My Life and Times - William B. Wray - Bog

My Life and Times is the narrative of a life both ordinary and extraordinary. The author grew up in the Midwest in a lower-middle-class working household. His immediate forebears lost their jobs and occupations, homes, and money in the Great Depression. His more distant ancestors emigrated from many parts of northern Europe and settled in what would become or was Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Although the author's family had little money, as the first-born of four children, it was understood that he would go to college. In due course, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Utah, obtained a PhD in economic geology from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. His professional career included work in the natural resources industries and in the law profession.
The author describes himself, his experiences and observations about life over three-quarters of a century, in a candid, authentic, and accurate way. His life has been that of ethnic mainstream White Protestant America, a category and subject rarely written about. He has observed from the vantagepoint of an ordinary person the social and economic environment of the times. Supported by a personal diary, correspondence, and photographs, this account is both factually accurate and objective. The story is a record of how his life and the lives of those around him including many relatives, friends, and associates evolved over time, as American and world societies developed and changed.