OK let me bring this thread to a finish. The kid replaced the starter---nope not that. Took that back. Took the battery down for load testing, nope battery is fine. Swapped relays, not that either. And finally bought an ignition switch, found it required some security bit to get it off and finally got it in today. It started right up...heh. And to top it off the kid at the beginning of all this said he thought it was the switch...heh. All us know it alls disabused him of that idea.
But on the other hand he got and education in cranking systems that he will use again over the years.