EMP-35

Keith Stohlgren writes that he and his wife Camille are enjoying life with their two kids, Martin (3) and Franca (1). Some sad news is that Camille's dad passed this spring, which was quite a loss, and she is busy looking after her mom a little more these days. Camille enjoys being a stay at home mom (most days), and over the summer they enjoyed some family vacations. Keith says that the kids, golf, woodworking, reading and yard work keep him out of the places that serve adult beverages.

	Greg Brown EMP-35 is surrounded by his lovely daughters, from left, Meghan, (21), Alexa (19) and Hannah (17).

Curtis Miller writes that his family is fine and his sons are getting older. Chase is in his senior year of high school and Dane, who was born during the early spring of our second year at Kellogg, is in fifth grade. Curtis wishes everyone in EMP-35 the very best.

Christ Grier says nothing is too new with his family this quarter. They spent two wonderful weeks in Costa Rica this summer, and Chris has been travailing for business to the United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico.

Mike Wilcox writes that he retired from UOP two years ago and is now working for Jacobs Engineering, an $8-billion international engineering company in the oil, chemicals, gas, power, pharma and infrastructure sectors (Jacobs even provides engineering and maintenance for NASA). Mike is directing the refining, petrochemical and energy Jacobs Consultancy offices in Chicago and Calgary. They are extremely busy and growing due to the many investments being made in the US and Canada in the energy sector. On the personal side, their five adult children are all doing well. Carol and Mike now have six healthy grandchildren. What a blessing they all are!

Jon Melkerson writes that he hopes everyone in EMP-35 is well. Jon and his family moved to Montreal in 2004 to work in his company's corporate headquarters. Over the last three years, Jon has spent time in executive leadership of operations and most recently running their international sales division. They are in process in merging with a large N.A. competitor to form the third-largest forest products company in North America. The new company, AbitibiBowater, had named its new executive team and fortunately for Jon, he has been named senior vice president of business and corporate development. He will be responsible for their growing recycling and energy businesses, all strategic planning and initiatives and also a core corporate group focused on manufacturing excellence. The new company will be headquartered in Montreal, which is also headquarters for his current premerged company, Abitibi Consolidated.

Nick Cray writes that he notices that there are not a whole lot of articles for EMP-35 anymore. He says he can't believe that they are now up to EMP-66. Nick writes that "he sure feels old." Nick and his family are up in Madison, Wis., for the last three years. He works in Janesville, Wis., and is the vice president and generl manager of RathGibson Inc. Their company manufacturers stainless steel tubing and pipe. Nick says that "it is not too sexy but it pays the bills." His family loves it in America's Dairyland. His children are getting older: Rebecca started her high school freshman year and Ryan is in sixth grade. Most of EMP-35 remembers that Ryan was born in the middle of our second year at Kellogg.

Marybeth Gerrity writes to say that she is thrilled to tell us that she has accepted a new challenge as the executive director of the Oncofertility Consortium, which is based at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. The Oncofertility Consortium is a nationwide, interdisciplinary and inter-professional group, funded by a $21-million grant from the National Institutes of Health, dedicated to the advancement of technologies that will provide improved fertility preserving options to cancer patients whose lifesaving treatments can threaten their fertility. Their goal is to address the scientific, clinical and psychosocial challenges that must be solved to expand the menu of options available and to raise consciousness among scientists, physicians and families about this critical quality of life issue.

For Marybeth, this new role is that wonderful combination of science, business, strategic planning, marketing and rolling out a national program that energizes her. Even better, it allows her to leverage her experience in women's health issues, tissue banking and fertility to build strategic alliances among leaders in medicine, law, bioethics and healthcare business to truly make a difference in people's lives.

Marybeth thanks everyone in EMP-35 for all of our input and support during her search. While this new role is a major undertaking, her arrangement with Northwestern will still permit her to accept selected consulting assignments that may arise. She asks everyone, "to please keep in touch." Thanks again.