Most families find out that the future can't be scripted — for good or bad. Over the decades life would deliver many surprises to this family. But the first — a pleasant one — came at the end of John's first semester. It was Frank Zarb, John's mentor, calling from the White House.

It hadn't been announced yet, but Zarb had been appointed energy czar and offered John the deputy post.

They were headed for Washington, D.C.

For the Askews, the two years when he was deputy director of the Federal Energy Administration were glorious.

John met regularly with President Ford. He traveled around the country, making presentations on behalf of the administration. He planned meetings at Camp David and rubbed shoulders with powerful people.

Lael and John danced at the White House. They dined on the presidential yacht, the Sequoia, as it cruised up and down the Potomac.

When America turned 200 in 1976, the Askews were on the front row for the birthday party.

Lael's worries were small, her sources of joy many.

"Sometimes I thought maybe we would move back to Utah and he would run for governor or Congress or something," Lael says. "I don't know that he ever thought about that, but I could envision it.

They were careful not to give their children a sense of privilege or entitlement. They shopped at discount outlets. Lael sewed clothes for the family. They were "regular folks" who worked hard and happened to be living an extraordinarily exciting life.

In their free time, they'd ramble, taking car trips to Nowhere in Particular. Exploring was John's passion. Asked where he was going, John would reply, "It doesn't matter."

That phrase would resonate three decades later.

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It didn't take a man of John's impeccable credentials long to find a job after he lost his presidential appointment with Ford's defeat to Jimmy Carter in 1976. He was snapped up by a company specializing in direct marketing insurance. The Askews headed for a nice area of Los Angeles and John became a corporate vice president.

Danny, their baby, was born in California in 1978.

Still, John was drawn to his college-days dream. He wanted to be a stock broker again.