arewiringlife.com
He was a ski bum who flipped to become a 9-to-5 guy and family man. He was a financial advisor who took a 90% paycut to teach high school English. And now he’s a retiree with his first book on shelves.
Mark Howard has tried to embrace change since he moved to Aspen, at 22, in 1973 and he reflects on those changes in his memoir, “A Rewiring Life.”
“Life is a series of chapters and changes,” Howard said in a recent interview on gondola plaza in Aspen.
The book recounts Howard’s life in a series of short vignettes, from his childhood in California through his many phases of life in the Roaring Fork Valley. There are some stories of ‘70s ski bum glory and celebrity encounters here but more of the book is devoted to lessons learned from the turns Howard took in his personal and professional life, especially in his experience teaching English at Basalt High School from 2008 to 2017. He was 57 years old when he made that leap, earning an Alternative Teac