have many interesting experiences
while with these agencies assigned
as a Homicide Investigator, Fugitive
Warrant Officer, Critical Incident
Commander, Patrol and Criminal
Investigation Division Lieutenant
and Sheriff’s Department Captain. I
officially retired from law enforcement
last year.
Q: What is your favorite book?
A: I have had a lifelong passion for
history and I enjoy reading historically
correct novels.
Q: What do you do to chill?
A: For the past 30 years, along with a
number of friends and family, I have
hunted elk, bear, alligator and deer,
in Alaska, Colorado, Louisiana and
upstate New York. I especially enjoy
the thrill of bear hunting and the
physical challenge of hunting elk in
the high country of Colorado.
Q: What person from history would
you most like to have lunch with?
A: John Macghie, immigrated to
Ulster, Ireland, from Kirkcudbright,
Scotland, and died in 1617. He is
interned in Leckpatrick Cemetery just
south of Londonderry in Northern
Ireland.
Q: What’s your favorite hobby?
A: My hobby is genealogy. I work
with several cousins who live in
different parts of the U.S. as well as
Ireland and Scotland. Our effort has
been to discover the history of our
paternal family. Together with my
cousins, this has led us to visit Ireland
and Scotland several times. We have
an extensive paper trail going back
hundreds of years, and because of
this extensive documentation we have
been selected by Family Tree DNA to
take part in several research projects.
The results of those projects have
proven to be a huge benefit to our
research. Yes, you will find ancestors
that were scoundrels and some that
were heroes, but I believe knowing
them, what hardships, as well as
the pleasures they endured, will
help a person to better understand
themselves. I can trace my paternal
family to the 1200s and my maternal
to the 1500s, finding numerous
kinships to smugglers, frontiersmen
and presidents.
Q. What is the one thing that makes
you happy?
A: Being retired. To me, it is having
the ability to do what I want to do,
when I want to do it, travel and spend
time with family and friends.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Gary Don Elders
Retired, chief cook and bottle
washer
Q: What do you do?
A: For 25 years I worked for Safeway
Grocery Stores, Inc.
Q: What is your favorite book?
A: Any cookbook or design book.
Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: E. T.
Q: What is your favorite kind of
music?
A: Classic Rock.
Q: How did you get into your field?
A: In 1968, my best friend was a
Sacker at Safeway and had me come
in to talk to the store manager, Roy
Springer, to see if I could be a sacker.
The rest is history. It just happened.
I eventually moved to Houston in
1974 when they became a Division
and worked in Human Resources
in the capacity of division training
instructor and personnel manager. All
together I helped open 43 Safeway
stores in Houston and surrounding areas. When I moved back to
Weatherford in 1995, I was a manager for Braum’s, assistant manager
for Petsmart, and assistant mgr. for
Westchester Plaza Assisted Living,
until I ended up at the Fort Worth
Star Telegram, where I worked for 12
years.
Q: Would you recommend your
career for other people? Why?
A: Yes, what can be better than hiring
someone for a job and then training
them for something that they can do
for the rest of their life?
Q: What do you do to relax?
A: I love to be close to water, even if
it’s just watering grass or plants. I also
love to have good conversations with
friends.
Q: If you could visit any place in the
world, where would you go?
A: Barcelona, Spain or Africa.
Q: What person from history would
you most like to have lunch with?
PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
Q: What accomplishment are you
most proud of?
Q: When you were a child, what did
you want to be when you grew up?
A: A teacher.
FEBRUARY 2016
Q: What’s the most daring thing
you’ve ever done?
A: I was in NYC to see Twiggie and
Tommy Tune in My One and Only.
Afterwards I went back stage three
times to see them and was thrown
out each time. However, my persistence prevailed and the guard told
me what door they would be coming
out of. I did get to meet them along
with Sandy Duncan who was an
understudy for Twiggie for the touring
show.
A: That I got to help take care of my
mom and dad the last 10 years they
were living.
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