EMP-11

Rob Milburn update: "We are officially retired and living in Northern Wisconsin. We had a lakefront vacation home in Lac du Flambeau, Wis., that we had been planning to retire to at some point and that point finally arrived in 2008. We did a major remodel and have settled in. Winters are long but fun with snowmobile, snowshoes and cross-country skiing available right from our driveway. There was not much of a summer last year but hopefully this year will be more interesting. I am not much of a fisherman but maybe this year I will give it a try again. 

	Ron Nicolas, Cheryl Stepany, and Russ Luedtke, all EMP-11, met in St Peter, Minn., at Patrick’s restaurant for summer

“Our son Michael has a great job with Salesforce.com, the leader in cloud computing. I made my living in technology and enjoy keeping up with the latest trends with Mike's help. Daughter Elizabeth lives in Iowa but is moving to Madison, Wis. 

“Both Marlys and I read a lot and work on staying abreast of national politics. I volunteer for the town’s lakes committee, working on combating the spread of aquatic invasive species, and also sit on the town’s zoning committee. Marlys is working on landscaping with native plants. We also are raising a Newfoundland dog and doing daily walks in the local National Forest trails. Life is good!”

Jan Leetsma writes: "I am still working but not in hospitals or academia any longer. My forensic consulting practice is demanding and I have to say ‘no’ more often than I say ‘yes,’ but my work takes me coast-to-coast and most recently to England.

“My Kellogg experience helped me to co-found biotech company Naurex, Inc. in 1994, which is now close to a venture deal that will take our potential lead drug into Phase II human clinical trials for patients with poor responses to antidepressant medications. Of course, we dearly hope that our drug will offer some relief for these folks. Hopefully, in a few months we should know. It’s an exciting time! Best regards to all. Enjoy your summer.”

A couple of weeks ago in May, Ron Nicolas, Cheryl Stepany and Russ Luedtke met in St. Peter, Minn. at Patrick's restaurant for supper. 

Russ reports: “It had been three years since we had met there and we had spent most of our time in their 1900s-type unfinished basement with about 30 other patrons while we waited out a tornado that moved through. Nothing happened this time around because we had set the date unknowingly for tornado-siren test day. We had an enjoyable evening on the main floor and did not have to duck downstairs because of any bad weather. The last time we had met, we talked about this being an "annual" event but the bad weather slowed us down some.”