David Mackey

  Video Link for David Mackey Presentation

David Mackey has a deep and abiding love for his native Sanpete County and is grateful for the diverse and colorful heritage with which he has been blessed.  Author of Rattlesnakes and Axe-heads and Temple Light and Train Tracks—two volumes in The Almost Forgotten History and Lore of Sanpete series, the writer was born at Mt Pleasant and received his early education in the South Sanpete School system.  A graduate of Snow College and Brigham Young University, he also completed two years of graduate work in the Public History program at Arizona State University.
During a break in his studies at ASU, David completed a summer internship at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California where he assisted in processing the Reagan-Bush 1983 re-election campaign papers for the archives.  He also participated in work on an exhibit commemorating the 1988 LA Summer Olympics.  Upon his return to Arizona, Mackey worked for several years at a number of museums in the Phoenix area and served one term as chair for the Museum Educators Council of Arizona.

Active in educational endeavors, David has served in roles as a classroom teacher, mentor, and school administrator, and helped pioneer concurrent enrollment at an innovative school in Arizona in the mid-1990s.  He believes in tailoring education to the needs of individual students, and remains an advocate for people of all ages with physical and mental disabilities.  In 2008, David was successful in co-founding a vocational medical and nursing school in Ventura, California that flourishes and blesses the lives of many students today.
In addition to his work as an independent historian, David enjoys teaching—a calling he continues with in the high school setting as a Language Arts, Social Studies, and History instructor.  He and his wife DeAnn are the parents of five children.