Biography
Pam was born in Glendale, Ca. and lived her first years in Oakland. The family moved to Redlands, Ca. when Pam was nine, returning to her father’s hometown. As a girl Pam was active in Job’s Daughters and in the Presbyterian Church, where she sang in the choir and was an officer in the youth organizations. In high school she was a majorette and a member of drama club. Pam graduated from Redlands HS in 1959 and attended college at the University of Dubuque in Iowa and the University of Calif. at Riverside, where she was a student when she met Kirk while both were visiting Disney Land in January of 1961. She is the second of five children, with three sisters and one brother, all of whom still reside in California. She learned to knit at the age of five, and started to sew at eight. Today she also crochets, does punch needle, cross-stitch, latch hook and most other crafts. She sometimes designs her own clothing. Like Kirk, Pam has always loved the outdoors. He paternal grandmother was a gardener and a horsewoman and she taught Pam to love things outdoors too, as well as being the one who taught Pam to sew, to read and to love libraries. Her grandmother was a very forceful woman and was probably the most supportive of Pam in her choice of a husband who came from such a different world.
Kirk was born in the house where his father had been born, on a farm near Dwight, Ks. There he stayed until he graduated from Dwight Rural High School at 17. While in school, Kirk was active in the Presbyterian Church, in Boy Scout Troop 69, and the usual small town school activities. His claim to stardom is having had the lead in the Jr. play at DHS! At the time of graduation, he had never been outside of Kansas, and had lived without running water, or indoor plumbing. Growing up in a large family on a small farm, he learned to drive a tractor and work in the fields at an early age. He is the third of five children, with three sisters and a brother. He learned to love the outdoors and all animals from his father and became an avid watcher of wildlife. He also enjoys fishing, hiking, wood working, and most outdoor activities. In the fall of 1960, Kirk joined the Navy, as a way to find a better way to earn a living, as well as a way to see what there was outside the state of Kansas. After boot camp in San Diego, Ca., he attended basic electronic school at NTC San Diego, where he was stationed when he met Pam. Kirk next attended Submarine School in Groton, Connecticut and from there was transferred to Pearl Harbor to serve aboard the USS Seadragon, where he earned the coveted "dolphin pin" symbolizing "qualified in submarines. A year later he returned to Mare Island Naval Shipyard for six months of very intensive nuclear power training. Upon competition of that training he took leave to go south and marry Pam and then they went on the Blackfoot, Idaho for their first married home, while Kirk completed his nuclear education for further submarine duty.
