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Pages: 1 2 3 Roetta (Rody) Polmanteer,Byers - 09-08-2008 I was so excited to pass on my memories of yesterdays that I failed to relay any info on my life. I have been married for 37 years and from this marriage we have 3 sons and 1 daughter. We now have 10 grandchildren and holding. We lost our oldest son in a auto accident in 1998. I worked for Mitsubishi International Corporation in Houston, Tx for 23 years in the petrochemical divison and later as the Adm. Assistant to the General Manager. I retired in 2001 and now work part-time for a senior living community. My husband David will retire next year. I would love to chat with everyone from our class and welcome your e-mails. Congrats to the committee: GREAT JOB, Sounds like you had a great time. Sherry Osterling - 08-05-2008 I have been married to Pat for 35 years. We have 2 sons and 2 daughters-in-law, but no grandchildren yet. I work as an LPN at the PROMED Family Practice in Three Rivers. Sherry Chuck Schippers - 08-05-2008 I worked for the Eaton Corporation for 35 years. I retired in October of 2007. Now my wife and I travel and play golf. I also restore Classic Cars. We have two sons and one granddaughter. We moved to Tennessee and have lived there for the past 14 years. Chuck Brian Pierson - 08-05-2008 I retired from the Army in 1993 after 22 years. Now I work for Chuck E. Cheese. I have 2 daughters and 2 grandsons. Brian Steve Schrock - 07-30-2008 I'm too old to remember much about those days. I've been curious about what others have done with their lives. I've had a rather busy life. I graduated from Michigan State in 1972 and then got married in 1973. We have four children who are now scattered all over the world. I have recently retired from Decker Manufacturing, last Sept. 13, 2007, after being there 29 years. I served as a production foreman. We now spend our time visiting family and friends and helping where we can. Sharon still has one year of teaching before we can get very far from home. I have found you are busier after retirement than before. We live on a small farm 2 miles from town where I still raise pigs and have a very large garden and small orchard. We can't use all we grow but give 80% away to those in need. We are very active in our home church. We are constructing a new church building. So I'm very busy. By the way, this is the first time I've been on the computer since I retired. I still want to give of myself where I can make a difference. We will be traveling more to see family. Our oldest son and family are in Romania, a daughter lives in FL and a son and his family live in TN, and our youngest daughter and family live in Washington state. So we can go all over to get away from the Michigan weather. I would have to say I'm most proud of my family. Also, I am (not proud), but happy where I have been able to help those around me and have left footprints for others to follow. Why do over? We would make the same mistakes the next time. We all learn from our mistakes and that's what makes us who we are. I’m looking forward to next weekend. Steve Dale Schreuder - 07-30-2008 Elaine (Greendyke) and I have been married for 37 years and during this time have moved to several different west Michigan locations as result of my career as a public school administrator. I retired in 2006 as the superintendent of the Bloomingdale Public Schools, thus concluding my 34 years in the education business. For the past couple of years, I have worked for the Michigan Leadership Institute as a consultant to Boards of Education who are involved in conducting superintendent searches and I recently took a part time position as Director of Communications at Third Reformed Church in Kalamazoo. Enough of that slower pace stuff…at least until Elaine decides to retire from her position with the Allegan Area Regional Educational Service Agency! Our three sons are grown and on their own. We have one daughter-in-law and one (very new!) granddaughter that live in Royal Oak, MI. while our other two (still single) sons live and work in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. I’m not sure I can remember much from high school, but I did have an interesting connection made with the 1967 regional finals basketball game against South Haven by a new co-worker within the past three months. This person and I were talking about his South Haven background and my Vicksburg background, etc. Although he is younger than me by 5 years, he remembered being at WMU’s Read Fieldhouse that day in March of 1967. It was the next comment he made that kind of shocked me…it had to do with the fact that the player who made the last second winning shot for South Haven in that game (Tom Fritz) had