Not sure I am ready to write my life story!!!  But here goes.

Gail Jones Sprentall — class of 1974.  First of all, I lie about my age and have been doing that since I turned 30.

Playing clarinet and bass clarinet in the amazing FHS band has played a large part of my story.  I followed my high school sweetheart to college at CSU in Fort Collins.  Rather than choosing to major in music or interior design I got practical and chose business administration in order to become employable wherever life took me.  My husband, Bob Sprentall FHS class of 1973, pursued a natural resource management degree.

Bob and I married after college and embarked upon his USDA Forest Service career which took us to small-town Oregon temporarily and then back to the mountains of Colorado.  I was able to maintain accounting and tax business wherever we went.  While in the mountains of Colorado I loved working for Vail Resorts and was part of the opening of the Beaver Creek ski area while Bob worked for the Forest Service.  Shortly after that, our daughter Malinda was born and I loved being her mom and still having time for my own career pursuits in accounting for small businesses.

A few years later, Bob’s career demanded we move to northwest Nebraska to the delightful town of Chadron.  Our expectation of being there for only one year turned into 16 years!  It was the perfect small college town atmosphere to raise a daughter and allow us each to pursue our careers.  My greatest treat has been to share the love of music with her and celebrate her national achievements in clarinet and piano.  After her high school graduation we moved to Douglas Wyoming for eight years. . . career choices. . . Following his accumulation of 30 years with the government, we escaped into early retirement and managing the properties we accumulated through the years in the mountains of Colorado and in Moab Utah.  At present we call home Hot Springs SD close to our daughter and two grandkids.

My life is filled with music (community band), hiking, bicycling, kayaking, golfing, traveling, and being a ski bum in winter.  We make ourselves available to participate in the lives of our daughter Malinda (Vice President Chadron State College), husband Bryan (Owner Farm Bureau Insurance), grandson Brayden (all-around athlete and trombone player) and granddaughter Kyleigh (silly smiley blonde playing basketball, volleyball, and softball).

After growing up in a larger population high school where I found my niche, I have learned to love the connections of living in a smaller community where I see familiar, friendly faces each day and pursue new experiences!