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Today's Featured Biography

 
Yvonne Gourlie Turnbull

After graduating in 1969 and spending all summer both in the hospital and at home recuperating from a motorcycle accident, I set off for WSU along with many others of my Everett classmates. Four years later, with a counseling psychology degree and some graduate work at the UW I settled in as a social worker for the juvenile probation department in Everett. It took me nearly two years to realize that this is not what I wanted to do in life. So I packed up my belongings and headed for Hawaii looking for sunshine, the beach life and a sales rep job. Little did I know I would meet the man I was going to marry. After dating for three years, we married in Hawaii and he brought into our marriage his cute seven year old son. That son is now 37 years old, married, running his own internet business in Atlanta and has blessed us with two pre-teen grandkids that are a joy to be around.

We left Hawaii in the early 80’s and headed back to the mainland to settle in Southern California which is my husband’s home area. That fit me to a tee as I remember all the Beach Boy songs I use to sing in my room at home about being a “California Girl”. When I got married I changed careers and took on my husband’s career which means I too became a professional speaker. At first I only did it so I could travel with him all over the country but soon it became something I really enjoyed. I started out speaking on the subject of nutrition in the early 80’s but the subject wasn’t that popular then. In college I decided to get healthy and changed a lifestyle and then went back to college in Hawaii to study nutrition. Because of this background, a door opened for me to teach a weekly health segment on a national TV program. That led to writing a natural foods cookbook to teach people how to change their eating habits. When I wrote the cookbook, the joke in the family was that the one person in the family who couldn’t stand cooking, wrote a cookbook.

After seven years, I didn’t make a career change, just a subject change in my speaking. My husband and I started to speak and write together on marriage and family. It wasn’t because we had such a perfect marriage and family, it was because we didn’t have one for years but then, thankfully, it got turned around and we started sharing what happened. Because of that subject change I was pleased to have either authored or co-authored five more books. And this from the girl in high school who never enjoyed and would procastinate doing those English class writing assignments.

We have been very fortunate through our speaking to have traveled our wonderful nation but after traveling nearly 42 weeks out of a year, year after year, we both decided to make a change. We moved to the desert four years ago – the Palm Springs area - to semi-retire. After taking some time off and doing volunteer work I have decided to go back into the health business. This Fall I will be starting my health coaching business and looking forward to this new adventure in my life. I am also looking forward to seeing a lot of “ol” friends and sharing some wonderful memories of our high school years.

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