: About Me

Michael Scott Eldredge

I was born in Ogden, Utah, and received my B.A. degree in Political Science and History at Weber State College in 1971. I received an M.A. degree in Political Science with a Certificate in International Relations from Utah State University in 1972.

I was Commissioned as a Naval Officer at Newport, RI in 1971, and was assigned as Communications Officer, and as Operations Officer in USS SAN BERNARDINO (LST-1189). We were part of the last Amphibious Ready Group to deploy to Vietnam. I was next assigned as an Assistant Professor to the NROTC Department at UCLA in 1976, where I was also responsible for historical and political curriculum development for over 54 colleges and universities in the United States. I also served as an instructor at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD in 1976 and 1977.

I resigned my commission in 1977 and returned home to Utah to attend law school. I received my Juris Doctor Degree from J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University in 1980. During my legal education I was awarded the Silver Key Award by the Law Student Division of the American Bar Association for my service to that organization.

For the past twenty-five years, I have been a solo practitioner specializing in corporate and business law, with particular emphasis on state and federal securities law. I have had experience in exempt offerings, public offerings, in-house counsel to public reporting companies, formal and informal state and federal securities investigation defense, securities litigation and corporate governance. I am also experienced in international business matters and represent numerous clients who conduct financial transactions, and who manufacture and market products outside of the United States in Europe and Asia. I am a former member of the Utah State Bar Advisory Committee to the Utah Division of Securities, and am a founding organizer of the original American Inns of Court organized in 1980. I am licensed to practice in the State of Utah and in the District of Columbia. I am admitted to practice before all of the state and federal courts in those jurisdictions, and am also admitted to practice before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, CO and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. I was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court in 1987.

My true love is writing! I began my writing career while still in the Navy, publishing my first article "The Other Side of the Island; USS Utah at Pearl Harbor," in the prestigious Naval publication, United States Naval Institute Proceedings in December, 1976. The following year I published another article, "A Battleship for Utah; Naval Tradition under Governor Spry," in the Utah Historical Quarterly in the Summer Issue of 1977. I continued writing while in law school, first with the Journal of Legal Studies which I was invited to join in 1978 because of my writing background. My first effort was "Administrative Relief from Zoning Ordinances," that was published in the Summary of Utah Law: Land Use, Zoning and Eminent Domain, a book published by the BYU Journal of Legal Studies in 1979. I was promoted to editor in 1979, and we produced a second book entitled Summary of Utah Family Law published by the Journal of Legal Studies in 1980. I was also editor on the ABA/LSD Tenth Circuit Newsletter and editor of The Clark Memorandum, a BYU Alumni Magazine, in which I authored "Franklin S. Richards: Attorney In Crisis," in the April, 1980 issue. After a six year hiatus while I was building my law practice, I again returned to publishing, this time in a two part series "Automating a Law Office with PCs," published in October and December of 1986 in the Utah Lawyer Alert (predecessor to the Utah Bar Journal). I have published two books to date: Shades of Gray: Memoirs of a Prussian Saint on the Eastern Front. which I coauthored with Arthur O. Naujoks Jr., and My Life and the Winter Games: A Volunteer's Story. Walker's Promise, a novel set in Kamas, Utah in 1942, is scheduled for release in 2006. Ahriman's Light is my second historical novel dealing with the Spear of Destiny, and its return to Austria in the winter of 1946; it is also due out in 2006. I am working on two more novels; Kells is set in Ireland and has as its centerpiece, the Book of Kells, and Grantsville is a modern day thriller about the ultimate bio-weapon developed at the Dugway Test Center in Utah.

In 1992 I founded Mill Creek Press with the intention of taking my love of books to the next level, publishing. In 2003 I altered the business model of Mill Creek Press to focus on Toner-based technology. Although relatively new, this technology is showing promising signs of gaining a foothold in the Utah and Western United States markets.

I am an instructor at the University of Phoenix where I teach undergraduate history and political science courses, and graduate international business courses in the MBA program.

I am active in civic and community affairs, and served as a volunteer leader in the Boy Scouts of America for over 30 years. I have also served as a volunteer for Special Olympics and served as a volunteer for the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games. I reside with my wife Michelle in Salt Lake City, Utah. We have 8 children, all of whom are adults.

My passion is ...

historical writing

I know too much about ...

law

My parents always told me ...

to be myself

My childhood ambition ...

to be a politician

My favorite memory ...

canoeing in northern Minnesota

Why I write ...

to communicate my inner feelings

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

audio books - I'm an auditory learner

My first job ...

Boy Scout Camp staff

My best moment ...

Conning my ship into port while in the Navy

My inspiration ...

my parents

Creative Writing > Memoirs Memoirs: Childhood memories

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THE BOOKMARK I chanced upon a long forgotten volume one restless night not long ago. I pulled the book from it's years of seclusion into the soft light, and beheld, "WYATT EARP: U.S. MARSHALL." A vague recollection of the distant past stirred within me as I carefully thumbed the pages. Landmark Books.... ahhh! For a moment, I glimpsed my youth, memories of my first "reads" that seemed in another lifetime. Carefully, almost reverently, I turned the yellowing leaves, thinking about endless hours of reading on a quiet summer afternoon under the willow tree. I turned to the back of the book, a...

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