Editor's note: The Deseret Morning News is running a series of profiles of announced candidates for Salt Lake City mayor. The newspaper begins that series today.

First in a seven-part series

A lawyer, planner, former park ranger and now Democratic leader of the Utah House — Ralph Becker believes he brings a wealth of experience to the Salt Lake City mayor's race.

Becker has now turned his attention to politics nearly full-time, selling his successful planning and consulting firm, Bear West, to another planning firm last year.

"Politics is taking a lot of my time," says the 55-year-old Becker, who is a divorced father of two adult sons and grandfather to a teenage granddaughter.

Becker has always juggled a number of pursuits, both professionally and personally.

Longtime friend Brad Barber says Becker "is a true outdoorsman — he hikes, hunts with a bow and arrow, skis; he's a horseman and river-runner."

On their many back-country treks, Becker is in charge of the "groober" — taking care of personal bodily wastes at the camp site, Barber says, adding he doesn't know whether that stems from Becker's years in the Legislature or a willingness to do just about anything.

"He's a hard worker — and we always appreciate his groober efforts," jokes Barber.

Becker was immersed in politics as a boy. He was born and raised in Washington, D.C., where his father was an activist attorney who for years was the legal counsel for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

"We were always discussing politics around the dinner table," Becker says. "It was assumed that, at some point, you would provide some public service."

Becker came to Utah to visit an older brother who had relocated here and fell in love with the Mountain West's landscape and outdoor activities.

"I worked for a number of summers at the Grand Canyon National Park, starting out emptying garbage cans," he recalls. Over the years, he worked his way up to become a ranger after being on a firefighting crew. He thought he'd go to work in the national park system, dealing with environmental law, and he did legal volunteer work for the parks department during law school.

His first job out of college was with Bonneville Associates, a firm that would become notorious years later when it went bankrupt and pulled at then-Salt Lake Mayor Deedee Corradini, a Bonneville boss who had hired Becker. He says he left Bonneville Associates "before the crash."

Running for elected office was not on Becker's agenda. He saw the best and worst of it after he was hired by then-Gov. Scott M. Matheson, a Democrat, to start and run what came to be called Project BOLD.