Description
Every Essential Element is the story of the creation of Mineral Resources International, a world-wide minerals company, in the setting of the marriage and family of its founders, Hartley and Gaye Anderson.
Details:
A Mormon Love Story in the Hippie Health Movement
This triumphant memoir of guts, family and bucking the establishment traces a fifty-five-year journey that mirrors not only a movement but the nation. Beginning in a time when Wonder Bread® was health food, Gaye and Hartley Anderson leave security to pursue a crazy idea they could not ignore. Their friends snicker and the U.S. government bullies them, but they inspire each other through poverty, disasters, and the trials of family business. Starting at the kitchen table, they and their contemporaries grow into a multi-billion-dollar industry. Every Essential Element is the true story of the author’s parents: a quirky, lovely reminder of how two people can make it—in marriage, business and life.
Rhonda Lauritzen is the youngest of seven in the Hartley and Gaye Anderson family, and the only girl. The Andersons founded Mineral Resources International (MRI) before she was born so she had great adventures scampering around the natural health movement, taking naps under their booth table and sampling all carob-tofu delights a kid could enjoy. During her teenage years she watched the industry mature from mom-and-pop operations into the likes of Whole Foods. At age 23 she became general manager of the company, working alongside her big brothers followed by a stint away for an MBA. Upon return she took the helm as CEO for three years. In 2005 she branched out from the family to work in administration for a Utah technical college. When her father passed away she felt a tangible nudge to write what she believed was a story worth telling.
