For a man who has never been out of work for even a day since milking cows as a youngster, Dannie McConkie is going to have plenty of downtime after completing 12 years on the Davis County Commission.

McConkie, 64, and his wife, Charlene, thought long and hard about his ill-fated run for a fourth term as a commissioner, and he decided to do it because he believed the other commissioner up for re-election, Carol Page, wasn't going to run so he thought by staying another four years he'd provide some institutional memory for the commission. As it turned out, county Republican delegates thought otherwise and decided 12 years was enough.

"It may be hard to believe, but I was actually happy when I lost at the county convention. It was a big relief in a way," McConkie said. I'm pleased to be moving on, I really am. I'm looking forward to the future with new anticipation."

McConkie and his wife both grew up on small farms — he on a dairy farm in the Uintah Basin and she on a farm in Maine, on which her mother and sister still live. McConkie said.

Working on the family farm in Tridell, a small town in the north part of the Uinta Basin taught him early the value of hard work, McConkie said, and his parents with their positive attitudes set him on the path to being happy. " I was raised in a home by happy parents. They always looked at the bright side of things. We always talked at the dinner table about religion, politics and baseball. My dad loved baseball. I prefer to be optimistic. The negative things will take care of themselves."

McConkie's formula for happiness and success is simple: "If you surround yourself with happy people, life is better."

Both the McConkies are cancer survivors, which they say, makes them think. "Surviving cancer resets your mind. It is so good to be alive that aches and pains don't bother me anymore, Dannie said.

Now that he has both feet firmly planted in retirement, McConkie plans to do some things he hasn't had time to do for several years, including taking two of his 14 grandchildren fishing who he hasn't taken before. He also plans to register as a lobbyist and help shepherd legislative issues for the Davis Area Technology Center through the Legislature.