Swiss-German

They eventually migrated to Louisiana, where my father, William Larry Blazer, was born.

About a year later, my grandparents made a radical leap of faith, moving across the country to the dry desert of Phoenix, Arizona, with their two young sons, a few dollars in their pockets, and my grandfather's Swiss-German work ethic.

In Phoenix, my grandfather quickly established a highly successful masonry business named Mason Mart.

He didn't just build a business.

My grandparents divorced when my father was young and remarried eight years later.

Within those challenges, my father's blazer spirit shined through.

True to the thrifty, tireless Swiss-German structure, my father worked side by side with his dad all through his college years, ultimately graduating with an engineering degree from Arizona State University and saving several thousand dollars safely in the bank.

It was in Phoenix that my father met my mother, a woman four years his senior, who had already been engaged three times before finding my father.