EMP-51

Greetings, Alumni.

This time, the B.S. was very simple to sort out! If you see a sentence that is from Coleman and it says "work, work, work," then you know: there's the B.S. 

As for this edition of EMP-51 Class Notes, who knows what the editors will allow; good luck sorting the fact from feces. To be clear on my commentary, you will find it offset by [brackets].

This just in from Steve "Love Boy" Sullins:

	Davin Lee EMP-51 sports an understated support for the National Champs while it appears Coleman got lost in the USC Souvenir tent at the Rose Bowl.
	This photo of Davin Lee EMP-51, Coleman McDonough EMP-51 and his wife, Alex, only begs the question: "Where are Anthony and Zimmer?"
	Coleman McDonough EMP-51 negotiating with the undersecretary of Nigerian energy compliance, Temi, at a recent outing.
	Steve "Love Boy" Sullins and Coleman McDonough (both EMP-51) sip some Port in Porto, Portugal in the late afternoon sun while many sheep are freezing from their recent shearing.

"51'ers Steve Sullins and Coleman McDonough got together with a couple of others recently in Porto, Portugal for a mini-reunion weekend and some Port wine tasting. EMP-50 alum Reggie Walker was due to join in Portugal from a trip to Frankfurt but missed his flight because reading the ARRIVAL monitors instead of the DEPARTURE monitors, he was waiting at the wrong gate and had to divert to London for the weekend instead (continued below).

"Enroute to Porto from Lagos, Nigeria, Coleman flew through Heathrow and opted to spend his nine-hour layover shopping in the airport rather than with Steve at his flat in the city (and racked up an astonishing duty-free $10,000 in electronics for his new love in Nigeria). Good thing, too, since Coleman is required to shower thoroughly in scalding water prior to visits to Steve's. And after all of that shopping, Coleman has nothing warm to wear in the cool climate of the Portuguese hills other than a ridiculously oversized sweater that was probably made from the wool of 23 generations of sheep and would have probably left Amundson [or whoever] sweating profusely even on his expedition to the South Pole.

"At the conclusion of the weekend, Steve and Coleman returned to London to hook up with sidetracked Reggie Walker to watch the Superbowl at an all night sports bar, followed by an even later bout at a local casino where Coleman won back his duty-free spend playing blackjack and sipping his new drink of choice, the Pina Colada!"

Desi O'Grady (aka Daisy O'Lady) sends us this:

"Attached are a couple of pictures from the reunion in Austin last August. Sorry for the delay." [No problem, it's built into the timeline.]

"It was a great trip and it was great to catch up with the group — Andy Krupp and his wife and kids, Scott Brewer, Elizabeth Crane, Heather Robinson, Dan Rice and his wife Jennifer, Marc Zimmermann and his wife Ashley and baby Zachary, Desi and wife Kathy, and Bernie. We all stayed at Barton Creek, played some golf, hung out by the pool and hit the Austin night life. At one point Zimm owned the dance floor, it was obvious he had trained his whole life for that night. We closed out the weekend at brunch with Marc's parents and they helped us understand the hours of training that made him the capable dancer he is today.

"It was a great trip and we look forward to seeing more alums at the next reunion.

"On your other question" [which was "Any new gigs for the band?], "the band has not been playing much lately, but we did play an Irish Fest in Chicago in July and both Elizabeth and Bernie were able to make it. It was a fun night and great to see them."

[Elizabeth and Bernie get the good Samaritan award for their consistent support of EMP 51 arts!  Thanks to Heather for also sending the pictures along separately just to make sure. She confirmed a good time was had by all!]

Front row from left: Ford Racing Technology's Bernie Marcus (chief aerodynamicist), Greg Specht (chief engineer), Bill Wynne EMP-51 and Stu Smith (Team Ford Racing program manager) celebrate with an exhausted Dale Jarrett and the entire UPS/Ford NASCAR team in the Winner's Circle following the 2005 Talladega fall race.

Anthony Marino breaks radio silence for the following transmission:

"Had an amazing time at the Rose Bowl watching Texas become champs. Naturally Marino was able, along with Coleman, to secure tickets and allow Davin to escape three kids for a couple of days.