lost his dad earlier in the week (heart attack). For some strange reason, I suddenly didn’t feel the same about the results of that game! The aging process and a lot of other more important life experiences since then have had something to do with that as well…but it was interesting to hear about a ‘factor’ in that game ( 41 years later!) that certainly none of us knew anything about at the time. My thanks to the committee and everyone who has worked to support this 40th reunion event. Continued best wishes! Linda Haas - 07-28-2008 WHEW!!! We think we're old by celebrating our 40th reunion, my mother last week attended her 76th!! from Vicksburg also. I can only imagine. Mother is still with us, quick and sharp in mind and spirit, but slowing in the physical plane. She still lives alone, cares for herself and continues to bake homemade bread for herself and neighbors and friends. We lost my dad 19 years ago to a massive stroke. It seems like yesterday. After VHS I went to Alma College where I met Steve Weinberger and we got married after we both graduated. Then on to seminary for Steve. We have two wonderful children, Jesika and Ethan. Jesika is happily married and working in cardiac rehabilitation. She and Kevin have blessed me with two wonderful grandsons. Ethan is travelling the Eastern half of the country as the Regional Culinary Manager for Smokey Bones. Unfortunately, the marriage between Steve and I dissolved, but we remain very good friends. I worked in social services for 14 years and since 1991 have worked in the Business Office at Thomas M. Cooley Law School, the country's largest law school. It's a great job and my co-workers are fabulous. I went back to school in 1997 and in 2001 received a certificate in Massage Therapy. My business is named Not Knots and I have been blessed to work mostly with stroke victims, fibromyalgia patients, MS patients and in the nursing homes with bed-ridden patients. That's when I'm at my happiest, being a channel for God to use to heal others. Favorite memories of VHS---Mr. Peach standing on his desk the first day of class, moving a ceiling tile, and watching a noose drop out! Kathy and Laurie--do you remember the year we went 'Pumpkin caroling'? Mr. Spieldenner and the ever present yardstick. Bus rides to games and band events..... I've been very active in my home church with handbells, choir, a women's a capella group and singing solos. Looking forward to seeing everyone on the 2nd. Gwen Deichman - 07-28-2008 First of all, thank you for doing this for our class. Forty years has flown by really fast! After leaving VHS I attended Marquette University in Milwaukee and received a Bachelors degree in Dental Hygiene, then a Masters in Adult Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, then a Ph.D. in Administrative Leadership from Marquette. I was a college professor most of these years teaching Dental Hygiene/Periodontics at Marquette University Dental School and then Leadership Studies at UW-Milwaukee. I received an Outstanding Alumni Award from Marquette in the year 2000. I retired last year from teaching. In 1970, I married John Newman. He is an endodontist and has a specialty practice in Green Bay, WI. After we married, we lived in Boston, Milwaukee, and now in the Green Bay area, with a vacation home on Sanibel Island, FL. Animal welfare issues have always been important to me, and I have been an active volunteer with our local humane society for 20 years. We have always had numerous critters living here...horses, dogs, cats and birds. I currently show Irish Setters and am on the national show circuit with 'Sammy'. My father past away in 1984, however my mother turns 90 this year and still enjoys good health. Many in our class knew each other from grade school on. I met most of you as a high school freshman. I have fond memories of a good four years spent with friends. Best wishes to everyone, Gwen Deichman Newman Bill Cohrs - 07-27-2008 Howdy, y’all, I live in Texas now. Moved to the Dallas area in 1990. But I’m getting ahead of myself. 