friends we would hike to Elysian Park, two miles east and play there. At times we would ride bikes, but not so often, because of the steep hills we would spend more time pushing the bike up the hill. The hills were so steep they were too scary to ride down, so bikes we learned were more for flatlanders out in the valley. We loved to fish in Echo Park Lake which was just below Sunset Blvd about a mile and a half south. In Cub Scouts we would find frogs in the Los Angeles River and have frog jumping contests in the back of our van with the other boys. Life was a great adventure.
We had two apricot trees, one close to the house and one in the lot. Up the hill a bit was a row of bushes that were about twenty feet wide and extended from the street to the back of the property. We found we could tunnel in these bushes and have a great hideout. The lot is where we learned to work. It grew foxtails annually and we had to pull them to keep my father from getting a ticket from the fire marshal for a fire hazard. So every summer we would have to pull weeds. This I think is where we started the dirt clod fights. When you would grab a bunch of weeds and pull dirt would come up with the roots. You could throw it by holding on to the weed part and the weeds would act as a tail and they would really fly. We got so good at hitting targets that soon we would grab the trash can lids and use them as shields to protect ourselves. But every summer we would have to clear that lot. Tend to the apricot trees and grow a garden, etc.
My parents, were supportive as much as they could be of our interests and activities, allowing me to keep some chickens, this started in the summer after fourth grade. Mother helped me build the chicken coop. I remember mother taking me to buy a pair of wire cutters at Ace Hardware on Sunset Blvd. She was careful to explain about getting good tools that will last. I still have that pair of wire cutters in my tool bag and have used them on countless jobs.
My father taught me about keeping track of my eggs and after a while I had collected ten dozen eggs. He reminded me about the law of tithing and the need to pay tithing. So the next Sunday I took the dozen eggs to the bishop for tithing. He had never had anyone come and pay tithing in kind before and was not exactly sure what to do with them. So he asked Parley Harrison what he thought, and Parley offered to buy the eggs and the bishop took the money and put it in the tithing fund.
By the time, I was baptized and confirmed at age eight, I had been paying tithing all my life. This was real testimony builder to me of the blessing of paying tithing. First my bishop was very grateful that I would think of paying my tithing with eggs and accepted the eggs as an important contribution to the Lord’s work. He made sure that I, as a lad, knew that the Lord valued my eggs. I felt good about my contribution and knew it was the right thing to do. As a result I have always been motivated to pay tithing and it has been an important part of my life.
In High School I developed two loves, photography and backpacking. The two went well together. Dad would help me with photography, which insured straight A’s for my five required semesters! Terry my brother in law (Jill’s husband) would take me backpacking in the High Sierras. When I was 14 we started the John Muir Trail and every summer we would backpack 50-80 miles of the trail. I will always be grateful to Terry for the lessons learned on the trail and the time he spent with me, teaching me and helping me grow up.
At nineteen I left on a mission to the Texas Dallas Mission in January 1981. This is where I grew to love Texas and the people of this wonderful state. I served in Longview, Gainesville, Arlington, Abilene, Gilmer, Lewisville, and Alpine. I met wonderful people and had great companions. It was hard work being a missionary in the buckle of the Bible belt, but I am grateful for the opportunity to serve.
I came home and worked and started school first at Glendale Community College, then at BYU. While at BYU I majored in Family Financial Planning and Counseling. I love people and business and this seemed to be a good combination of the two. I also loved real estate and construction, so several of my elective classes were centered on those fields. My oldest brother, Dan, who lived in Arizona, was an architect and was involved in real estate a lot so this had great interest to me.
When I finished school I moved to Arizona to find a job, and hopefully a wife. While I had dated often, nothing worked out. After four years in Arizona I had an opportunity to come work with my other brother, Hank, and his financial planning firm in Salt Lake City, after a lot of prayer and pondering I made the move. Within six months I had met and married Taunie Rae Bitton. She has blessed my life in countless ways and she is my wonderful beautiful companion in everything I do. We have been blessed with six wonderful children, Charity, Schuyler, Abigail, Natalie, Omni, and Hannah.
After five years in Salt Lake City, we moved to Enoch, Utah, to have a little more room and because I have always had a greater love of southern Utah over northern Utah. The scenery is more to my liking, as I love photography, which is a hobby of mine, and it seemed to provide the right place to live. We lived there for eleven years before making the radical change to move to McKinney, Texas. Taunie had never lived outside of Utah before and we were very comfortable where we lived. Charity was graduating from High School and Schuyler was getting ready to start, so the timing was just right. We have been in Texas six years and we love Texas. The move to Texas has been a great blessing to our family and the growth of our children.
We lived in the hills of Los Angeles, in a neighborhood called Echo Park. We lived on a long corner lot, at the intersection of Echo Park Avenue and Cerro Gordo Street. At one end up the very steep hill was the house, at the other end on the corner at the bottom of the hill was an old corner grocery store, which my father converted into his photographic studio. Between the two was a large empty lot.
