Millwright trains for new career

Man commutes 120 miles a day to become law officer

High school dropout Joel Sieler pondered the sociological ramifications of "deviance" - as in someone who does not conform to his society's "norms."

Sieler, 35, is conservative with a longtime black-and-white outlook on "good" and "bad."

The former Owens & Hurst millwright wants to be a police officer.

That ambition - and unemployment - sent him on an almost-daily 120-mile round-trip commute from the Eureka area to Kalispell's Flathead Valley Community College for two years to work on his associate's degree in criminal justice.

The degree's requirements include sociology.

That why he sat in a 7:45 a.m. class this June, sorting through his mind and his past experiences, absorbing or pigeonholing or discarding bits of professor Deb Miller's discussion on deviating from society's norms.

"Maybe that's why they made it a requirement (for a criminal justice degree). So you can see shades of gray," Sieler said.

Sieler spent most of his life in or around Eureka. He found high school boring, dropping out in his senior year to take on odd jobs.

In 1991, he and his wife, Genny, talked about starting a family. That required a steady paycheck. So Sieler joined Owens & Hurst Lumber Co. as unskilled labor.

Sieler worked his way up to millwright - fabricating, fixing and maintaining the complicated equipment that sorted, chopped, trimmed and straightened logs into boards.

When something jammed or broke on the line, Sieler and other millwrights would run to the trouble spot, carrying 50-pound tool pouches.

Pressure would kick in as they fixed problems as fast as possible. That's because time was money. Over at F.H. Stoltze's lumber mill in Columbia Falls, the rule of thumb is that a minute of downtime costs $2,000.

"I loved it," Sieler said. "It was probably an adrenaline thing."

As a millwright, Sieler worked mostly night shifts. During his last two years at Owens & Hurst, Sieler operated a saw during days to spend more time with his wife and four kids.

He and his wife, a full-time mom, got involved with Cub Scouts, and became more active in their community.

Meanwhile Owens & Hurst paid well, including a $100 bonus for any accident-free month, plus an annual bonus. But co-owner Jim Hurst worked his people hard.

"He had it down to a science, how to get the most out of people," Sieler said.

Owens & Hurst's 2005 closure announcement stunned Sieler.

"I didn't see it coming," he said.

The Sielers fretted that they might have to leave their home a few miles outside of Eureka for Joel Sieler to find a job. They had lost control of their lives, and they wanted that control back.

"After crunching the numbers, we weren't sure how far we'd make it," Sieler said

The Sielers' Christian faith propped them up as he worked his last few months at Owens & Hurst, trying to figure out what to do next. Sieler did not want his family to depend on the shaky timber industry.

He half-heartedly tried electricians school, quitting after the first day because it wasn't interesting enough to spend the rest of his life in that field.

Sieler avoided thinking about college, figuring it "would be out of my league."

But Montana's job-retraining counselors told Sieler he didn't need a high school or General Education Degree to attend college.

Meanwhile, an idea slowly grew in Sieler's mind.

He had always liked to watched "Columbo" and "Perry Mason" and to read about the Hardy Boys and Sherlock Holmes as well as mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe.

What about law enforcement? What about a criminal justice degree at Flathead Valley Community College?

With that came another idea that wouldn't have come to Sieler three years earlier ago: "I can make a difference in the community."

Sieler took the college entrance exam and passed. As an afterthought, he then took a GED test and also passed.

"In the short term, it's costing us more money. In the long term, school will pay off better," he said.

He has taken classes in forensic science, criminal law, juvenile delinquency and history. He hated history in high school, and wasn't thrilled to take it in college until the class hit the 1960s civil rights movement. The legal and social aspects of civil rights fascinated him.

That history class "stimulated part of my brain I never used before. Most of the students were conservative. Our teacher was liberal. It gave way to some great discussions. It was fun," Sieler said.

Sieler took sociology and history in summer school, and faces another year of law enforcement classes starting this fall.

His dream job is to be a Lincoln County sheriff's deputy. The sheriff's office recently accepted him as a reserve officer.