Comments:
Upon graduating from Santa Clara High I worked the first summer as a recreation leader for the Santa Clara Parks & Rec. Dept. Near the end of the summer I started working as a night custodian in San Jose. I worked there for two years and went part-time to City College.
For the next two school years I went to Foothill College after leaving my custodian job. I went back to work for the recreation department and worked after school as well as summers.
During those first four years I was able to keep in touch with some of my friends like Jan Schulz, Jeff Smith, Tom Bender, Billy Bayer, Gene Renstrom, Matt Sredanovich, and Bert Stringer. (I found this website yesterday and learned that Billy, Gene and several other classmates have passed away.) I also played some night league basketball.
After graduating from Foothill I transferred to San Jose State. I continued to work for Parks & Rec. for most of the two years I was there. So, I still saw some of my Santa Clara friends.
After graduating from San Jose State I worked for Wells Fargo Bank in the Trust-Tax Department as a tax administrator. I also worked in the automated business service department before transferring to the Marketing Department. I managed a personal tax preparation service in 89 branches. Then I did product development work.
In 1973 I took a marketing planning position with a major bank in Chicago for two years. It's a wonderful city with lots of good people there. I think you can find good people just about anywhere when you take the blinders off. The weather in Chicago is about as bad as it gets in the lower 48, however.
After a couple years I was invited back to San Francisco to work at Crocker Bank. I was back in the city where I was born.
At Crocker, I held various product management positions as well as line positions over the next six years before I was brought to Dallas, Texas to work for the The Associates Financial Services Company (a diversified financial services company with branches in 43 states). My second winter in Dallas we experienced the coldest winter on record. It was like being back in Chicago. You can dress for cold weather. But, those summers with low temperatures around 80° and highs much higher than that, I concluded that the weather in Dallas was pretty bad too. Duh.
I transferred back to the Bay Area to take a position as Senior Credit Policy Officer for The Associates credit card operation in Pleasanton. Later I took a position with Citibank in San Francisco (Credit Policy and Risk Management for California and Nevada). In 1999 the marketplace credit policy positions (5 regions of the U. S.) were discontinued. At Citibank you don't get laid off. Your job is discontinued. So, I was gone long before the mortgage lending fiasco/disaster/stupidity. You pick the descriptor for the mortgage melt down.
Last year my doctors detected cancer in my larynx (voice box). 28 radiation treatments later, the cancer is gone. Fortunately, we caught the cancer early. It's unlikely that it will return.
The treatments damaged my thyroid which caused me to gain weight. I had already gain weight anyway. So, I have lots of work to do to get close to acceptable. But, there aren't any other lasting effects of the cancer. Don't be lazy or too frightened to visit your doctor when something isn't right with your body. Good things can happen when the cause is detected early.
I visit Jan Schulz and his wife, Patty, in Murphys (near Angles Camp) a couple times a year. They retired from teaching in the area and opened a spice shop. So, I work in the shop when I visit. I usually bring plenty of good wine with me and we eat at some good local restaurants.
I was also fortunate to share a couple emails with my old friend Bert Stinger. I don't think I've crossed paths with any other classmates since the 25th reunion. After looking at the photos from the most recent reunion and reading some of the profiles, it looks like many classmates are living wonderful, satisfying lives. I am happy to learn about those of you who were kind enough to share your information in your profiles. You motivated me to create this partial life history. But, I am saddened to learn about the passing of classmates that have had such significant impacts on my life.
