He was searching around for what to do to not only make a steady income but also give back to his community, he says, when he thought about his father's second career. John Benson Sr., after running Benson's Trophies and Plaques in Salt Lake City, became a school bus driver in Park City. Benson Sr. was the kind of driver who would hand out trophies to the kids on the bus.

Benson Jr.'s is not quite a riches-to-rags story (the Bensons still live in their 5,000-square-foot house in the Snyderville Basin, although now they're renting it, and he's still working as a Realtor, making some sales). But he's low man on the totem pole at the school bus garage: the guy who has to clean the bays, the guy who still has to sub instead of getting his own route.

He's enthusiastic about all of it, though, even the tedious "pre-trip," the 50-point inspection every driver makes before he takes a bus out each day. The man who had made his first million by the time he was 21 has a smile and a "hi" for each kid who gets on the bus, and he calls them "ladies and gentlemen." He feeds off their enthusiasm, he says.

His decline but not fall has taught him who his real friends are, he says. Many of the high rollers who enjoyed his company when he was rich have disappeared from his life, he says. Some of the ones who have stuck with him are the men he has met through the prison ministry he does with his church, Creekside Christian Fellowship.

After losing his extravagant life he sums up what's important: "I'm alive and well, my wife still loves me and my children still love me."

E-MAIL: jarvik@desnews.com