People might assume Spencer and I met through business. The truth is in this photo: matching yellow caps, Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, summer of 1997. We met in the prep meetings for the National Jamboree — we were part of the same Utah National Parks Council troop making the trip, and you get to know somebody fast when you’re fourteen-ish and headed across the country together.

What I remember about Spencer from back then: he was a grade older than me, high energy, and a bit of a goofball — a genuinely fun kid to be around. He also showed up to the Jamboree with a broken arm, and i think it gave him MORE energy. He did everything anyway. At some point I raced him in BMX, and I thought I was pretty good on a bike. I got smoked. That still stings a little. I also remember him scubadiving with that cast on. Good times.

The whole trip ran eighteen days — the Jamboree itself, a church history tour, and an American history tour, which in practice meant many, many hours on a bus together. Eighteen days of bus seats and camp food will tell you most of what you need to know about a person.

There’s an older thread here too. Spencer’s dad, Mike, was an adult leader at the summer camps in the mountains above Price — Timberline and All Stars, youth leadership training camps where Mike spent weeks teaching us how to lead. I knew Mike from those mountains before Merit3D was ever an idea, and in later years Spencer and I both staffed those camps with him. Those were great years. If you’ve read our About page, Mike is the man standing next to the injection molding machine — the same man who taught two teenagers in the Manti-La Sals how to run a crew.

After the Jamboree we didn’t stay especially close. Missions came and went, and by the time I was at the College of Eastern Utah, Spencer was married and serving in the bishopric of my singles ward — a different season entirely. For years after that, our whole relationship was Spencer reaching out on LinkedIn every couple of years. That was about it.

Then Merit3D started, and the ask finally came with a company attached. Saying yes was easier than it probably should have been — because some of the due diligence was done in 1997. I already knew what Spencer did with a broken arm and a Jamboree in front of him. He did everything anyway. That’s the guy you bet on, and betting on him took us where we are now: running a manufacturing company together in the shadow of the same mountains where Mike taught us to lead.

— Blake Merrell, COO