"Marino settling in to the Toyota job learning to bow and generally be polite. No easy task. Think you had trouble understanding his Boston accent? Think about those poor Japanese execs from Tokyo."

[Short & Sweet! Looked like the Heisman was misplaced this year. Coleman sent in the pictures admonishing himself for missing Zimm and Anthony with the lens.]

Elizabeth Crane checked in to let us know she went to the Rolling Stones concert in January and is still a very eligible bachelorette. Rock on, chica!

From left: Reggie "The Ernest Hemingway of EMP-50" Walker, Coleman "The World is My Home" McDonough (EMP-51) and Steve Sullins (EMP-51) celebrating the release of Reggie's new book titled, Arrivals and Departures: The real truth exposed for the Class of EMP-50

Gene McMahon got out the chart for this scribble:

"I moved to a new position as executive vice president and chief medical officer of Southcoast Health Systems, based along the southern coast of Massachusetts. Along with the CEO, CFO and COO, I am a member of the "office of the president" for this $600 million net revenue, not-for-profit, healthcare system. Victoria, the five children and I are living in nearby Barrington, RI. All is going wonderfully for now. Just spoke to Zimm and he and his family are fine down in the land of Bush."

[Thanks for the update, Gene! Congrats!!]

Helen Chionis sent in this note to catch us up:

"I am going to borrow a line from Charles Dickens: 'It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.' That pretty much sums up 2005 for me.

"As many of you know, I had a near-death experience this summer. A seemingly routine procedure went wrong and resulted in a large hole in my right lung. Then, the physicians kept giving me medication that caused damage to my liver and refused to release me from the hospital.

"Ultimately, I was fortunate enough to leave that particular hospital and go to Mission Hospital, where a great thoracic surgeon was able to operate and save my life. However, while I was in surgery, he was able to obtain some cells and I was told the stunningly bad news that my breast cancer had recurred and spread to the pleural lining in my lung. Several consultations and oncologists later, I am finally feeling better. I am on hormonal therapy, (yes, I still have my hair!) my tumor markers continue to go down and my lungs are much improved. So I would say that this series of events qualifies as the worst of times for me and my family and friends.

"The best thing that has come out of this experience (other than thanking God daily for being alive) is that I have been spending a lot of time with the kids and taking care of myself — I am doing yoga, seeing a naturopath, reading a lot of inspirational books, walking, getting massages and manicures and "doing lunch" with my friends. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has prayed for me and been supportive throughout this year. I am truly grateful for the tremendous support of my family and friends! I was extremely touched when my Kellogg teammates flew out to see me in November to cheer me up!

From left: Bob "Dudley Do Right" Muhs EMP-51, his wife "Neil" Muhs, "Rocky" Sit, "Bullwinkle" Sit, and Rob "Snidely Whiplash" (or is that Boris?) Sit EMP-51 enjoying Halloween.

[Larry Mehren (yes, mysterious Larry), Hiroshi, Eric Rozier and Dave Jerrett made the trip mentioned above.]

"That's all a bit heavy, so I'll move on to Chris and Michelle. Michelle is 11 and gets brighter and more beautiful each day. She is still my Leo and remains very artistic and dramatic — my "drama queen." Her favorite sport is swimming and she spent several weeks at Junior Lifeguards this summer. She is also a techno whiz and is busy instant messaging, surfing the Web, shopping and downloading music. We even broke down and got her a cell phone, since I was tired of answering the phone and talking to all of her friends.  

"She has scaled back on rescuing dogs and thankfully we have acquired no more pets this year. We still have Leo and Ginger (the dogs), Chester (the Siberian hamster that had a near death experience with our Siberian Husky last year) and Chirp Jr. and Midnight Blue (the two birds). 

"Chris is 8 and working on running for Congress. [Good thing he's got a head start on Zimmer's boy!] He plays baseball, soccer, football and electric guitar and has started acting again after taking the summer off. He has attended so many birthday parties this year that I have learned how to make birthday cards! When the doorbell rings, I automatically look down to see what child is at the door asking, "Can Chris play?" I am seriously considering getting a chauffeur's license, since I have spent so many hours driving Chris and Michelle to their various activities and events.