40 years. Wow! John and Charlie, et al, do you think the Committee will be functioning for our 80th reunion? After attending MSU for 6 years to earn BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering and play a little basketball, I married a young lady who was in the MSU undergrad class of 1974. I accepted a job working for the Dept. of Defense in a management training program. We drove cross country to the San Francisco Bay area to start my assignment, beginning at a naval shipyard at Vallejo. [We were barely settled into an apartment when we were surprised by a call from Ken Fox, who crashed with us for a few days as he was hitchhiking barefoot from Oregon (where his brother Mark lived) back to Michigan or other parts east. Those were Ken’s wandering years!] My older brother Fred had graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy in 1972 and been commissioned a naval officer. Our father – you may recall school board member Bob “Vote No” Cohrs -- a hardcore Goldwater supporter, couldn’t believe that his first two sons were being supported by the taxpayers! The marriage thing didn’t go so well. In the fall of 1975, I left my wife (not my heart) in San Francisco, where she had become a legal secretary, left the training program and accepted a regular civil service position at “headquarters” – Naval Sea Systems Command in Crystal City, VA, just across the Potomac from DC. Brother Dan was in a grad program at GWU in DC at the time. Another year or so of working for the government had me thinking seriously about doing something else, so I applied to law school. I ended up having to choose between U of M (boo, hiss) and the genteel Univ. of VA, Mr. Jefferson’s university in Charlottesville. The weather won out and 1977–80 were spent drinking much of the time (UVA was definitely a party school then) and playing basketball in intramural and city leagues. Oh, yeah, went to class some, too. The summer of 1979 turned out to be a life-altering few months. Between the second and third years of law school, I clerked at a law firm in Atlanta, where I met my wife Susan, who was a legal secretary at the time. This beautiful and good Kentucky woman was the divorced mother of three boys, 12, 10, and 5 (David, Matthew, and Luke; how’s that for biblical?), but the boys were back in KY with their dad for the summer! After a Hotlanta summer, we stayed in touch during my last year of law school, and I came back to Atlanta to start practicing law. We married in 1981. We both worked –and played – hard during the 80’s, and got into the habit of watching ole JR on “Dallas” on Friday nights, never dreaming that we would ever live there. In 1985, I joined the biggest firm in Atlanta, where I continued to practice domestic and international trademark and copyright law. In the spring of 1990, a headhunter letter about a trademark law position at Exxon Corporation caught my eye. I took the job (sorry, Bunny, about the current price of gas for that RV) and dragged Susan and Luke (our only boy still at home, then entering the 10th grade) to Texas, of all places. It literally took Susan about 3 years to acclimate to the differences in culture and beauty between Dallas and Atlanta. But soon thereafter, she got to do some horseback riding – and everything changed. We ended up owning two horses, Arabian geldings, while she competed (1996-2001) in endurance riding races, 50 miles following a planned course through the countryside in less than the 12 hours allowed. Susan still has one of the horses and rides for pleasure now. But I digress. Work at Exxon, now Exxon Mobil Corporation since the 1999 acquisition of Mobil Corporation, is always interesting since we operate worldwide. Then there are the public relations “challenges” that go with being “big oil.” With Exxon, I have had the opportunity to travel to Argentina and Brazil, to Europe several times, and to Canada many times. I played basketball in church, city, and YMCA leagues all through the years until last fall, when I finally hung it up while all my joints were still in reasonably good shape (and because opponents were “inexplicably” getting younger and younger all the time!). I have been blessed never to have had a serious injury. Better late than never, in October 2006, I became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormons. I had never spent much time thinking seriously about religion over the years. In our secular society, that’s unfortunately pretty easy to do. In 2001, I started reading and studying, with great reluctance at first, but gradually it all became much more interesting and important. It is the most important question we face during our short time on this earth. The LDS church has more comprehensive answers to questions of life and death than any other church I know of, and, we believe, the fullness of the gospel. The boys are now 41, 39, and 34, all married, and we have a total of seven grandchildren, three boys and four girls, two of whom (both girls) live in the Dallas area. The others are in Kentucky and southern Ohio. Our oldest Kentucky grandson has completed one year at Georgia Tech in nuclear engineering, and he reports August 20 to start a two-year mission in Fresno, CA. We may get another grandchild or two before the boys quit growing their families, and that would be great. Both of my parents are still alive and doing reasonably well at their ages. All of my siblings are doing