Escape artist | He can book your meeting, bless your vows

Geof Childs, Sun Mountain Lodge's sales manager, has a boring title, but he's not a boring fellow.

Besides being the resort's go-to guy for meeting planners, Childs, 60, is also — in his other waking hours — a mountain guide (former co-owner of a guide service); a travel writer and published author (a volume about mountaineering and, well, life); an orchardist; a chicken farmer, who sells eggs; and, oh, yeah, an ordained minister.

"Everybody in the valley works at least five jobs," he said. "Nobody comes here on a career track. You come here for the physical beauty of the place and what you want to do for your family."

He first came to the area in 1976 from Maine to climb Liberty Bell Mountain. He stayed, started a guide service, married and had a son, who is now 15.

"The first time I came here, I knew it was where I should be. This is a great place to live. It's much more diverse than it appears. Everything about living here has exceeded our expectations."

And he's a religious man, too?

Well, a mail-order minister, with Universal Life Church (whose Web site promises "free instant online ordinations"). But he really does perform legal weddings, sometimes at Sun Mountain. His chosen title: the Right Reverend Rabbi Mahavishnu.

"It was a way to force my son to call me 'Father Father,' " Childs said with a grin.