Host Keith Porter brings us the inside story of a Chaplain’s life. The third child of a Southern Baptist minister who was a World War II veteran, Norris moved six times as a child and graduated from high school in Atascadero. Influenced by his father’s life, he attended Baylor University and Golden Gate Seminary, became a pastor who was serving in Stockton, California, in 1989 when a horrific school shooting occurred. Already a reserve chaplain in the Air Force, he attended an internship at UC Davis to become a certified clinical pastoral chaplain in hospitals and hospice service. He was deployed by the Air Force in the U.S. and abroad in Turkey and Irag, where service in a combat hospital brought profound experiences in dealing with tragic loss. Back home in reserve military service, he was assigned to teams bringing the bad news of an airman’s death to a grieving family. Norris now writes about his experiences as an author and columnist, and regularly speaks to groups about his experiences and insights. His columns and books are available at his website, www.thechaplain.net

Host Brian Buckley gives us an insider’s perspective on the life and times of retired dentist and Camptonville community activist Dr. Richard DicKard. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, raised in Southern California, spent time on a ranch and looking for copper and gold in Arizona. Studying Physics at UCLA brought a confrontation with Calculus, and a realization that his interests were more about working with people than being a lab scientist. A great score on a dental aptitude exam led to a dental degree from UCSF Medical Center. Marriage brought a partnership effort working with Vietnamese families in the Central Valley, a year in Florence, Italy, and a dental clinic for indigenous folks in Arizona. The young couple looked at many small communities as candidates for a permanent home, found our area to have great cultural assets and geography, purchased raw land and built their home in 1976 in rural Camptonville, and opened a dental practice in Nevada City. A bias for community-building resulted in thirty-five years on the Camptonville School board, a current position on the Camptonville Community Services District, which oversees the volunteer fire department and cemetery, water and parks and recreation districts. Spare time is often focused on fishing, and more explicitly, on catching fish by learning to “call” them!

Host Lori Burkart Frank brings us a glimpse into the life of Paul Cummings; where he came from, and how he became a key player in keeping Nevada County safe during emergencies. Growing up in San Diego, he hoped to become a military pilot. A degree in aviation and a pilot’s license resulted in work as an air traffic controller and on to a commission as an Air Force Navigator. Paul’s two kids were born at military bases but have become very much at home in Nevada County. Closing his Air Force career as a mission planner for the U2 at Beale AFB, the family found Nevada County’s geography, rural, laid-back life style and relatively low humidity provided a great landing place. In his current position, Paul oversees a group of folks working to mitigate emergencies in our area, including--but not exclusively--wildfires. He demonstrated complete confidence in the professionals involved in law enforcement and fire suppression, underscored by the fact that an active fire with evacuation warnings broke out in South Nevada County just before the live interview began and he was able to provide real-time updates and advice. He also provided many suggestions for all of us to better prepared and asks all local folks to stay in touch through ReadyNevadaCounty.com

Host Suzanne Webb moderates an in-depth introduction of Stuart Baker, new Executive Director of Nevada City Chamber of Commerce. Stuart grew up in Taos, New Mexico, where his first language was Dutch, spoken at home with his mother who’d immigrated from Holland to marry is Texas-born father, a travelling salesman whom she’d met on a holiday in Taos. The family later moved to a more benign climate in Santa Barbara, where Stuart attended UCSB, majoring in Communications with minor in Art History. His first “job” as a youngster was gardening in Holland, where he learned to appreciate year-round rainfall! His first “real” work was in West Oakland, supervising a crew of young adults, all people of color, working on trails and outdoor projects. He is passionate about alternative transportation, including bicycling and ride-sharing and other ways to reduce the environmental impact of our current transportation methods. He first became acquainted with and fell in love with Nevada City when he attended a program at California College of Ayurveda here. After one month in his new role, he’s focused on many projects and issues for the Nevada City Chamber, including producing major events like Summer Nights and Victorian Christmas, helping local businesses navigate the many issues they face, inviting new appropriate businesses to town, managing pandemic-related financial challenges and welcoming volunteers for office and event support.

Host Taylor Wolfe leads our exploration of the life and times of Kim Blix, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator in Nevada County’s Department of Public Health, and Operations Co-chief of the County’s Emergency Operations Center. She’s also a volunteer with Nevada County Search and Rescue. Kim’s parents brought their family to Nevada County when she was a “wee bairn,” and she attended school at Deer Creek, Seven Hills, and Nevada Union. Off to UC Davis for education, to live a couple of years in Colorado, and extensive travel to fulfill a desire to understand other cultures that took her to England, Spain, Nepal, and to Uganda as a volunteer with Dr. Scott Kellerman’s clinic. In 2013 she closed the circle and returned to Nevada County. Her fresh adult perspective on her childhood home caused her to fall in love with the beauty, culture, dynamism and compassion of our community. From positions with FREED and the County Department of Social Services, Kim joined the Department of Public Health in late 2019 and has experienced pretty much nonstop emergency conditions, first from PSPS power outages, followed almost immediately by the Covid pandemic. She looks forward to emerging from crisis conditions so she can work with the County’s agencies and nonprofit service organizations to take all they’ve learned and experienced and together plan ways to build a  better community for all of us.