well, Fred in Virginia, Dan in California, and Mary Ann, Nancy, and Tim here in Michigan. Thinking (just thinking at this point) about retirement, but horses and grandkids are expensive! We’ll probably stay in Texas after retirement – no state income tax! Sorry for going on for so long, but 40 years is a long time. Looking forward to the reunion. And the 50th … 60th …?? Best to all, Bill Larry Grubka - 07-27-2008 Great to read about everyone’s life adventures! After graduation I headed up to Michigan State and majored in mechanical engineering. Finished at MSU and took a Fellowship with Hughes Aircraft Company (Howard’s company) so I was able to work and pursue graduate study in mechanical engineering at Cal Tech. Talk about being around some smart people. I thought I knew some smart people until I got to Cal Tech. That place will humble you in a hurry! We lived in Pasadena at Cal Tech and I worked in Culver City which is next to the ocean at Marina Del Ray. I thought there was a lot of traffic in LA back 30 years ago when making that 30 mile commute! I guess compared to Vicksburg any place would have had a lot of traffic. After finishing graduate school, I took a job in engineering research and development with 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota--quite a change in climate. After 3 years, I then moved to work in research and development for Owens Corning in the Columbus, Ohio area. We were there for 19 years before moving back to Vicksburg when I took a job at Armstrong’s in Three Rivers. I was able to work on our 30th reunion committee which was great fun. Lost my job at Armstrong’s in 2004 but was able to get back on with Owens Corning again at the R&D Center. We currently live in Westerville, Ohio, which is a Columbus suburb. Gwyn (Merrill - VHS ’69) and I have been married for 39 years. How has she put up with me that long? We have been blessed with 2 great children. Rob, who lives in Hartford, CT , with his wife Donna and their 3 kids and Ann, who lives in St. Joseph , MI, with her husband Tony and their 4 kids. Jay has got me beat with his 9 grandchildren! Our only problem is that we are quite a distance from either so we miss out on a lot of the kids events. I still like to hunt. We normally get everyone back to my brother Tom’s in Portage for the Michigan deer season. Frank, my brother who is in Mesa, AZ, has also been coming to Ohio for our deer season. Tom is also getting me to do some steelhead fishing with him. I ran a marathon to celebrate my 50th birthday. Gwyn questioned my sanity after doing that exercise. I still try to workout but not as much running. Thanks to the 40th Reunion Committee for all your great work! Laurie Kendall Brown - 07-26-2008 Hello Everyone! The last 40 years have held challenges and joys for me, as for you, I'm sure. I attended the University of Michigan and graduated with my Bachelor's degree in nursing. I specialized for most of my career in adult rehabilitation (stroke, head injury, spinal cord injury, etc.) I am currently working in home care for an agency in Kalamazoo. My first marriage ended after 15 years, but I have a beautiful daughter, Erin, from that marriage. John Brown and I married in 1990 and we have been very happy for 18 years now. In addition to Erin, we have John's daughter, Lacey, and Anne and Christina. Annie and Christy are in high school at Loy Norrix. Having children a little later in life has certainly kept us on our toes! They are all lovely, intelligent, nice girls and we are blessed to have them. John and I are both from large families and we enjoy spending time with them. We are lucky to have a lot of family members in our area. We are involved in our church and with school activities. We enjoy taking trips with the girls and have been able to take in theater, musical productions, historical sites, and many of the beauties of the United States. Regarding our high school experience, I remember a lot of teenage angst, but I also have some pleasant memories. I enjoyed band, orchestra, and choir. Marching in band for football games was hard work, but exciting, too. Taking part in plays, musicals, and the Senior Follies gave me some of my favorite memories. I also think fondly of many of our teachers--Mrs. Mollineaux, Mr. Root, Mr. Shutes, Mr. Peach, Mr. Garson. They each had their unique personalities and they made learning interesting for me. Overall, Vicksburg High School provided a good experience, but I'm glad that those years are in the past. It was hard agonizing over relationships, self-image, and figuring out who to be. Adolescence was necessary, but adulthood is much more rewarding. I wish all of you peace and joy in the coming years. Cheri Janice Decker Rogers - 07-25-2008 Hello to everyone. Once again I will be unable to attend the reunion.