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Today's Featured Biography
Ivan Hance
Greetings from Salem, Oregon. I tried to go to UT after high school but I was unable to write well enough to carry English or Western Civilization. I guess that’s not surprising since I didn’t write a single English paper in High School! I went into the Army on March 18th, 1973 and served three years with C Battery, 3rd Battalion Airborne Vulcan, 4th Air Defense Artillery, in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I was married the first time on December 17th, 1976 and divorced five years later, the marriage being the greatest mistake of my whole life. Went to work at Tennessee Valley Authority as a Steam Plant Operator in January of 1978. In the Student Generating Plant Operator training program, I learned to write and to study, but didn’t learn to spell. Wrecked a Fat Bob Harley in 1982, I broke both ankles. I was in a wheel chair for 3 months, crutches for 3 more, so I quit TVA after I used up my sick leave, and went back to UT to become a Cartographer, Geography Major. I was in The Tennessee ANG, ROTC, Scabbard and Blade, Honor Roll every Quarter, met my future wife Sabrina, and then came down with Sarcoidosis. Isn’t life rough! No ROTC money, I was not physically well enough to work, low priority student during the Regan years, no student loan available. I was clean out of luck. Laid low for 6 months, however with the help of prednisone, the Sarcoidosis was controlled, then in temporary remission, but I suffered with it off and on for the next 20 years. I went back to work at TVA at Paradise Steam Plant in Kentucky. Contacted my dear love Sabrina again, I transferred to John Sevier Steam Plant near Rogersville, Tennessee. Sabrina and I were married on April 26th 1986. We went on a Skiing Honeymoon to Sunshine Resort near Banff, Alberta. My first son, Ivan M. Hance, III, was born on September 3, 1988. I passed my Unit Operators Test and Cross Trained as a Substation Operator at TVA. In October 1991, I started work with the Corps of Engineers, as a Hydro Power Plant Operator at Chief Joseph Dam in Bridgeport, Washington. Sabrina, Mac and I moved to Okanogan, Washington and soon my second son, Eric William Hance, was born on April 4, 1992. I met Dave Myers soon after and enjoyed fly fishing, grouse hunting, he was a second father to me, my kids called him Grandpa Dave. My own dear Father passed away with Lung Cancer in 1996. I went to work for the Bonneville Power Administration as a DC Substation Operator at Celilo DC Converter Station in November of 2000. My dear Mother passed away in 2001. I was an assistant football coach for my oldest son’s Junior High Football Team. Accepted a job at Chemawa Substation in September of 2003, no more shift work, which I worked for 22 years! My last job was the Chief Substation Operator of the BPA Salem District which I held for 4 years. Now I’ve retired as of 31 August 2013. I’ve worked for Uncle Sam for 36+ years. The last few months were spent recovering from left ankle replacement surgery. I like to go big game hunting, shooting, fishing for trout and steelhead, and crabbing. That’s my short life story.
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