Picture to be added later...
Ronald Elia
Family
I met my wife Laura Jones (Tualatin, OR) in 2001 in my student ward at BYU. We were friends for a year and in the Fall of 2002 we started dating...a year and a half later we were married on June 27th, 2003 in the Portland, OR temple. It will be five years this June! Our first was born on November 15, 2007 and so I am just starting to enjoy Fatherhood.
Education and Job
Well unlike the rest of you over achievers, I felt that I learned enough while at BYU and started working for Farmers Insurance. A year later I started working for Fidelity Investments doing service calls, then switched to being a Stock Broker for our more active clients. I had to get my Series 4 (Options Principal), 7 (General Securities Lic., 63(Variable Products) and will have to get my 66 (Investment Rep) soon and eventually my CFP (Certified Financial Planner).
Calling
Sunday School for age 16 group, with about 15 kids in the class. Luckily they know not to mess around in my class. :)
Location
Started off in SLC with Farmers Insurance and stayed there with Fidelity until May. In May we relocated to Portland, OR to the Fidelity Branch in Tigard, OR.
Last 12 year
Merrill Hall (Fall & Winter '95), Budge Hall (Fall '96) then on the mish to Fiji '97 - '99. Walked on to BYU's football team and actually made it. Pratice squad for LaVell's last season, quit for Croton's first season to get married...didn't get married so worked instead and blew all that on an awesome weekend in Vegas. Met a bunch of girls had a lot of fun and finally found the right one and got married...Tim Pearson was one of my groomsmen. While living in Utah I did a bunch of camping and flyfishing, one trip to Hawaii, a Disney Carribean cruise with the in-laws. In Oregon I have taken up fly-tying, still fly-fishing and now golfing a couple times a week.
Book Club
Never thought about being in a guys book club...but do we need Officer Beck to join to make this a true freshman year Symposium experience??? Do we read books while wearing muscle tees??? I just don't know the proper etiquette!

Elliott

Hey kids,

Mission in Taiwan

BYU 'til 2002.

worked at the U of U doing research until a couple of years ago when I started doing graduate work--Biochemistry.  Spent last summer in Beijing doing science.  I think this photo is in DC last year--I didn't see Alvin there--probably he's lying about his location.  

D.C. Diligence

Family:

Four years ago (on Wednesday) I married Tammy Bray. Though a fellow BYU alum, we didn't meet until she graduated and moved back to NC, where she grew up. We now have two kids, Miriam (3 in May) and Henry (1 in July). (I apologize Jesse, as I didn't know the name Henry was already taken.)

Education and Job:
I just want to thank Jesse for saying it's OK not to finish a PhD immediately. I got my job as a statistician for the FDA on the premise that I was just about to finish my PhD in statistics from NC State. That was over a year ago. I'm still planning on finishing, but I try not to get anyone's expectations up. I work in the medical devices division of the FDA, reviewing clinical trial designs and results. I really enjoy my job, mostly because I'm good at it, so therefore it's easy. And yes, I am writing this at work, and your tax dollars are paying me to do so. (I'm not as diligent as I once was.)

Calling:

Teachers Quorum Advisor, in a quorum where we always have a 1:1 adult:teenager ratio.

Location:

Montgomery Village, MD...but for all practical purposes, Washington, D.C. It's not as bad as Karl would make it seem. (Back me up here, Paul.) We have lived in 3 places since moving here a year ago (mostly because of a fire), and we've enjoyed all of them. Plus, we've only had our car stolen once.

Last 12 years:

Mission to Guatemala. School. More school. Marriage. Kids. Nothing noteworthy enough to get me interviewed on NPR, yet.

Book Club:

I don't actually read books anymore, but like Glenn, I listen to quite a few. I've never been invited to a book club before, so when I went to a play about Book Clubs, I became determined to have a male book club. Then I realized that I don't know any guys that reads books that I'd enjoy having a conversation with...at least not since I was surrounded by them freshman year at BYU. Anyways, I just wanted to promote the book club.

The Boston Barnes

Family:

Married Laura (Rawlings) from our freshman ward in 1999. We now have 4 boys: Merrill (7), Elijah (6), Alden (3), and Henry (2). No, Merrill is not named after the hall...he is named after my grandfather Merrill.

Calling:

YM President

Job:

Work for an investment fund. Technically still on leave from a PhD in Economics from Harvard...not sure when (if) I'll get back to that.

Location:

Boston. Came out here for grad school 6 years ago.

Last Few Years:

After freshman year spent 96-98 in Romania Bucharest mission. About 6 months after returning home I ran into Laura on campus (I had stopped writing her 6 months into my mission...as she now reminds me frequently). We were married the next year. Finished degrees in Mathematics and Economics at BYU. In 02 we came out here to begin a PhD in Economics at Harvard. After 2 years I completed all my coursework and oral exams and began writing my dissertation. Research turned out to be very fun...writing it up, not so much. In late 2004 I took leave from the program to start an investment fund with one of my professors. This allowed me to do some of the same research, but instead of mind-numbing dissertation writing I got, well, paid. I've been "on leave" for about 4 years now. Apparently the record is 64 years, so I'm taking my time.

