Karie Claxon Turnage

It’s still hard to believe that it’s been 30 years since graduating from high school!! I’ve had a chance to read a lot of your comments, very fun reading! I think our reunion website is awesome - thanks for making it happen!

After high school, I tried to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. Funny part is that I started nursing (RN) school right away, but couldn’t handle other students giving me shots for practice! Today, I’m planning my second degree which will be back in nursing school (BSN)!

I’ve been at The Boeing Company almost 20 years (August) now. I work in Boeing Commercial Airplanes Engineering as a Business Operations Specialist/Project Manager for engineering work transfers. It’s a great company which has provided a ton of opportunity for me. I’ve also worked as a Engineering Regulatory Compliance Analyst (FAA - DOA/engineering technical and self-assessment audits), a Quality specialist (certified QMS 3rd party internal auditor), computer programmer (the really old mainframe stuff!), but my favorite was working in Flight Test as an Aircraft Maintenance Planner (experimental aircraft operating limitations, special inspections, storage, B-checks, daily, transit, etc.). I noticed that a lot of folks in our class are also in the aerospace industry!!

I married once and have 2 grown boys. I’m not even going to mention their ages! They also live in the Seattle area and are doing well.

I love to ski (downhill and cross-country), I finally stopped mountain climbing even though it was my passion (I lost my partner of 12 years in a climbing accident on Mt. Rainier), and now keep to the simple stuff like camping (no more tents for me – we have a camper and may upgrade to a motor home at retirement), fishing (we just bought a boat – check out boultonpowerboats.com) and traveling (my last adventure was to Brazil). Still trying to learn the fly-fishing without hooking each other in the face (yes, he caught himself!). Our next big trip will be to Australia, I’ve never been (he has numerous times for Boeing). We want to spend at least a month there to visit Sidney, Hunter Valley wine country, Gold Coast, and to the outback (Alice Springs).

I sure hope I’ll be able to attend our reunion!