Every rural person and place has a story. Change is part of that story.
“Rural Utah at a Crossroads” is part of the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, which explores the changing meaning of rural life and identity. Utah Humanities is touring Crossroads to eight rural communities across Utah in 2024. As part of the tour, Utah Humanities and Utah Public Radio are partnering with exhibition hosts to interview local residents about change in their communities.
This interview took place at the Brigham City Museum of Art and History in partnership with Northrup Grumman.
Suresh Kulkarni: I'm from a very big city in India called Hyderabad, but at that time, it was 3 million. And I was born in 1944 to a highly educated family.
My father and mother were both professors at the university. My path was laid out by my parents. They told me that I was going to be an engineer. They said you're going to get a PhD from the US. Well, not really. They really didn't want me to go to the US right away. They wanted me to get some practical training in India, get married, and then go to the US for training. I was able to get around my parents.
I was able to get a scholarship at the University of Denver. I came here and did my PhD in three years, and then I went back. And unfortunately, I couldn't find a job because I was overqualified. I saw this little ad in the local newspaper there in Denver and it said Thiokol is hiring. And I had no idea where Thiokol was or where Brigham City was, so I applied, and they told me to come out for an interview. So I came out for the interview.
And that was 1971 and here I was on the plane looking at a map and trying to figure out where to go. And so fortunately, at that time, right next to me was one of the apostles of the Mormon Church, Boyd Packer, so he was next to me, and he said, Where are you trying to go? And I said, I'm trying to find Brigham City on the map, and I don't know where it is. And he said, Well, why don't you get your car rented and just follow me? Okay, and so I got the car from Hertz and followed him and came to Brigham City.
Next morning, I got up and I called the HR guy at the plant, and I said, okay, how do I get there? And he said, well, why don't you take the road that goes west, there is only one road, and you keep driving. And when you feel like you have reached the end of the earth, you drive one more mile. So that was my first exposure to Thiokol out there.
So we joined the company, and then I started out as a design engineer, and then rose up through the ranks, and then finally, in 1989 I was promoted to the Vice President of engineering. So I had about 558 [engineers], so I was the top guy reporting to the General Manager. There were two of us at Thiokol who were not US citizens. I was from India and there was another guy from England. There was only two of us and Reagan edicted that if you wanted to work on defense projects in the US, you had to be a US citizen. And so either lose the job or become a US citizen, right? So that was in the late 80s.
But the day I took the oath—when you take that oath and you have to cut all ties to India, and that was hard, you know. It's kind of like breaking your umbilical cord, you know, you just say, okay, I'm done when you take that oath.
It was quite a change to come from a place that was extremely open, to come to a place where on Sunday, because we were not the Mormons, to find the place was essentially closed up. I really think that it's going to get more cosmopolitan, mainly because the company is growing. They have already advertised that they're going to have a big investment here, which is going to create 1000 more jobs. So it is definitely going to attract more people.
I think as far as the community goes, there will be more acceptance of people coming from outside, and it's going to grow as more forgiving, more accommodating, more acceptance of different cultures. So hopefully, it'll be good.
“Rural Utah at a Crossroads” is a collaboration between Utah Public Radio, Utah Humanities, and the community hosts of Crossroads: Change in Rural America, a Smithsonian Museum on Main Street exhibition made possible in the Beehive State by Utah Humanities.
Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.
