Radford Noone Research Service

climbing your family tree

Mighty Drofdar

Dwight’s Prison Tales

 

             The South Point Family History Center is housed in three main rooms and three smaller ones on the left side of the Wasatch Chapel. The chapel itself was built in the 1950s. Its exterior red sandstone is actually quite plain, but pretty in a haunting kind of way, like what one finds in the red rock country in the National Parks in Southern Utah. Anybody who has visited them knows that feeling as the breeze howls through the wind blasted canyons. However, just to walk inside of the chapel you would find very little difference between it and many similar chapels anywhere in America. It is interdenominational with different services and programs staggered throughout the week.  It’s one of the several prison chapels at the Utah State Prison. This is where I volunteer each week teaching family history.

             I was invited to come down and help out with one of my specialties, which is Ireland and Irish-American family history. Something inside of me just clicked, and I knew it was the right thing to do.

I interact with the inmates, often in a one-on-one basis. My purpose there is to teach and consult with them on their family history, but the conversations always digress. I mean, how can one talk about their personal family history without incorporating their personal history? It’s so mushed up that it’s nearly impossible to separate. Family history is intimate by its very nature. I arrive each week to teach the inmates, but when I leave I’m the one who has been taught. Twisted only begins to describe it. The inmates have nicknamed me and my monthly genealogy column in their newsletter “The Mighty Drofdar: which is Radford spelled backwards.  That was their a way creating me my own superhero character.

In these chapters, I recount conversations with a select group of the men with whom I have spent time with and had in-depth conversations. These are men who have chosen to open up to me. They have not been afraid to ask me questions, nor answer my questions. For obvious reasons I have changed their names and I’ve deliberately been vague in my descriptions of them. In no way do I want to embarrass or hurt them, or make light of the real struggles they go through as they try to reconstruct their lives.

The Information Officer for the Utah Department of Corrections has reviewed my stories as required. She had the last word on how I could give my feelings, and the feelings of the inmates the appropriate voice needed, while not compromising security or even the dignity of the prison system itself.

             This is the world that I want to introduce you to as I have tried my best to combine family history with prison work. Some days are certainly better than others.

                                                                                                                  

Dwight A. Radford (a.k.a. The Mighty Drofdar)

Salt Lake City, Utah

Chapters:

Chapter #1:  Spirits in Prison and Moving On

Chapter #2:  The Mighty Drofdar and the Myth of the Superhero

Chapter #3:  Like Ats Like: Divine Intelligence and Human Stupidity

Chapter #4:  The Tract Rack and the Religious Supermarket

Chapter #5:  Reality s Bending: You’re a Willow Dwight, Now Bend!

Chapter #6:  Illusion and Reality: Manipulation a Currency and Being Grounded

Chapter #7:  Being Present; The Art of Non-Attachment

Chapter #8:  Processing Information; Finding Order in the Chaos

Chapter #9:  Progressive Salvation: You Can Always be Better Tomorrow

Chapter #10: What Does Your Daughter Think of Sex Offenders?

Chapter #11: Trust Factor: The Reality Show

Chapter #12: There’s  A White Elephant in the Room

Chapter #13: Daddy Will You Love Me Even though I’ve Been A Bad Boy?

Chapter#14: The Haunting: Reflections and Revelations