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Mark Squires
Mark Squires worked in the construction trades in the Salt River Valley of Southern Arizona for twenty years. In 1995 he fell from a wall, shattering both his heels, which ended hi...view moreMark Squires worked in the construction trades in the Salt River Valley of Southern Arizona for twenty years. In 1995 he fell from a wall, shattering both his heels, which ended his construction career. He then became a teacher in 1996 at Pima High School in Pima, Arizona, in the Gila River Valley, where he taught high-school English for fourteen years. In 2010 he began an eight-year stint as the principal of Pima Junior High School. Then, in 2018, he returned to the classroom and taught English at Pima Junior High School. Currently, he is the director of a small alternative school in the Pima Unified School District. Mr. Squires has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Secondary Education with majors in History and English. He also has a Masters of Education in Educational Leadership. He has been married to Nanette Haws Squires since 1979. Together, they have three living children, three in-law children, and thirteen grandchildren. Their beloved youngest daughter passed away from cancer in 2020.For much of his early life, Squires lived in East Mesa, Arizona, a few miles from the Superstition Mountains where he often hiked and imagined what Jacob Waltz may have experienced in that rugged terrain in the late 1800s. That is where the legend of a rich gold mine began. Squires read many of the documentary-style books about the fabled Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine, and then used three actual newspaper articles of the day for the basis of a story, which eventually became the novel The Dutchman (1994).Before acquiring a permanent teaching job, Squires was a substitute teacher for several school districts, and he met a variety of teachers, some of whom were sad and miserable. This spawned the idea of a teacher who hates students, and who is forced by his principal to coach a junior-high track team, which has an unruly mentally-disabled boy as one of its athletes. The result is The Great Teeth of the Young Lions (2011), a novel set in the imaginary town of Lizard Bump in the Gila River Valley. The story confronts two ideas: the challenges of surviving as a teacher and the demands of loving students to be a successful teacher.The acquisition of Squires' masters degree in educational leadership brought many thoughts about the characteristics of a good leader, not just in education, but in all leadership positions. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Squires explored the idea that Jesus Christ exemplified perfect leadership with his apostles, and then, at the Last Supper, Jesus summarized the three leadership traits necessary for every leader to succeed. These ideas are expressed in the concise book Last Supper Leadership, The Three Methods (2016).The Valley of the Sun (2020), is a compilation of thirteen short stories and three poems that are all set in the Phoenix metropolitan area where Squires lived for about thirty years, and where he worked in the construction trades for twenty years. Five of the stories are set at construction sites and are based on strange and amazing incidents. The other stories have a variety of settings in The Valley of the Sun, but also discuss the unexpected and remarkable experiences that provide us with that precious commodity, wisdom.view less