Occupation: retired

Comment:
I will not be able to attend the reunion but wish to say hello to everyone and look forward to the 100th reunion even if it may not be here on earth.
I decided to add a little more about my life as I so enjoyed reading about everyone elses.  I married in '58 and divorced in '67 with two children in tow.  I met my second husband in the pickle aisle at Kohl's Food Store where I was working at the time.  We had our first date on Friday the 13th in June of 1969 and married 6 months later. We had a son named Michael who was our only child.  Bob had a daughter from his first marriage, so together we had four.  Bob also spent time in the regular army and was stationed at Ft. Lewis WA till 1963.  We lost our son to a heart attack at the age of 33 in 2004 and I lost my beloved on Good Friday to cancer 2006 after 36 years of a very passionate and loving marriage.
I worked in retail most of my life but ended up working for the State of Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs where I retired from in 2002.

Occupation: Retired

Comment:
After graduation in 1958 I started working for General Castings as a quality control inspector. In 1986 I transferred to Navistar International where I continued working in quality contol. In 2002 I retired from Navistar. I came out if retirement in 2003 to work part time at Waukesha Memorial as Building Service Engineer. I married Janie in 1966 and have 4 children and have 12 grandchildren.   

Comment:
My family moved to Waukesha at the beginning of junior year, so I spent only two years with you.  During those two years, however, I found a wonderful group of friends and great school spirit for the Blackshirts!Four years later I graduated from Mt. Mary College, worked for the Milwaukee Girl Scout Council, married and moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Several moves later and five children - all daughters - it was off to Sheboygan, Wisconsin where I lived with my husband, Jim for 37 years until his death in 2001. In 2003 Conrad Barrows and I were married and built a home on Elkhart Lake, WI. We are now the collective parents of seven children and 13 grandchildren. We love to travel, play golf and ski. I still ride horses, garden, do a good deal of charitable work and continue to enjoy life! It will be wonderful to see you all at the reunion. Barby Vandiver Barrows

Comment:
Attended UW-Whitewater and Marquette University.
Married Fred Beckmann in 1961
Divorced:  1975
Children:  3, John, Tammy, Robert
Grandchildren:  5 ½, Brittany, Danielle, Trevor, Hailey, Hannah and ?
Lived in Sarasota, FL for 10 years.
Employment:  AODA Therapist at Kettle Moraine & De Paul Hospitals
  Director of Kettle Moraine AODA Clinic
Presently Community Coordinator at Waukesha Wal-Mart

Occupation: Retired Engineer

Comment:
Been retired for 7 years. Keep busy by volunteering with the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society, Ariz.Antelope Foundation, Ariz. Wildlife Foundation and Ariz. State Parks, one of which is our backyard. Love to sail, travel, camp, fish, and hunt predators.

Occupation: Retired social worker

Comment:
After graduating from WHS, I attended Carroll for three semesters before transferring to UW Madison where I earned a degree in sociology. I married Dan in 1965, and we settled in Portage where his dental practice was located. When my youngest children were 10, I reentered the workforce and spent a year as a reporter for our daily newspaper followed by five years as an adoption social worker. In 2003, I retired from Columbia Co. DHHS where I was a social worker in the Children and Family Division. Substitute teaching helped me ease into retirement (and I thought social work was stressful) but I'm wrapping that up at the end of the current school year. Dan and I were divorced in 1990 but remain friends. The two of us enjoy spending time together with children and grandchildren. I have a small home in Saddle Ridge, a growing condo community four miles east of Portage. I love being surrounded by stately pines, home to abundant wildlife and the neighboring marsh with its everchanging colors and textures. Swan Lake is only a 20 min. walk.From time to time I see Judy Ragen Schwingel and Kathy Juedes Graf who live in Waukesha and, after a 40 yr. hiatus, Helen Burk Einberger and I recently got together. I look forward to seeing all of you at the reunion.

Occupation: happily retired teacher

Comment:
Three years in the  Army after graduating UW-Madison taught me that focus was essential since study habits and learning to make the rules work for me were not a part of my high school or college experience.  It may be that the two and  a half years duty in Paris was the first real contact with things and people that gave me unequivocal pleasure.    It hurt leaving, but re-upping would have guaranteed me fun and games in Vietnam, and it's possible , then, that I might not have become the father of three sons whom I raised despite a divorce.   After the service  I started with IBM in Chicago, which I found a hard switch from wine and escargot . So I decided I could make a difference by teaching "inner-city" kids on Chicago's westside.  Seven years and a few riots  later,  I returned to Wisconsin to finish my career teaching high school in Delavan and retired in 2001.    I didn't have kids until I was forty, so I am still very active in my sons' lives.  I run about twenty-five miles  a week, I read all sorts of things,enjoy cooking,  work on my Hungarian and  French,  spend lots  of time blogging to major newspapers because my experience has only reinforced my "bleeding-heart" liberal tendencies.

