Payson Roundup

Robert and Sherie Baldridge then Robert and Sherie Baldridge now

Robert C. and Sherie Williams Baldridge, of Payson, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on June 8, 2009. They purchased property in Pine in 1999 and have lived in Rim Country much of the time since then. They both graduated from Rock Springs Wyoming High School. Bob served two years in the Army, and Sherie served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Montana and South Dakota before they met again at the University of Wyoming and began dating.

After graduation, Bob worked as an engineer for Shell Chemical Company in Houston, Texas. He returned to the University of Wyoming and taught in the engineering department for three years while pursuing a master’s degree. He was then employed as an engineer for the State of California for 32 years, in the Department of Water Resources, and later, the Water Quality Control Board, living in Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Luis Obispo.

Bob became a professional engineer in California in 1974, and Sherie obtained a clear California teaching credential in 1978, which is still valid. She obtained a master’s degree in library science from Brigham Young University in 1987. She taught school in Thermopolis, Wyo. for one year beginning when she was 19. She also taught in a one-room schoolhouse on the prairie near Laramie, Wyo. while Bob was working on his master’s degree. In 1976 she began work as a library paraprofessional for San Luis Coastal School District and moved on to the Kennedy Library at Cal Poly State University. Beginning in 1987, she was the teaching librarian at Flamson Middle School in Paso Robles, Calif. for 10 years. The last two, her school had split, and she was in charge of two middle school libraries. Bob and Sherie both retired in January 1997.

The Baldridges are the parents of six children: Rachelle Park of South Jordan, Utah; Lori Allison of Mesa; Mark of Franklin, Ind.; Scott of Mountain Home, Idaho; Steve of Buena Vista, Va., and Kendall of Auburn, Calif.

All their children are college graduates, and three have advanced degrees. There is a lawyer/college professor, a family practice doctor, a fifth-grade teacher, a high school Spanish teacher, an account executive with Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company, and a political science graduate who is a homemaker. Five of their children served Spanish-speaking missions for their church, as did Robert and Sherie, who worked in Guatemala and Paraguay.

Bob and Sherie have 23 grandchildren, two of whom graduated from Arizona State University and the University of Utah this year. Four grandsons have served as missionaries. Their oldest grandson, James Park, who was married in February, was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Air Force in June and will soon report to Pensacola, Fla. Their oldest granddaughter, Crystal Allison, will begin physician assistant school in Washington, D.C. in July.

The Baldridges will celebrate their anniversary with their children at a family reunion in Auburn, Calif. in July, followed by a celebration on July 13, in San Luis Obispo, Calif., where their family lived for 30 years.