Mary Ellen (Heise) Schnell and Frederick Schnell

Fred and Mary Ellen both are graduates of the 1958 class and met in the last months of our senior year.

We were married in September, 1960, in Waukesha, and moved to Lower Genesee Lake, Oconomowoc, in 1963, where we still reside.  We were blessed with three children, two boys and one girl and presently have six grandchildren, four girls and two boys all living in this area.

Fred attended Milwaukee School of Engineering after High School and worked various other industries prior to owning and operating a machine shop called “Schnell Precision Machining” for 35 years and is now retired.  He is active in the Kiwanis Club of Oconomowoc, the Glacial Garden Railway Club of Wisconsin and family activities.  Fred enjoys reading, fishing, working on trains, traveling, friends and family activities.

Mary Ellen has been a bookkeeper for 35 years, an Ex/Housekeeper for Olympia Resort and payroll clerk positions over the years.  She is active in her church women’s groups with many years of leadership both at local and district levels.  Also, active in her church choir, Oconomowoc Music Club, Glacial Garden Railroad and family activities.  She enjoys gardening, sewing, trains, stamp collecting, music, church activities, swimming, traveling, friends and family activities.

A month before we graduated my father came to me and said "I'm going bankrupt your mother and I are going sererate ways.  I don't know what you're going to do but you can't stay here.  PANIC!  I ended up in the 82'd Airborne Div. in Fort Bragg. Got out a month early then in two weeks 82d was sent to Vietnam.
Went to UW Madison met my first wife. Took over Rich Gagen's job at survey research lab and met her there. A couple of years after we graduated moved to Fresno CA. She as professor of accounting at Fresno State and I got my MBA in Santa Clara.  I worked in IT.
I had a good life but drank too much.  Finally left marriage and started running.  Ran ten marathons including Boston twice. That cured me 25 years ago. Wife died from it.
I was a Sierra Club leader in Central California for a long time and contributed to a number of significant issues -Condor, Wilderness Act. etc.
Married a tiny and wonderful lady 22 years ago.
I worked for Wang, a mid sized compuer company that was destroyed by the PC's. Then became a broker for Merrill Lynch.  Didn't gererate a lot of commissions but really learned to invest.  
Moved to Seattle about 10 years ago.  My wife works as dental hygeinist, I tend our portfolio, very part time.  But do better than when I was working.
We travel alot.  Six continents 40 countries, 48 states. Tanzania in July. No children except 2 I inherited with Vickey. Retired 10 yrs, keep busy with house and yard projects reading economis investing world trade, current event books, working out hard 4X a week, doing investment research, training trialing and hunting my Ger. Wirehaired pointer, Seahawks tickets, concerts play, art festivals - never bored.
Love Seattle , doesn't rain THAT much, Have view of Ranier and water and ferries.  Fat but healthy great wife good life.  Looking forward to seeing you at our reunion.

After high school graduation, I worked in the office of Waukesha Foundry.  In 1960 I married Wendell Smith and soon started a family.  Shortly after we were married, we bought a small mini-farm in Delafield and started our collection of animals.  In 1971 we bought a small dairy farm in the Town of Lebanon in Dodge County where we still live.

In between raising a family and helping with farm chores, I went back to school at Madison Area Tech and earned an Associate Degree in Mid-Management/Accounting.  I worked as Purchasing agent at Watertown Memorial Hospital for 28 years.  Wendell and I are now both retired and enjoying the good life!  We have done some traveling with our small fifth-wheeler but our favorite place is our log cabin on the peaceful Peshtigo River in Marinette County.

We have three children.  Kim and husband Scott have three children, Meghan 23 yrs., Jeff who is 21 yrs and Steven who is 17 and still in high school.  Pam lives near Mosinee, WI and is married to Paul and has a big black dog, and our son Jay and wife Rachel are parents of our other two grandchildren, Kaitlyn who is 13 and Jacob who is 11 yrs old.  We’ve been fortunate to have our five grandchildren near by and be able to watch them grow up and that makes us very busy attending their activities.

We’ll be at the reunion and look forward to a fun time.

I worked as a carpenter and mason in my family business.

Enlisted in the army in 1961. (Signal Corp.)  Deployed to Germany in Jan. 1962 and remained there until my discharge in May of 1964.

Once I was discharged, I moved to Arizona.  After taking it easy for a few months and traveling, I got a job in construction renovating residential properties.  At that time, I met my first wife.  We married in 1965 and were divorced in 1991.  We had two children.

After some schooling in communications, I was hired by the AT&SF railroad as a relief agent.  I worked there for some time, but realized that the future for the railroad wasn’t looking very bright.  I then went to work for Sperry flight systems division as a quality control inspector.  Sperry designed and manufactured auto pilot systems for commercial and military air craft.  I decided that I wanted to try real estate and stayed in it for four years.

In 1977 I had an opportunity to move to Steam Boat Springs, Colorado and work for a construction company as a superintendent on large commercial and residential properties.  I had visited there several times and loved the area.  It was a great place to hunt and fish which I enjoyed.  After the down turn in the economy in 1984, I decided to return to Arizona once again.  I started my own construction company.  After about ten years, I made a decision to return to Wisconsin because of my family.  Shortly after returning, I met my wife, Barbara, and we were married in 2000.  I have continued working in construction since being back and enjoy what I do.

P.S.  I would like to thank everyone involved for the time and effort they put into the 50^th class reunion.  Congratulations for a fantastic job!