Occupation: Retired

Comment:
Before I graduated from high school I started working part time at Waukesha Savings and Loan.  I spent 42 years working at Savings and Loans or Savings Banks and recently retired from The Equitable Bank after working there 27.5 years.  I have been married 47 years to my husband, Wayne Birner.  We have three children, 1 daughter, Linda and 2 sons, Bill and Jason.  They have given us 4 grandchildren; grandson Nick just turned 21 and Bill has 3 children; Lauren 11, Amy 8 and precious Ryan 13 months.  Because retirement is so new to me I'm still finding my way.  I love to crochet and read.  My husband and I sing in our church choir and I'm the financial secretary for our church for the past 11 years.  Our health currently is good and we have been truly blessed these past 50 years.

Occupation: retired

Comment:
I worked in Waukesha until Aug 63 when the US Army came calling. Did basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood Mo. then to soils analyst school at Ft. Belvoir, Va. Stationed in Japan from Jan 64 to Jan 66 where I met my wife of 43 years. Reiko.  Two daughters, Robin 1965 and Rhonda 1969, three grandchildren, Kiana 1997, Deric 2001, and Peyton (girl) 2004. Entered Air Force in 1967 and retired in California in 1985. Had assingments in Illinois, Oklahoma, Viet Nam, Virginia, Mississippi, Japan again, and California, where I retired. While stationed at these places I was sent on many  temporary duty assignments. One was on the USS Discoverer, a NOAA ship doing research in the Caribbean,and then through the Panama Canal to the Pacific, and on to the Gallopagos Islands for four days. Other places I was sent include Okinawa, Korea, Alaska, Wake Island, Eniwetok Atoll, Phillipines, Hawaii, and Spain. After retirement I worked for the Air Force as a technical advisor on the Electronic Warfare Threat Emitter Systems placed on all the training ranges. This was an extremely interesting job. Retired again in 1999 . My days now consist of golf, gardening, taking care of my 50 chickens, 10 ducks, six geese, and 2 dogs. We also take care of Peyton a couple of days a weekI        

Occupation: Retired

Comment:

Hi,  I guess I will have to get you an update on what I've been doing for the last fifty years. 
 