As a lad, my friends and I, played in all the back empty lots in the neighborhood, which were many. We built forts from bamboo in these empty lots. We dug holes and built hiding places. We had dirt clod fights, played army, cowboys and Indians, and explored everywhere. With our friends we would hike to Elysian Park, two miles east and play there. At times we would ride bikes, but not so often, because of the steep hills we would spend more time pushing the bike up the hill. The hills were so steep they were too scary to ride down, so bikes we learned were more for flatlanders out in the valley. We loved to fish in Echo Park Lake which was just below Sunset Blvd about a mile and a half south. In Cub Scouts we would find frogs in the Los Angeles River and have frog jumping contests in the back of our van with the other boys. Life was a great adventure.
We had two apricot trees, one close to the house and one in the lot. Up the hill a bit was a row of bushes that were about twenty feet wide and extended from the street to the back of the property. We found we could tunnel in these bushes and have a great hideout. The lot is where we learned to work. It grew foxtails annually and we had to pull them to keep my father from getting a ticket from the fire marshal for a fire hazard. So every summer we would have to pull weeds. This I think is where we started the dirt clod fights. When you would grab a bunch of weeds and pull dirt would come up with the roots. You could throw it by holding on to the weed part and the weeds would act as a tail and they would really fly. We got so good at hitting targets that soon we would grab the trash can lids and use them as shields to protect ourselves. But every summer we would have to clear that lot. Tend to the apricot trees and grow a garden, etc.
My parents, were supportive as much as they could be of our interests and activities, allowing me to keep some chickens, this started in the summer after fourth grade. Mother helped me build the chicken coop. I remember mother taking me to buy a pair of wire cutters at Ace Hardware on Sunset Blvd. She was careful to explain about getting good tools that will last. I still have that pair of wire cutters in my tool bag and have used them on countless jobs.
My father taught me about keeping track of my eggs and after a while I had collected ten dozen eggs. He reminded me about the law of tithing and the need to pay tithing. So the next Sunday I took the dozen eggs to the bishop for tithing. He had never had anyone come and pay tithing in kind before and was not exactly sure what to do with them. So he asked Parley Harrison what he thought, and Parley offered to buy the eggs and the bishop took the money and put it in the tithing fund.
By the time, I was baptized and confirmed at age eight, I had been paying tithing all my life. This was real testimony builder to me of the blessing of paying tithing. First my bishop was very grateful that I would think of paying my tithing with eggs and accepted the eggs as an important contribution to the Lord’s work. He made sure that I, as a lad, knew that the Lord valued my eggs. I felt good about my contribution and knew it was the right thing to do. As a result I have always been motivated to pay tithing and it has been an important part of my life.
In High School I developed two loves, photography and backpacking. The two went well together. Dad would help me with photography, which insured straight A’s for my five required semesters! Terry my brother in law (Jill’s husband) would take me backpacking in the High Sierras. When I was 14 we started the John Muir Trail and every summer we would backpack 50-80 miles of the trail. I will always be grateful to Terry for the lessons learned on the trail and the time he spent with me, teaching me and helping me grow up.
At nineteen I left on a mission to the Texas Dallas Mission in January 1981. This is where I grew to love Texas and the people of this wonderful state. I served in Longview, Gainesville, Arlington, Abilene, Gilmer, Lewisville, and Alpine. I met wonderful people and had great companions. It was hard work being a missionary in the buckle of the Bible belt, but I am grateful for the opportunity to serve.
I came home and worked and started school first at Glendale Community College, then at BYU. While at BYU I majored in Family Financial Planning and Counseling. I love people and business and this seemed to be a good combination of the two. I also loved real estate and construction, so several of my elective classes were centered on those fields. My oldest brother, Dan, who lived in Arizona, was an architect and was involved in real estate a lot so this had great interest to me.
When I finished school I moved to Arizona to find a job, and hopefully a wife. While I had dated often, nothing worked out. After four years in Arizona I had an opportunity to come work with my other brother, Hank, and his financial planning firm in Salt Lake City, after a lot of prayer and pondering I made the move. Within six months I had met and married Taunie Rae Bitton. She has blessed my life in countless ways and she is my wonderful beautiful companion in everything I do. We have been blessed with six wonderful children, Charity, Schuyler, Abigail, Natalie, Omni, and Hannah.
After five years in Salt Lake City, we moved to Enoch, Utah, to have a little more room and because I have always had a greater love of southern Utah over northern Utah. The scenery is more to my liking, as I love photography, which is a hobby of mine, and it seemed to provide the right place to live. We lived there for eleven years before making the radical change to move to McKinney, Texas. Taunie had never lived outside of Utah before and we were very comfortable where we lived. Charity was graduating from High School and Schuyler was getting ready to start, so the timing was just right. We have been in Texas six years and we love Texas. The move to Texas has been a great blessing to our family and the growth of our children.