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 THE RUSS AND CHERYL STORY


Russ and Cheryl about a year before Russ left for the Air Force in 1957. Russ is 16, Cheryl is 11


Russ and Cheryl's wedding, November 17, 2001, 44 years later on a lovely autumn day in
Apache Junction, Arizona

The Quest


Russell and Cheryl embarked on their quest to understand the mysteries of the universe as childhood companions. Curiosity and a love of knowledge were their playmates as they explored the words of the ancient philosophers, built rockets to the moon, and learned about the starry residents of the night sky. Living on neighboring ranches nestled in the foothills of California's San Bernardino mountain apple country, they often whiled away the evening searching out the constellations–Cassiopeia, Scorpio, Orion–wondering if anyone lived out there.

Life took them on very different paths but forty years later, they rediscovered one another. Friendship, built on the joys of intellectual companionship, blossomed into love. Their quest for human meaning in a vast universe has been renewed. Russell wishes to share his love of science and the epic of evolution. Cheryl wishes to reweave the threads of faith and reason, two ways of understanding the universe that must surely access the same reality. Both wish to tell the tale of how we came to be to the global community, our earthly family. From stardust to stardom, the human species has come to know its place in the vast span of the cosmos. Will we be overwhelmed by our knowledge, or will it take us back to the stars?


   Russ and Cheryl at the Lowell Observatory

At Russ's daughter
Karen's wedding
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