Our World Has Two Halves

My full name is William Anson Call. I was born in Afton (Star Valley), Wyoming in 1938. I am a descendent of Anson Call who lived in Nauvoo, Illinois and came to Utah with the Mormon pioneers. My great grandfather, Anson Vasco Call, was one of the original settlers in Star Valley. I am the third son of Reuel Thomas and Verna Anson Call. I graduated from Afton Elementary School in 1952 and from Star Valley High School in 1956. I attended Utah State University from 1956 to 1958 and served as an LDS missionary in Northern Mexico from 1958 to 1961. I enrolled at Brigham Young University in 1961. I was married to Helen Field in 1962. We are the parents of eight children. I received a bachelor of arts degree in 1963 and a master of arts degree in 1965 from BYU. I attended graduate school at Champaign-Urbana from 1965 to 1968 and was awarded a doctor of musical arts degree by the University of Illinois in 1971. The emphasis of my study was music composition with a minor in philosophy. In 1968 I became a full-time employee in my father's oil company, Caribou Four Corners Inc. I served as vice president of retail sales from 1971 to 1983 when I became the president of the company. From about 1960 to 1985 the company operated two small oil refineries, a fleet of petroleum delivery trucks, and a string of gas stations/convenience stores. In the 80s the refineries were closed and the principal activity of the company became the operation of convenience stores. Reflecting this new emphasis the name of the company was changed to Maverik Country Stores, Inc. In 2000 when I retired, "Maverik" had become the largest marketer of motor fuels and convenience foods in the Intermountain West. Following my return to Afton after a 12-year absence I entered a period of adjustment as I re-adapted to life in rural Wyoming. During this time, while maintaining my position in Maverik, I wrote several musical works for both instruments and singers including symphonies, operas, songs, and a concerto for piano and orchestra. My opera, El Curioso Impertinente was performed at the tabernacle in Paris, Idaho in 1987. In the following years I met the continued challenge of performing the music I wrote by forming what was first called the Bear Lake Music Festival and later became Great Music West. The organization presented annual concerts and/or stage productions from 1992 to 1999. My second opera was performed in 1992 and my third in 1998. In addition to operatic productions and orchestral concerts the music festival sponsored chamber music at various venues in Evanston, the Bear Lake area, and Star Valley. Singers and instrumentalists were recruited from professional organizations throughout the country. After I retired from Maverik I completed three additional symphonies, another opera, chamber music, songs, and revised much of the music I had previously written. Generally speaking, my compositions reverence classical forms and styles but are additionally influenced by the religious and popular music I was exposed to during my adolescent years. I also completed several new books including The Parmenides Problem 2007 and Our Qualitative Existence 2019. My son, Thor Call, owner/operator of the Thunder Music recording studio has engaged professional performers to record the works that appear on this website. The most ambitious of these projects is the complete recording of the opera El Curioso Impertinente. Mine has been the opportunity to live life from the mixed perspective of business, the arts, and philosophical inquiry, a combination from which have come many advantages together with many incongruities. The two combined may constitute material for a more in-depth biographical study. ​ My wife, Helen, died on October 1, 2012. We were married on June 14, 1962. I proceed as one who has the time and the opportunity to focus on those aspects of life that appear to be most promising and productive.