THE TRAPPINGS OF GENE MERRILL
Who would have thought: we would be in a state of ever accelerating time warp where years are flying by at an ever increasing speed and that our bodies conversely are decelerating, slowing down in a relentless state of composting. That being said, life 40 years post-graduation is a wonderful time to be alive. Life is good.
Left California for Colorado for college & snow skiing or maybe it was for skiing and college. I fell in love with the mountains and never moved back to the coast. Graduated from UNC back before the rocks got hard. Taught a work study program for the outcast type high school students for three years in Denver. Loved the students, not the administration(feelings were mutual to be sure).
Packed up the truck(everyone in Colorado drives a truck) & moved to Breckenridge elevation 10,200 ft. where I learned carpentry, downhill skiing & bumming 101. Spent ten years there as a bearded longhaired, knuckle dragging carpenter. Ah… but then I discovered southwest Colorado and the South San Juan Mountains, more snow, less winter & horses, the freedom of telemark skiing the back countries of Wolf Creek and Molas Passes was the new thrill.
Met Lee Anne my Colorado future bride horsin’ around, she is my love and most wonderful partner and best friend and after 30 years she is still teaching me how to sit a saddle. For the first few years of our marriage I was still pounding nails, doing horse trips into the wilderness area, hunting, fishing and having cute little babies – living the life of self-indulgence, etc.
God gave me a wakeup call when a construction scaffold broke and I fell 18 feet head first(yeh, if I hadn’t landed on my head I’d have hurt myself). Should have died instantly but the Good Lord had other plans. After a Flight for Life, several surgeries, 7 vertebrae spinal fusion, a year plus rehab, I finally got it. When God whispers, I listen (1 Kings 19: 11-13). My rowdy days ended then(sort of) as did my construction vocation. But when one door closes a new door will open.
Soon after Lee Anne (the brains of the outfit) and I started a biological insect control company. We started doing fly control with tiny parasitic wasps in cattle feed lots, horse operations and dairies. You just haven’t lived until you are chased by a deranged dairy bull or slip knee deep in a manure bog in a 50,000 head feed lot. But those tiny wasps taught me something, they controlled filth flies better than a twice a week aerial chemical spray.
We then co-founded a family owned company Merrill & Riggs and M&R Durango Inc was formed. Twenty seven years later we have had a good run producing beneficial insects & organisms for non-toxic insect control. Worked with wheat farmers, greenhouses, zoos, almond groves, banana plantations, yada, yada, you get the idea.
Recently, we reduced our product line to exclusively manufacturing and selling stateside and internationally, our stellar product, Nolo Bait™, an EPA registered non-toxic biological suppression agent that attacks grasshoppers. The active ingredient is a naturally occurring microsporidian that only affects grasshoppers. It has now taken the next step in that we grow the spore at our insectary. It is doubtful that we will get rich “killing bugs with bugs” but it is fascinating work and I’m sure our former Biology teacher Andy Crom would agree.
It has been an exciting run and a good life. We are happy to be nestled up against the mountains where the aspen are in their full golden glory and the first snow has blanketed the mountain peaks. Blessed to have horses in the pasture & a full pond. But the best is our three daughters all happy and healthy and the gaggle of six grandkids. Imagine this, grandon’s names Zeke, Zion, Zelek and Jackson…kept in line by granddaughters Grace and Madison. And though I am snowshoeing now life is great & I have been truly blessed.
All you Vikings that have endured this read, May the Lord bless you & keep you.
Gene Merrill/class of ’64
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