Comments:
I will finally respond to Dennis’s request for an update on our lives over the last 50 years. I will try and fit it in a walnut shell.
During the summer before our senior year my dad was transferred to Badlands Natl. Park in South Dakota. So with much regret I had to depart Cedar City our Senior Year. Upon graduation from Rapid City Central HS I attended Northern Arizona University and graduated from there in 1970.
With a draft lottery number of 23 I was drafted the day after I graduated. I did Basic in Missouri and AIT at Ft. Ben Harrison, IN and then it was off to Vietnam. I was lucky and after a year in that hell hole I was released in Oakland and flew to Del Rio, TX where my parents were at the time. From there I traveled to South Lake Tahoe where I ended up working at Harvey’s Wagon Wheel for a couple months and then moved across the street to Harrah’s South Shore Room as a waiter at night and during the winter months during the day I was a part time ski instructor at Hidden Valley. It was a great life after Vietnam so I stayed for two years.
I then moved to Albuquerque which was closer to my parents and started looking for a real job, it was 1975 and the job market was still in the dumps so it took a while. I finally was hired by Litton Industry and was an analyst for Monroe Systems. While with Litton I lived in Denver, Morristown, NJ, and Toronto, Canada. I met my wife (Margaret) while working in Canada. After my 2 year Visa was up they moved me back to Denver. My last move with them was to Dallas.
After a great career with Monroe I retired and decided to go back to school and earn my teaching credentials. Upon graduating I taught two years in TX and then Marg and I decided to leave TX and move west. We decided on the Phoenix area. We bought our home in Fountain Hills and I was lucky to be hired to teach 6th and 7th grade history and math at the middle school in FH.
In July of 2005 I was diagnosed with tonsicular cancer and went through the radiation and chemo treatments and all went well except for my weight, swallowing and my voice. I continued teaching until the end of the 2010 school year and then retired because of my voice. In 2006 we bought a second home outside Custer, SD so we now spend our summers here, away from the excessive heat. We are now official snow birds. It is a fixer upper so it has kept me busy each summer.
This update was as short as I could make it and still have it fit in that shell. I look forward to seeing everyone at the reunion.
