Biography

Preston Gudmunson

Preston Gudmunson

6th Grade Science

I gained the title of “Utahn” in the early ‘80s when my parents brought me home from the hospital to our little house on Heath Avenue (not the candy bar, although that would have been fun!).  After 10 years of growing up in a loving family, next-door to my childhood best-friend, (the summer right before we would have FINALLY been in the same class at school) my family moved to the very rainy Vancouver (not Canada), where I added “Washingtonian” to my resume.  (Yes, we were actually called Washingtonians.) As we all adapted to suburban-rain-forest life, I reached adulthood and decided to dry out in southern California for 2 years, where I met a lot of people, both Deaf and hearing, that knew American Sign Language (ASL). This was one of the second-best decisions of my life.  I moved back to Utah, in 2002, to make the first-best decision of my life by marrying Sarah Donoho. Together we made 3 more first-best decisions that would all come to fruition in the American Fork Hospital: a girl and 2 boys. We still live in the next city over from there, and love it.

 From a young age, Science has intrigued me.  So I got a degree from BYU and started teaching science to all ages at the Jean Massieu School of the Deaf in Salt Lake City.  After teaching science IN ASL for a while, I went into the mainstream public school system to teach science AND ASL at Mountain Ridge Jr. High.  Learning about the leadership approach taken by Mountainville, with the focus on true principles that are truly helpful to people, we yanked our children out of public and home-schooling and decided to see how they would do here.  The vibrant, loving feeling we discovered made us feel confident that we could trust this school with our most valuable treasures, one of which is still an active Lion today (2023-24 school year). After 5 years at the jr. high down the street, and then teaching ASL in the evenings at BYU for a while, I was invited to teach here as well.  It's been so fun to have lots of classroom time with the students I've been able to meet, and to work with people that truly love...people! I’m excited to continue in my efforts to apply and teach principles of true victory. I can't wait to either meet you or to see you again :).