Biography Monte L Bean

I like to read Biographys sometimes they are interesting you can find out how real people dealt with real problems and you can also kind of better understand yourslef I think. In that it allows me to think how would Ihave acted in a smiliar situation or what would I do differently. So here follows one of the ones I just finished.


The biography of Monte L Bean. In the back it has some quotes one of the ones I like the most is "The greatest test the church helped me survive was the financial crash in 1929-1932" (the great depression started then) Monte went from having a huge fortune - he was one of the top general managers of what was to become the Safeway Corporation and making 50,000 a year - to having 20,000 total including his house and car and everything he owned. he goes on to say "Like many others in the Skaggs (Safeway) organization, I was financially ruined. But, unlike some of them who went stark crazy, committed suicide, or became overnight alcoholics, I sought out Birdie (his wife) and took heart. When we counted out blessings we found that we had our youth, our health, our wonderful little family, each other - and above all, the staunch bedrock of our religious beliefs upon which to begin to build anew. We shook off the dust of our financial collapse and went to work again, knowing that if we would but abide by our beliefs and be industrious and not downhearted, we would persevere and thrive again."
And he did just that in the next several years he built up several huge business A drug store chain a sporting goods store chain , a grocery store chain and helped to found Shucks auto parts.
During this time he was called as the first stake president in Portland OR and the Second in Seattle. Absolutely amazing.
But something that amazed me probably the most. Is that throughout his business dealings he was not corrupted by the world. He remained faithful to the gospel in so much that President Harold B Lee came and administered to his son when his son was sick after coming down with Polio. that story I will share tomorrow. But about his business dealings he says once a tax assessor came and said for a 500 dollar processing fee I will save you 10,000 on your taxes. This year the tax man had been paid this way by the last several managers and owners. Monte said No and threw him out. He paid 10,000 extra in taxes but he was faithful to his covenants

So that closes my little bit today tomorrow I will tell the story about how his son met President Lee and what that resulted in
peace