First Book for PVS Bookclub

As I mentioned to some of you, the idea for this blog grew out of a desire to hold a monthly book club with Merrill Hall alumni. Hopefully the blog will be more than just the book club, but the book club will definitely be part of the PVS.

Since Alvin was the originator of the book club idea, I've given him first dibs on choosing the first book. The one he's chosen is Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder (no known relation to Margot Kidder).

The rules of the PVS book club are as follows:

• Held monthly, approximately beginning on the first Wednesday of each month
• Book selection will rotate among participants
• Selection will be slightly constrained in that every other book should be non-fiction and every other non-fiction book should be religiously-themed
  
• First post each month will be made by that month's selector (so Alvin will post something on or about May 2 with regards to his thoughts about his selected book)
• Subsequent posts should address some of the ideas of the original poster, but also add new insights

This is modeled off of what I think is a pretty good occasional feature on Slate where they have dialogs about books/ideas/etc.

So, everyone get a copy of Mountains beyond Mountains, and we'll discuss it next month. Participation will be strictly ad hoc, with the caveat that only people who have posted in the past month's book club will be eligible to select the book for the following month.

100% Organic Tomatoes, Blended Low (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Capitalism)

Hidy-ho, neighbor. Just your freindly Karl checking in here:

Family:

I married Angela (Duncan) in 2005. Our first son Thomas was born just last year.

Calling:

Primary teacher of 11 seven-year-olds. Quite surprisingly, the calling has a higher stress-to-hours-labored ratio than any other calling I've ever had, including EQP.

Job:

Patent attorney, specializing in computer software (in former lives, I did programming and technical writing).

Geolocation:

We recently moved to San Jose, CA, after having spent almost all of my time since I returned from my mission in Provo/Orem. Oh, and there was a summer in D.C. that really turned me off the East Coast. No offense to Peter and any other East Coast people out there.

Last 12 years in 100 words or less:

Well, first of all, Peter took more than 100 words, and I'm tattling. Second of all, I graduated from the Y in 2001 with dual degrees in C.S. and English (and with University Honors, boy was that ever worth writing a Thesis for!). Fortunately, I set my sights too high in applying for graduate creative writing programs (i.e. no safety schools). I say fortunately, because after a few months of working, I realized that I loved eating too much to pursue a career in poetry. So I worked at a small internet startup for a while.

In 2004, it occurred to me that if I was going to sell out (i.e. not pursue creative writing), I might as well sell out for way more money and become a patent attorney. Actually, what really happened is that I took the LSAT on the whim (trying to prove something to someone with whom I'd recently broken up), and got a high enough score that I started thinking that maybe I could save the world if I went to law school or something. I was all set to accept a scholarship at Georgetown, when I started dating Angela (who graduated from BYU in Mathematics, and was working as a financial analyst at the time). I decided she was worth the return to BYU.

After a very humbling first semester, when about the only I did right was ask Angela to marry me, I realized that only insanely devoted people get to pretend they're saving the world. It was then I decided to pursue patent law. Three years later, here I am, helping undisclosed but major software companies obtain government-sanctioned monopolies over often-times questionably significant advancements in technologies. But the pay is great.

Oh, and I asked my son Thomas to translate the above paragraphs into his langauge. I swear it came in at 7 words, so I'm okay with the 100 word limit thing.

More about me:

My personal website/professional portfolio, which is very out-of-date, is at http://karlrees.com/. I believe you can still find some old Merrill Hall tribute stuff on it, though. For more recent information, Angela and I maintain a blog that we update weekly at http://karlandangela.reeshome.org/.

Jackson 5

Family: Sara (Zeller) and I met briefly in upstate NY while I was on my mission (no, I was not one of those missionaries). I was serving in her home ward and became good friends with her brother. Sara and I met again in UT after my mission. We have 3 girls: Eden (7), Emmy 5), and Elise (2). Another child will join the ranks in mid October.

Calling: I feel right at home in my calling as Ward Mission Leader.

Job: Not exactly sure what I'm being paid to do. I am in the beginning stages of a residency program in laboratory animal medicine.

Geolocation: Columbia, MO. My wife talked me into buying our first home. I'm afraid to check and see if it's lost any value.

Last 12 years in 100 words or less: Has it really been 12 years? '96-'98 was spent in the New York Utica Mission; '98-'02 was spent in Provo finishing up a degree in Animal Science; '02-'06 was in Davis/Sacramento, CA were I learned how to properly palpate cows and stuff; '06-'07 was happily spent in beautiful Grants Pass, OR where I worked in a mixed animal practice. I enjoyed practicing medicin on dogs, cats, llamas, horses, bearded dragons, etc., but I really missed being involved in research, so now I am in the "Comparative Medicine Program" at the University of Missouri to specialize in laboratory animal medicine, and perhaps stick around for a PhD in pathology or immunology.

More about me: I still play soccer when I can, though I spend more time baking, working in the garden, or taking the dog for a walk while I listen to audiobooks (librivox.org).