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TheMesaTribune.com |
THE MESA TRIBUNE | JUNE 27, 2021
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Mesa couple marking 73rd wedding anniversary TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF
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nid and Walt Gustin won’t just be celebrating America’s 244th birthday next weekend. On Saturday, July 3, the Mesa couple also will be marking 73 years since they tied the knot in a parsonage near their homes just outside of Fremont, Nebraska, a town with a population of about 3,000. But they won’t be able to look back at pictures from their wedding or much of their life together. All their mementoes from the past were destroyed in a horrifying windstorm in 1970, just a couple years after they had moved to Mesa. “We hadn’t been here very long,” Enid recalled. “It must have been August because I had just taken our youngest daughter to sign her up for high school.” They had a new mobile home – and it was about to become history. “It was like a tornado or some type of burst of wind that blew a mobile home into our
mobile home,” she said. “My daughter and I were at home and my husband was at work.” Another neighboring home was �lipped over and “there were �ive mobile homes in all that were destroyed,” she continued. “Neither my daughter and I were seriously hurt. The refrigerator dropped right in front of me and our daughter was sitting on the sofa and it threw her. We just had cuts and scratches.” “We lost everything,” she said, recounting how they found a modestly furnished place in Paradise Valley and started remaking their lives. But love triumphed for the two high school sweethearts. He was two grades ahead of her and they had met through their parents, who often played cards together. Enid doesn’t remember exactly how Walt proposed, but she recalled that as a senior in high school, “I was working and kind of helping with the household and
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Enid and Walt Gustin of Mesa will be celebrating their 73rd wedding anniversary next Saturday, July 3. The high school sweethearts were married in a small Nebraska town where they grew up. (Pablo Robles/Tribune Staff Photographer)
Mesa scholar giving greater voice to the disabled BY ASHLYN ROBINETTE Tribune Staff Writer
A Nathaniel Ross of Mesa is a junior at Arizona State University majoring in four different subjects, minoring in dance and persuing two academic certificates. (Special to the Tribune)
rizona State University junior Nathaniel Ross �igured there was only one way to become a policy maker with a strong scienti�ic background. So the Mesa native is majoring in four subjects – biological sciences, applied quantitative science, history and political science. As if four majors weren’t enough, Ross also minors in dance and is pursuing two certi�icates, one in religion and con�lict, and another in civic education. Ross recently was named a 2021 Udall Scholar by the Morris K. Udall and Steward L. Udall Foundation. He is one of 55 students from 42 colleges and universities selected for the Udall Undergraduate Scholarship, which recog-
nizes students for their leadership, public service and commitment to issues related to Native American nations or to the environment. A Flinn Scholar in Barrett, The Honors College at ASU, he aspires to work one day on public policy affecting the disability community and environment. “I noticed that a lot of policymakers don’t necessarily have a strong scienti�ic background, so I wanted to have a speci�ic concentration in biology and society so that I can convey scienti�ic information to non-scientists,” he said. “By synthesizing scienti�ic information so others can understand it, I can better impact policy. I also notice that scientists often have dif�iculty conveying information, so applied quantitative science along with
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