Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work

Brother and sister Marc Anderson Lawson and Karen Lawson talk about their father, video game inventor Jerry Lawson. Jerry grew up in Queens, where he developed an interest in science and technology. At an early age, he fixed television sets and other electronics. He went to Palo Alto, California, to join the tech revolution and do what he loves. There, he invented the first cartridge-based home video game system, the Fairchild Channel F.

Marc and Karen recall growing up in San Francisco and playing Channel F as children. Their father built a lab in the garage filled with computers and electronic parts. One summer, their father took away the video games and gave them computer programming books instead so they could learn to make games themselves. This led Marc to become a software developer.

Though their father has now passed, they remember him as full of life, a “man without limitations” who “created his own destiny” (231).

County Clerk Clela Rorex talks with her friend, Sue Larson. Clela first ran for county clerk in Boulder, Colorado, in 1974. At the time, no woman had held that office in 30 years, and she was surprised when she won the election. As county clerk, she issued marriage licenses and license plates and managed documents and voting.