1958--Navy Boot Camp Great Lakes IL, then, Aviation Fundamentals school in Norman, OK, then to Aviation Electronics school in Memphis TN.
1959-1961-Stationed in Norfolk VA,  Worked on target drones used for ship gunnery practice. Deployed aboard a wide variety of ships,but mostly Cruisers.  We did most our operation anywhere from the North Atlantic to the Caribbean Most of these were short 2 or 3 week  in duration. Did make one 6 month cruise to the Mediterranean.  Made ports in Italy, Spain, Greece, and France. I actually met up with Ken Stickles(1957) in one port as his ship, a destroyer, was in port the same time my ship was.  I was really enjoying the navy so up and reenlisted for 6 more years and a guarantee of going to an more advanced Electronics school.  Then I met Nora and we were married about 2 months later.  Bought a mobile home and moved it to Memphis for school again, actually we had it moved. Eight months of school and one baby(son James Jr.) later we were on our way back to VA this time to Virginia Beach, about 29 miles from where we were in Norfolk.  This time(1962-1964) I was on shore duty. Only had to go out on one cruise for about a week when we had a group of pilots that had to get qualified for carrier landings before they were sent to sea duty squadrons.I was at sea when JFK was killed and we went to General Quarters for a few hours till they got word of what had happened.  Nora and I lived in our mobile home until our second bundle from heaven arrived(daughter Dianna), then we sold the trailer and moved into base housing.  After 30 months of shore duty, we were once more on our way to sea duty,(1964-1967),  By this time I had reached the rank of E-6.  Our squadron was in Florida at a base(NAS Cecil Field) just outside of Jacksonville. We bought a house about 15 miles from the base.  While stationed here I went on another cruise to Med. Basically the same ports as before but also Turkey and Cyprus this time.  After about 6 mo at home I was off again, this time to Vietnam. We sailed from Mayport, Fl. and stopped in Rio for 2 days before heading across the south Atlantic on way to South China sea.  Half way across the Atlantic I found out My dad had died, I could have been flown off to Capetown when we got across but by then the funeral was over and Nora and the kids were up there to help my mom and aunt, so I opted to stay with the ship and see everyone after I got back.  this was not an easy cruise and I had a bunch of green kids to watch out for.  We would spend thirty days on the line off Vietnam 15 days day ops and then 15 days night ops. I worked the night crew (12 hrs on 12 hrs off) During day ops we would fix the aircraft at night and during night ops we would work the flightdeck and help lauching aircraft.
After 30 days of operation we would go to port for about 7 days, then back to the line for 30 days again. Some of the ports of call were Hong Kong, Yokuska, Japan and Subic Bay, Philipines. After our operational duties were over and we were getting ready to start back to our home port in Mayport, FL, I reenlisted for another 4 years and flew home early via Clark AF base Philippines to Tokyo and on to San Francisco, then to New Orleans where three of us rented a car and drove to Orange Park completing my round the world trip.  About 6 months later I received transfer orders to Instructor Training school back in Memphis for the third time but only for 6 weeks this time.  Nora and the kids went to stay with her folks in WV.  After IT school we were stationed at NAS Patuxent River in Maryland, where I taught electronic maintenance courses for about 4 years.  I  was promoted to E-7 during my first year.  While stationed here I also had a second job at the base EM club as a bouncer for awhile then took the job of running the package store for a couple of years.  Also taught sunday school for about a year and coached little league baseball for a couple go years, and worked alittle with PTA groups and cub scouts and brownies, this four years was definitely a fun pack experience for the family.  Nora got a job as a teachers aide  which allowed me to quit my part time work which let us more time to enjoy life.  But all good things come to an end and when we left Patuxent River we went back to Memphis once more for more advanced electronics schooling for me.  This was about a year and at the end I found out that I had passed the test and qualifications for E-8 and would be promoted within the next six months, meanwhile I received my orders to sea duty once again this time to a Recon squadron in Albany Ga.  During this tour of duty I didn'thave alot of home time but the kids were older now and lots of help for Nora.  I had 2 deployments to the South China sea.  One on the carrier Enterprise first cruise (9 months), and the second  on the carrier Ranger (6 months), during this second cruise the base at Albany was closed and everyone had to move to Key West, Nora had a good time doing this LOL.  When finally settled in Key West, everyone was happy and Nora went to work in the billing office of the local hospital so she could afford to get the kids all the things they needed for sports and scuba diving.  I made it to Key West about 3 months later after the squadron finished our deployment, which was my last one.  After Key West we transferred to Cecil Field in Jacksonville Florida for our last tour of duty.  I was once more assigned to a training unit, although not as an instructor, this time I was in charge of about 30 avionics instructors and had to schedule about 45 courses and instructor cross training to keep up with the fleets needs.  The last year I was in charge of the whole unit of about 150 instructors of all the aviation ratings, which was quite a bit easier to tell the truth.  During these last few years I also worked parttime at Sears automotive. Nora started a Medical Billing Service which lasted 20 years. After I retired in 1979 I went to a votech school in carpentry for a year as well as going college at night to get a degree in Manufacturing technology,  Really I was just going to be able to get student loans to help put both kids through Florida State University, I looked at it as sort of a part time job and it all worked out in the end with all of us graduating.  About a year after retiring from the navy I got a job with a fiberglass manufacturing plant in Green Cove Springs, a town just south of Orange Park where we live.  The job was interesting but fairly hard work. We made 6' diameter pipe with 6" wall thickness and we would cut them up to make elbows and wye shapes,  Lots of cutting and lots of dust.  I would get home  and take a shower with a stiff bristle brush and them relax or go to night school two or three nights a week.  After about 18 months of this I was contacted by Naval Aviation Rework Facility at NAS Jacksonville that they had a job opening if I wanted it.  No big decision here as the pay was double what I was making and the benefits were way better, not to mention the work was much much easier.  So the next 22 years I repaired aviation electronic equipment .  During this period Noras company did great and allowed us to buy a small RV that we would use mainly to go to FSU football games, great fun.  We also went on some trips but only a few as our work kept us pretty tied down.  After 10 years we sold it and can't say we're sorry because now that we're both retired we are really tied down by health.  The year I retired for the second time I had open heart surgery with triple by pass and Nora was 10 days in the hospital with COPD and is on Oxygen 24/7. 
   Both kids have great spouses, Jimmy Jr was in the Army for about 10 years , he was first stationed at Fort Lewis, WA. he was only there about 6 months before he was sent to become a helicopter pilot at Fort Rucker in AL, he got his wings and flew AH-64's until he had enough of the Army and came back home and settled down with a wonderful girl from Indiana.  They live about 20 min. away and we see them and our granddaughter (5 yrs old) frequently and love it.   Dianna and her husband both graduated the same year from FSU the same year, He (Greg) was in ROTC and was commissioned at graduation . They were married about 6 mo. later. Greg was in the Army for 20 years. They now live in the Tampa Bay area and have three kids Greg Jr 22, Tyler 21 and Cassidy 14.  We see them at least 3-4 times a year.   This just about finishes this. fsujim@aol.com