1986

As always I received a very informative holiday letter from Ada Murray Koch. All three children are doing very well. Megan ran in last year's Boston Marathon and spent last fall studying at the University of Paris. Gwen sang with the Kansas City Lyric Opera and used some of her earnings to travel to Africa, where she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. RJ competed in track and soccer and trained for two triathlons. All of them do additional musical stuff, either singing or playing instruments. Ada is involved with many charity groups, especially the Kansas City art scene. Husband Kevin also mentioned that after four years, most of the major home remodeling is finished. Ada said that now that they are almost empty nesters, she might want something smaller.

Tony Mann and family have moved into a new house. With all of the turmoil in the financial industry, Tony bought four investment bankers out and tore down their mansions to put up something really nice. It is nice having 16 guest bedrooms. Tony didn't run for vice president, but he is a hockey dad. In December, he went to Lake Placid, N.Y., where his son's team came away with the gold and he came away with $200 in photos (did you know it only takes six minutes to print out a poster size photo?). Sally and Tony just came back from Russia on a great trip to Moscow and St Petersburg. Fred O'Connor was going to join them as a stowaway in their luggage, but now that the airlines charge per bag, Fred was told he couldn't come. At work, Tony's company is finishing the electrical work on the new Yankee Stadium and Hollister's (his two teenage daughters think he is cool now).

Because I missed the last edition of Kellogg World, Willy Kotas suggested that, "Kellogg World needs to install a 'last call' bell in your house like those ones they have at the English pubs ... hahaha." Willy was between visas for two months and was in Mexico City. His wife Erika was on vacation from university classes over the same timeframe, so she went to Mexico City too. It's nice for newlyweds to live in the same city.

Cindi Bigelow reports that things are going strong at Bigelow Tea. They had a very solid year despite much turmoil in the economy. She believes people turn to tea to comfort them during these challenging times. And for years I thought it was beer. On the family front, her oldest daughter Meghan is in the throes of looking for a college. Talk about stress! Luckily they are all healthy and happy. Cindi had dinner in December with Tim Mendola, his wife Kristen and Matt Smith and his wife Ellin. They had a ball together arguing over politics.

Ron Leaf saw Mike Losenegger in Madison, Wis., while he was visiting daughter Jessica. Tom Erickson served as stadium announcer for his daughter's high school soccer team last fall. He gets credit for correct pronunciation of the referee's name (Ron Leaf) and did an outstanding job managing the clock. Greg Pomerantz was not the stadium announcer for his daughter's high school soccer team, but he did stop by to say hello after the game.

Mark Schwartz and Mary '85 are based in Minneapolis but their holiday newsletter suggests their home is just a large closet. Travels included Colorado, Mexico, London, Bahamas, the Black Hills, Chicago, Phoenix and Milwaukee, Wis. (I wasn't called). Mark has been working hard on growing his business 161 Design. For leisure activities, he is working on completing the emergency medical phase of National Ski Patrol training. Based on past years, he might be his own best customer. It looks like Mary will survive the Northwest/Delta merger, so the travel should continue. Their son Kyle enjoys trumpet, piano, gymnastics and skiing. Alex is love with the Jonas Brothers and attended many of their concerts last year. She also is involved with golf, scrapbooking, baton twirling and playing the clarinet.

Nathan Troutman just returned to New York from another restructuring job and reports that things certainly are a lot different there now. Nathan added that for the last year, he has been reorganizing Julian Robertson's personal investments, including a number of investments and companies in New Zealand. (Julian is the founder and CEO of Tiger Management, one of the largest and oldest hedge funds on Wall Street.) While there Nathan stayed at one of Julian's lodges, Cape Kidnappers (capekidnappers.com) which he also helped to reorganize. Now, Nathan is back in New York where there seem to be plenty of investments in trouble.

I am still doing property management and teaching several classes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. My wife, Laurie, is teaching at UW-Madison in the business school. I must show her more respect. I had a great time in Monroe, Wis., with John Baumann and the stories were so good, they are best left untold. Rob Ahrensdorf let me know that they have remodeled their guest room and I should get down there very soon to check it out. I will try to do that next winter and spring for sure. If any of you are in the Milwaukee area, please let me know. I would love to use you as a guest lecturer. The students get bored listening to me every day and would enjoy hearing somebody else's lies … I mean, true business experiences. Please keep in touch.