Bio
It all began for me when my father was born to a sharecropper and his wife in 1941 on the plains of Montana near a small town called Baker, and not so far from his eventual childhood home near Lemmon, North Dakota. There on a small farm, a sharecropper and his son worked the daylight hours eking out a living the best way they knew how. Winters were long and hard, and summers were dry and windy. My father's early years were terribly poor ones. There were many days spent behind a team of horses or old tractors working summer fallow, planting corn, wheat, barley, or other crops of the time, and dragging a cultivator through the endless rows of crops. Other chores and responsibilities were numerous. Tears filled his eyes early in the mornings when at only 8 or 9 his father roused him from bed to spend yet another long day in a dirty wind-swept field. But, that was life then for a sharecropper's family; it was all he knew. Even the turning over of socks to keep the holes facing up was seemingly normal, for money was tight. On one occasion, his father was forced to return the small Christmas gifts to the store for money to buy food. The faces, backs, and hands showed the wear of it all, even on an 18-year-old. At that age, my father finally left the farm to pursue other interests and found himself in school at a Christian college in Minot, North Dakota. He took his first paid job as a gas station attendant to make money for school. There he met the woman he would marry and eventually become my mother. Money was tight there, too, in the early years as my parents worked hard and prayed even harder for the things that got us through. The times he spent on a dirty, dusty farm for those 18 years taught him steadfastness and an iron-clad work ethic. These are the traits my father worked tirelessly to instill in me and my siblings. I think he has good reason to consider himself successful in the endeavor. I attended school in Minot and had several jobs there before leaving home and marrying. After a few years of work as a cabinet maker, retail salesman, truck driver, upholsterer, and carpenter, I decided to attend college myself and ended up in Cleveland, TN. I entered a college affiliated with the one my father and mother had attended in Minot, Lee University. I had lived in Minot, North Dakota for 25 years. I moved to Cleveland, TN in 1992 and have been here ever since.
My early years in Cleveland seemed to emulate my parent's early years as money was hard to come by and work was necessary in order to survive. As school continued, many difficulties came my way. Many were financial and some were certainly not of my making but were obstacles nonetheless. I worked hard at school, and at work making enough money to keep the dream alive of becoming a youth minister. I worked many jobs in the area which included; bus driver, truck driver, retail, painter, property manager, warehouse shipper and receiver, carpenter, custom woodworker, education director, and many more. I worked hard to get through school and was proud of my father's legacy and steadfastness which was instilled in me. I eventually set my sites on being a teacher.
Presently, I am still very far from home and miss the years in the snow and windy summer nights in Minot. I miss my siblings and other family members. I miss driving down the long straight gravel roads to nowhere and hunting geese and ducks in the fall with my buddies. I miss those things, the things of North Dakota. However, my wife is from Cleveland and I have a family through her. My wife and I have our own lovely home and 4 children, so it's easier now for the most part. But sometimes, I long for those special cool, fall, North Dakota days that remind me winter is coming.
I graduated from Minot High School and attended Minot State University, Cleveland State Community College, Lee University, and Arkansas State University. I graduated with a B.S. degree in Education and Human Development from Lee University, and I received a Master's degree from Arkansas State University in Science and Educational Theory and Practice. I was hired by Bradley County Schools in the fall of 1996 for a position at Trewhitt Elementary and Junior High School as a 6th-grade teacher. I helped transition that school into Lake Forest Middle School and stayed on as a math teacher in 6th and 7th grade. I moved to Waterville Community Elementary School in 2005. I have stayed since that time and love this school. I have been teaching for 28 years and love my job very much.
In 2005, I also opened a woodworking business where I have built hundreds of projects for the local schools, businesses, and private customers in Bradley County. The pictures on the right and the ones scrolling at the bottom show some examples of my work. You can visit my private website to view items I have built through Gunderson Woodworks. ToddRgunderson.com
I have recently authored 5 books. These are geared toward middle-grade students, with one being for older teens. I am working on my 6th book, and hope to have it published this next spring. I will then be off on another series idea. My current series follows 4 middle school students during the 1950s as they solve mysteries in a small town in North Dakota. You can see these books at the same site above.
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Please feel free to contact me at the email link above.
