1985

Greetings Class of '85. I hope you are all well, have survived the winter months and are beginning to think spring. It has been a long time since I had been in touch with many of you, but thanks to the LinkedIn network, I was able to track down several of you.

Donna Neumann is pleased to announce that in September, she and her husband Jeff Schneider adopted a baby girl from China. This is their first child. So far she says they are loving parenthood and are not too sleep deprived. Donna also noted that she is still with Personnel Decisions International, doing HR strategy consulting. She is working 80 percent time and has a nanny, which keeps things reasonably sane. She is based in Atlanta.

JT McDonald and his wife, Sarah, live in Spring Lake, Mich. JT runs MarketNet, a marketing services company that provides sales lead generation and sales lead management systems for clients. It has been in business since 2000 and has 25 employees. On the family front, JT reports that he has a daughter who is a sophomore at Notre Dame, and another who is a junior in high school who is interested in studying theater at Northwestern. JT and his family are in touch with Grant and Brenda Vathauer Slade. The two families went skiing together a few years ago in Denver.

I had the pleasure of visiting with Peter Colgan and his wife, Susan, this January on a trip to Boston. All is good with the Colgans. Peter is with Integra Radionics working on neurosurgical medical devices. He and Susan are living in the Boston area. Their oldest son, Tom, is a freshman at St. Michael's College in Burlington, Vt., and their youngest, Drew, is a freshman in high school. Tom just received his Eagle Scout designation, and Drew is well on his way.

Gretchen Lux Reed and Henry Reed report in their holiday letter that they are "older." Their oldest son is a sophomore at Thatcher, a boarding school in Ojai, Calif., and their daughter Eda is in eighth grade and "all soccer, all the time."

Jan-Peter Onstwedder and Carol Hamcke Onstwedder exhaust me every year with all the excursions they have the pleasure of taking. Ah, the benefits of living in Europe. They admitted to not getting out Christmas cards last year because of a trip to the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador. In the spring, they were in Texel, an island in the Netherlands, and the summer brought them to St. Petersburg as well as to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Their two daughters, Elizabeth (14) and Madeleine (11), are into many of the usual teenage sports and musical activities. Jan-Peter has been working on a climate change project, the London Accord, sponsored by the City of London that allowed him to be on a parade float in the annual Lord Mayor's Show. Carole is happy being at home. She is doing lots of swimming, tennis and running (she completed a 5K race with her daughter Elizabeth). She is also taking a class in urban development.

I don't know who spends more time traveling, the Onstwedders or Mary Mickelson Schwartz. Mary is still working part time for Northwest Airlines in the cruise, ski and tour products, and truly takes advantage of the travel privileges. Their travels this year brought her and her husband, Mark, daughter Alex (13) and son Kyle (10) together or in parts, to Phoenix; Steamboat, Colo.; Riviera Maya, Mexico; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; and Cleveland.

Spyros Kapsalis send this update: "We welcomed a new baby boy, Konstantine, KSM 2030."

Rob Ahrensdorf writes: "I have recently completed training and certification in being a life coach and am happy to work with any Kellogg students or alumni who want to transform their lives with other significant individuals in their lives. E-mail me at rahrensdorf@cox.net to find out more about how you can achieve your goals with those most important to you."

It is always a pleasure to hear from you. If I missed any correspondence, please accept my apologies. My computer died this fall, and took to its grave many of my important files – including e-mail messages, etc. Feel free to resend information that I have not included. Until the next Kellogg World, stay well and stay in touch.