Sometimes, the career one seeks leads to an entirely different vocation, and that certainly was the case for Myrl Phelps of Danbury, a member of the League of NH Craftsmen who produces one-of-a-kind wooden pieces ranging from cutting boards to intricate cabinetry.
Myrl, a graduate of Newfound Memorial High School in Bristol, attended the University of New Hampshire for a year and a half, spending the summer in between working for NH Fish and Game. Dropping out of college, he worked at Ragged Mountain Ski Area for the winter, still wondering what he wanted to do for a career.
“In the spring, I tried to enlist in the service,” he recalls. “I was trying to get into the Rangers.”
Passing the physical proved to be a problem, with scoliosis, or curvature of the spine, leading to a 4F designation, making him ineligible for the service because of his “bad back” — which amuses him because, the day before, he had mixed cement and carried 350 blocks for a local contractor who needed some help.
“The next day,” he said, “I’m lugging shingles up the ladder for five guys.”
Myrl found himself doing carpentry for the builder, Duke Evans, “off and on” for 14 years, sometimes taking on jobs of his own. He later worked on the Forest Hills apartments in Franklin and other finish carpentry work.
“Then I got tired of everything and I went to New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia for half a year,” he recalls. When he returned to the United States, he holed up in a remote cabin in New York, “two miles off a town-maintained road, no water, no sewage, no electricity. I was there for almost a year, just hanging out.”
Returning to work, he got a job at a door shop in Camden NY where he remained for a couple of years before coming back to do carpentry work in Danbury. There he met his future wife, Nancy.
“One day we were sitting on the couch and I was looking at Fine Woodworking magazine, and I said, ‘Oh, I’d like to be able to do this!’” Myrl said. Nancy supported the idea by sending him to the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, an international woodworking school in Rockport ME, for nine months.
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