Family Spotlight: Delroy and Afton Anderson

Family Spotlight:
Delroy and Afton Anderson
By Rachel Campbell
The Anderson’s story begins at Brigham Young University where Delroy, a Wyoming native, was playing football on a scholarship. Both were studying to enter the education field. They were married and returned to Wyoming for the summer. When they returned to northern Utah for the next semester, it was decided that Delroy would rather attend the University of Utah, leaving his comfortable football scholarship at BYU for the uncertainty of a walk on scholarship at the U. Fortunately, being a talented athlete, he made the team, secured the scholarship, and the Anderson’s transferred to their rival school.
Afton and Delroy started their professional careers in Gerlach, Nevada; Afton, a teacher of English, Delroy of Math/Science. Along with his teaching duties, Delroy also took on the job of coaching the sports teams. All the sports teams. After Gerlach, was Magna, Utah, then on to Richfield and finally to Spanish Fork where they taught until they retired. Spanish Fork is still one of their favorite places to visit.
Their first encounter with Gunlock was when Delroy had an interview for a coaching job in Mesquite. Afton stayed in the car with their four young children during the several hour interview. “It was so hot, even though it was spring.” Because the freeway had not been constructed through the gorge, they were coming back on Highway 93, when Delroy decided to take the turn at Gunlock to explore.
Soon, the canyon began to get interesting and Afton began to take notice of its beauty. As they drove through town, Afton remembers saying, “Oh, I’d like to live here!”
The Andersons have 5 children, 12 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren spanning the country from Alabama to Idaho. While they are proud of their progeny, they are saddened by the distance; they don’t get the pleasure of seeing their family as much as they would like.
So how did the Anderson’s end up in Gunlock? One of their sons, who was a teacher at Enterprise High School at the time, worked with another teacher who had family in Gunlock that was selling their home. On one of their vacations to visit this son, he convinced them to go and see the house his co-worker’s family was selling. As they were finding a wide place in the road to turn around, they happened to pass the home they reside in now. To their delight, there was a small “For Sale” sign outside. They tried to see the house that night, but the owners were not ready for someone to look at it, but they did oblige them in letting them look at the property. With an appointment set for the next day, they headed back to Enterprise. The next day, they came back and were shown the house. Needless to say, they fell in love with the house.
Even though their house was one of the handful that had extensive damage done to it in the flood of 2007, they love their place. In fact, they have nearly finished with all their flood adjustments and repairs. Even with all the water and the fires, the Andersons truly love living in Gunlock.