Host Keith Porter leads the investigation into the life and times of Brain Terhorst. An aspiring archaeologist when a medical condition limited his physical activity, he switched to the field of historic preservation and ultimately to radio broadcasting. He started volunteering at KVMR in 1991 and rose to become General Manager. In 2007 he was recruited to become General Manager at North State Public Radio in Chico until returning to Nevada County in 2016, joining the KVMR Board of Directors and becoming Board President in 2020. Brian hosts Harmony Ridge, an eclectic music show broadcast every other Thursday. Having been mis-diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy for 26 years, he now lives with and supports others with a rare and serious condition, Pompe Disease.

Host Brian Buckley helps us trace the life journey of Trisha Tillotson, who’s just being promoted from her position as Public Works Director to become head of the Nevada County’s entire Community Development Agency. A local girl since landing here at one year old, she attended local schools and graduated from Nevada Union. She went away to earn her Civil Engineering at CSU Chico and worked her way back home to live, work and help build and enrich our community. Trisha’s education as a Civil Engineer made her an ideal candidate for Public Works Director for the City of Grass Valley, subsequently the same role for Nevada County, and soon she’ll be running the entire Community Development Agency with a wide number of responsibilities, programs and departments. She especially enjoyed growing up in Nevada County, and always intended to come back with husband John and raise their family here. She and John designed and built their own home, with only a very few things they wish they had done differently! The climate, proximity to the ocean and skiing, and family in the area made “coming home” desirable and inevitable. She especially hopes that her daughter and son, now in the military, will also choose to settle into the community and raise their own families here

Host Lori Burkart Frank leads our discovery of the life and times of Susan Clarabut, a woman with education in her blood;  Grandmother, Mom, Aunts and Uncles were all teachers. A former teacher, principal and Assistant Superintendent, she was elected to the Nevada County Board of Education in 2020. Susan would probably never have left her work in a one-room school in the Redwoods, but her husband was transferred here in his work with CalFire and they’ve adapted well and lived in Nevada County for 40 years. Her time as a waitress taught her a great deal about getting along with people. Like many other teachers, she says teaching kids is the easy part of the job; dealing with all the other people involved, from parents to administrators, sometimes not so much! Heartfelt memories include an eighth grader telling her the book they’d read was the first one he ever finished. For Susan, education is about connection and trust. She now is very involved with teacher induction, mentoring new teachers coming into Nevada County. She was appointed to temporarily fill a vacancy on the county Board, when seeing the need to keep our education free of biases and extraneous agendas convinced her—quite out of character--to stand for election to the Board of Education. Campaigning wasn’t fun, but others stepped up to help and she’s now glad she did it. She’s enjoying learning about the entire county and her board’s role in overseeing it’s nine independent school districts. Susan encourages parents and community members to come to meetings and bring concerns and ideas into the discussion. One of Susan’s favorite community involvements is working as Outreach Coordinator for the Sierra Wine and Grape Growers Association.

Host Brian Buckley leads a deep dive into the life and times of a passionate and innovative educator. There’s a deeper work going on in education that doesn’t hit the news about closed classrooms and online learning. One great example is Heather’s “dual immersion” bi-lingual magnet program at Bell Hill Academy in Grass Valley. Growing up in a family of teachers in Redding, California, she discovered her love of languages and after thinking about other life directions, eventually found her future as an educator. She perfected her conversational Spanish while living in Oaxaca and teaching English in a private school. Back in California, favorite memories include building social coffee time into a sense of community while teaching ESL classes for adults, and helping a student obtain a final paycheck from an employer who was trying to cheat her out of it. While some envision educational administration as paper-pushing, Heather finds it an opportunity to lead others into performing effectively as a team. As a long-time visitor to Nevada County with friends here, it was an easy decision to apply and accept her Principalship at Bell Hill Academy in 2017.

Host Keith Porter leads the exploration of the life and times of a creative person whose great interest in life has always been understanding why people do what they do. Michael studied Psychology and Philosophy, and has developed and written about a unique approach called CARE Parenting—for Caring Adults and Respectful Environments. He’s an active counselor and therapist, a volunteer counselor for inmates at Folsom Prison, and a DJ at KVMR who loves exploring the outer reaches of R&B and Soul music. Michael emphasizes the importance of helping adults change behaviors as the key to successful child and adolescent development. His greatest wish to benefit our community is for all of us to get involved in creating positive experiences for our youth.