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This article reports on a presidential address at the Midwest Sociological Society by R. Dean Wright, professor at department of sociology at Drake University. According to Wright, for decades, sociologists have struggled to explain to others what they do, how they go about doing their work, and how to know its value. Wright has tried to bring into focus the ways in which teaching, scholarship, and the community as the laboratory for the sociologist and student have intersected in his work and his life. Wright narrated his experiences from 1988 when he received a grant to count Iowa's homeless. Lowa Department of Education personnel who administered the funds were interested in getting some handle on the population of homeless children in rural Lowa.