"OK, I did break down and buy a Lexus this year and the kids really like the comfort and cool gadgets.

"With my newfound wisdom on life and love of projects, I planned a family vacation to Maui this summer — I must admit, it was our reward for surviving the scary ordeal and gave me something to do during my long recovery. We had a blast in Hawaii and Chris and Bill took surfing lessons and both got up the first time. Maui is a veritable paradise with awesome sunsets!

"What is Bill doing these days? He is involved in a new business venture called Divine Products, which sells a fantastic leather product that is oil resistant, waterproof, and is washable and dryable. His company is working with DuPont (owners of the patent) to distribute the product to the hospitality design marketplace. Things are looking very promising, and we expect 2006 to be a great year for the product. I am quasi-retired, although Bill does draw on my accounting, marketing and finance knowledge periodically. I manage to keep my negotiating skills sharp with Michelle on a daily basis!

"In ending, I would like to wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2006 and thank you all again for your love, support and prayers."

[Helen, thanks for sharing this with us.  Keep up the good work!]

Larry Murphy keeps racking up the accolades and sends this along:

"ALL-STARS OF THE CHIP-MAKING INDUSTRY: 2005. These are the executives who have made the most of the year. Of course, they will tell you they are parts of bigger teams who really made it possible. [Funny, Larry mentioned nothing of his team to me.]  It's true, but these people took the point, making them the most visible for either adulation or the well-placed sniper's bullet. In doing so, they led the industry and their companies forward, [for] which we can all be thankful.

"Most Valuable Player: Larry Murphy has quickly added to SEMITOOL's strength of being a company of great innovation the ability to be a systematic manufacturer of high quality stable products.  His job could not have been easy.  Anyone who takes on a COO job under the founder of a company, especially a cowboy who's real quick on the draw, is taking on a big risk. But Larry pulled it off, as the stock price showed this year."

Guillermo Herrera was recently named president and CEO of NeoPharm, Inc., a Lake Forest-based biopharmaceutical company currently developing a brain-cancer treatment drug.

 [Way to go Guillermo – glad to hear this good news!]

Kannan Srikanth sent in a quickie:

"Nothing new in business side. In the personal front, we had our second son who is turning 1 today. [12/28/2005]"

Rob Sit sends this note with a very interesting picture:

"Halloween is upon us and full moons make people do strange things. Bob Muhs has left his job with NWA to pursue a career in law enforcement with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police."

Bob checked in on the string with this:

"As you all can see, Snidely Whiplash is up to his dirty tricks! Obviously, time in the hoosegow is in order! We can only hope that Rocky, Bullwinkle and Nell can assist in capturing the deviant!

Andrew Krupp, Scott Brewer, Elizabeth Crane, Desi O'Grady, Heather Robinson, and Daniel Rice (all EMP-51) under the watchful eye of Bernie Birt (right) at a mini-reunion

The largest amount of e-mail traffic came in response to Barbara Oppelz's note about a California ski weekend.  It drew commentary from no less than Serge Tarazi, Coleman, Ryan "My Little Leprechaun" Roberts, Chris "No, I have a better idea for venue" Keil and Kannan! I thought we had another reunion brewing! Let's have some pictures and an update, Barbara!

Davin Lee also reports a new addition

"We had our third child last Tuesday [9/6/2005]. Jacob Andrew Lee was born Aug. 30, weighing in at 6 pounds, 10 ounces and measuring 19.5 inches. Decent specs — let's see what he does with them. [Something tells me he'll follow in Daddy's footsteps.]

"Personally, I continue to enjoy my assignment in the racing world and look forward to seeing you at a track soon!"

Thank you for your continued support and communication. Keep those pictures, cards and letters coming – you're what makes it great!

P.S. This installment of EMP-51 Class Notes marks the eighth round of "Can You Guess the B.S.?" To enter you must reply back to me with some news about you and your guess as to which of the aforementioned stories is NOT TRUE. There will be numerous prizes awarded for correct answers. Multiple guesses are allowed.