1986

I heard from many classmates over the holidays, so this will be a very easy newsletter to write. Chip Ross wrote from Louisville that I should let Canh Le know that he is not the only stay-at-home dad. Chip left the world of full-time work 10 years ago to rear his two boys, Casey (14) and Andy (12). It has been a wonderful experience for him. He was recently promoted to CFO of the household and reports directly to the CEO, Carol, his wife. He stays busy by working part-time, volunteering at the boys' school and local nonprofits and taking piano lessons. He is considering going back to the full-time grind, but in my opinion, isn't that what a spouse is for? If the family ever visits Hawaii, they plan to visit/stay with Dan Lambert. They will call first.

Ada Koch and family are still doing very well in Prairie Village, Kan. Last year the whole family took a trip to Ireland to visit Ada's sister, whose family is living there for a year. The home renovations are in their third year. They hope to complete the renovations by the time Kevin retires so they can sell the house and move into a brand new condo. They just need to find a condo with a six-car garage to handle Kevin's Corvair collection. The children are all very active. RJ (16) is seen by his parents only when his car needs care. He splits his time between playing jazz on the tenor sax or the clarinet, running track, playing soccer, sailing and earning the rank of Eagle Scout. Gwen is pursuing her love of music. She was in two high school musicals last year and was in the cast of "Hello Dolly" last summer. She performed with the Kansas City Lyric Opera in their production of the "Magic Flute." It was her first professional gig. She is checking out many universities and it appears that she will not attend college near Kansas City. Megan is at Boston College and is studying communications. She has learned that this is more than text and instant messaging her friends. She was on the crew team for a while, but prefers to run and hopes to run the Boston Marathon this April. Ada is still painting and teaching painting and serves as president of the Kansas City Artist's Coalition. She also volunteers with the Kemper Art Museum, church and the children's schools. Kevin saves lives, rides bikes and plays with his Corvairs.

Jill Weaver Brown recently became the vice president of marketing at Central DuPage Hospital. Her responsibilities include communications, advertising, community outreach and promotional marketing. Prior to joining the hospital, she was a vice president at Harris Bank.

Shaun Holliday and his wife, Chris, are busy dealing with teenagers and all of the joys and challenges that teenagers provide. The parents did have a very nice getaway during a walking tour of Tuscany. Chris received some nice cashmere. They were also happy that none of their family or friends was involved in the round up of mafia figures.

John and Karen Coons are enjoying life in Chicago. They are working on a few home-remodeling projects. John is still enjoying the peace and quiet of the banking industry.

Mark Schwartz and family have had a very busy year. Daughter Alex (13) spends her time twirling her baton, skiing, ice skating, tumbling, playing the clarinet, jumping on the trampoline and cooking. Kyle (10) also tumbles, jumps on the trampoline, plays the piano, skis and has started to play the trumpet. Mary '85 is still working at Northwest Airlines on their cruise, ski and tour products. She is learning to play Guitar Hero and still makes the best peanut clusters in the greater Twin Cities area. Mark has reduced the number of car accidents, but increased the number of skiing accidents. Apparently, Mark was training to be a member of the ski patrol and during his training his instructor crashed into Mark. At least that is Mark's story. Mark has also been working very hard on his new business, 161 Design (161Design.com). The family travels during the year included Steamboat, Colo.; Phoenix; Mexico; Cleveland and South Bend, Ind.

Lauren Schreiner and her family spent the holidays in San Francisco, missing a white Christmas in Wisconsin. Don't worry it will be white in January, February, March and April. Her daughter Kristin spent last fall in Japan as part of the Youth for Understanding scholarship program. Kevin started high school last fall and joined the Latin club and the ski team. Husband Jim is still a master griller.

Ron Leaf and his family are doing well. His oldest daughter, Alison, is a junior at Cornell and is majoring in biochemistry. She is considering going to graduate school and is looking at the best schools in the country. The younger daughter, Jessica, is a senior in high school. She will select her college soon (I'm sure it will have been finalized by the publication of this update). She plans on studying biology. Ron's wife, Mary, continues to work as a special education paraprofessional at the elementary school that the kids attended. They had a nice family ski vacation in Winter Park, Colo. I try to get Ron to join Kevin and I in Utah, but Northwest always has lower airfares to Colorado. Maybe Mary Schwartz can change that for next year. Ron is still working at LFE Capital making investments in small, private companies. He stays in shape by refereeing soccer games. He was selected to do the U19 girls state championship final this past summer, so he must be doing something right. He also did a high school game last fall that Martha and Greg Pomerantz's daughter played in. He saw only Greg after the game (Martha must not be a soccer mom). Greg claimed that he was not one of the parents that were harassing the refs.

Josh Field and family are enjoying life in Florida. Josh is always interested in what our classmates are doing.

Cindi Bigelow's family got a second dog, a yorkie named Oreo. They also went skiing in Vermont over Christmas. They helped Tim Mendola celebrate his wife Kristen's birthday. They hope to see Matt and Ellin Smith for dinner very soon. And in more dog news, Cindi reports that her goddaughter, Kira Gyongyosi (Thomas and Natalie's daughter) just got their first dog, a black lab named Chimba.

Jack Tenney and Strauss Mann, 9-year-old sons of David Tenney and Tony Mann play on the Greenwich Wings Travel Hockey team together. David excelled at intramural hockey at Kellogg, while Tony's ice experience was limited to broomball. Tony, I still have a dozen sticks when you are ready.

William (Willy) Kotas was married March 14 at sundown on Praia Grande beach in Ubatuba, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Willy's wife, Érika, is from Cáceres, Mato Grosso, a small city located near the Bolivian border. Sao Paulo is their mutual home (for Érika since December 2007, for Willy since November 2004). That doesn't leave too many bachelors in our class.

Oyvind Solvang finished 39th in the open division of the 51 kilometer Birkebeiner Cross Country ski race. His time was 2 hours, 17 minutes and 38 seconds. He was only a little over 10 minutes behind the winner, who competed for Russia in the 2006 Olympics and is only 27 years old. If we had had an intramural cross country team back in the day, we could have been very competitive. Oyvind will not reveal the wax he uses in competition.

Other than being the coldest and snowiest winter in Milwaukee that I can remember, not much is going on here. I have zipped up my jacket a few times, when the temperature went below zero. I had a great ski vacation in Park City. I stayed with Kevin Damon and his family. It was only 10 degrees, but it was still warmer than Milwaukee. Kevin and his two boys (Travis and Parker) and I had the first tiddlywinks championship held in the state of Utah. Kevin's daughter Katie refereed. I was there during the Sundance Film Festival and I did see Kevin Bacon in a lift line at Deer Valley. So I now have zero degrees of separation. I am still managing commercial property and teaching at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. If any of you are planning to be in the Milwaukee area, I would love to have you as a guest lecturer for a night. The students always enjoy hearing stories of what the real world is like. The plan to lose weight is still in progress. The plan to get taller failed, so I now sleep wearing a CPAP machine. It forces air into my nose so my snoring is more like a new born baby instead of a freight train on an old track. The wife says it's like sleeping with Darth Vader, but she enjoys the quiet.