About

Who is Stuart McRea? I was born in Fort Worth, Texas. When I was five years old my father got a job as a fire captain in Colorado, and we managed to move to small mountain town. Back then, mountain property was not like it is today. Living in the mountains meant often losing power, getting snowed in a lot, and terrible television reception. My “town” of Coal Creek Canyon was filled with vacation cabins, people looking for a cheaper house, and absolute introverts and assorted weirdos who just did not want to deal with human beings anymore. As I get older, I can not blame them.

Coal Creek Canyon was a beautiful place, and I lived there through a lot of formative years. Maybe one day I’ll be able to go back. I lived in other places around Colorado; we had to move out of the Canyon when Dad made fire chief of what was then West Adams County Fire Department (North Metro today). I graduated from Golden High School. Go Demons! Yes, Demons. Golden has the coolest high school mascot ever.

I went to University of Colorado for my first two degrees. The first was a bachelor’s in English-Writing under Dean Rex Burns. Professor Burns was Denver’s quintessential writer and wrote the Gabriel Wager mystery series among others.

During this time I picked up a workstudy job with Denver Public School’s Project for Indian Education. As you can tell from looking at me, I’m a proud member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. OK, you can’t tell that my great grandmother was full blooded by looking at me. Indian tribes are nations and, like all nations, not everyone looks the same way. Not all Swedes are blond and white. Not all Irish are red-headed and pale. Not all South Africans are black. Not all Choctaw have brown skin, eyes, and black hair. I have digressed.

So, during this time I picked up a workstudy job with Denver Public School’s Project for Indian Education. Despite a lifetime of people telling me I should be a teacher and rejecting that idea, it became very apparent I should be a teacher. I get along with kids while holding them to high standards. This would become my lifelong profession. It also made me a part of Denver’s American Indian community at the time, which was a great experience.

The second degree was a master’s in Education from the rather brutal School of Education at UCD. Surviving “Cohort 5” is bragging rights in Colorado. Many students were eliminated or quit during the years I was there as the school was trying to build its brand. I did leave with a very good idea of education theory and a desire to never join the Alumni association.

I met and married a woman during that time, the mother of my children. I also picked up a stepchild who, despite being divorced from her mother for years, is insistent that I am her father. I feel the same way, I earned that kid. So I have three wonderful grown children out of this, and a couple of grandkids now. The woman, it turned out, was a horrible but subtle narcissist and abuser. I have a tendency to be tenacious, and tried my best to make that relationship work but felt trapped and did not leave until after twenty years. Not the best pick for my children’s mother, but the experience made me much stronger.

We moved to Clinton, Missouri, to be teachers, get a great house at a great price, and raise our kids in a small town like the ones we both grew up in. If you