I was born in 1920 in New Almeno, Kan. I grew up in Klamath Falls, Ore. In 1937, my father, Frank Schnabel, returned from Alaska, where he had sought work during the Great Depression. He told me and my brothers about an old burned-out sawmill boiler, engine and carriage that could be bought for $500 and thought that this could be an opportunity to lift ourselves out of the manual laboring class.
Bruce Ketchum has lived in more than 10 states in the past half-century. He's also put down roots in the Czech Republic and Germany. But he hasn't traveled because of the military.