(The last one I attended was in 1988.) I am a teacher, and our schedule requires us to report back on Aug. 4 this year. I actually will be in Michigan for our annual trip to Lake Michigan, but we will be returning to Tennessee on the morning of the reunion. When I left high school, I attended the University of Michigan for my freshman year, where I managed to spend more time having fun in the big world of the radical campus than concentrating on academics. Consequently, I returned home and attended and graduated from KVCC. During this time I began dating Mike Rogers (VHS '69). We were married in 1972. After Mike graduated from WMU, I returned to school (WMU) and graduated in 1976. We then began our family with Andrew (1977) and Laura (1980). We built a home in Mattawan and lived there until 1985, when we moved to Cookeville, TN because of Mike's job. In 1992, Mike changed jobs and we moved to Powell, TN. , which is just outside Knoxville. Until this point, I was a stay-at-home mom. After the move to Powell, I took a job as a teaching assistant in an inner-city school in Knoxville. I enjoyed teaching so much that in 1998, I quit my job and went back to school to get my MS in education. The year I went back to school, our family had 3 students at University of Tennessee (Go Vols!) - Andy was a senior, Laura was a freshman, and I was in grad school. Since grad school, I have been teaching middle school science and I love what I do. Mike works as an engineer at an automotive metal stamping plant and we have now been married for almost 36 years. Our son Andrew is a computer systems administrator here in Knoxville, and Laura works as a wedding photographer, also here in town. We have basically been living the American Dream as our parents raised us to believe in. The only glitch has been a minor bout of breast cancer, but I am now a five-year survivor, so everything looks good. I hope you all have a good time at the reunion, and feel free to email me any time. Gerald (Jerry) Smith - 07-24-2008 Hello All It was wonderful to read what several of you have been doing since high school. I have had a very blessed life, but it does not seem that it was actually forty years since high school. After graduation I attended the University of Michigan and received a degree in Aerospace engineering. My wife Kathy and I then moved to Connecticut where I worked for a couple of years. Our first daughter was born there, right before I was laid off and started my next job of finding a job that paid. again I was blessed and after only a couple of months I found another job in the aircraft industry. So the three of use packed up and moved the the air capitol of the world, Wichita Kansas. Now before you all start laughing Wichita produces more airplanes than anywhere in the world, all be it that some only carry two people. Although I had no intention of working on airplanes when I left Michigan, it has been good work and it pays the bills. I had hoped to get into the space program, but in the early 1970's NASA was not doing very good and getting a job there was impossible. I have worked for several different companies over the last thirty plus years that we have been here. Presently I am still working, however I am an engineering manager now for a structures technology group. Our son and second daughter were both born here, and now all three have grown and move away. Our oldest daughter is married with two children and lives near Kansas City. That is about a two and a half hour drive so we can see the grand-kids from time to time. Our son is also an engineer working in Omaha, so we can see him on holidays. Our youngest daughter is married and now lives in Florida, and we don't get to see them very often. That covers the basics of what I have been doing since high school, I tried to learn to play golf over the years but finally realized that it was a waste of my time. I spend what free time I get now with wood working and gardening. I would very much like to see all of you again, but prior commitments will mean that I can not attend the reunion. I would be honored to hear from any of you and if your future travels bring you to the great planes look me up. Alan Lawson - 07-23-2008 Howdy Classmates, The first 7 years after graduation included an unsuccessful attempt at college, 4 years in the US Air Force, another unsuccessful attempt at college, working various jobs, travel/backpacking, and general goofing off. All of a sudden college courses not only made sense, but also were actually interesting. I worked at States Golf Course and Ackerman Oil while attending KVCC and WMU. I graduated from WMU in 1979 with a teaching degree. I married my wife Wendy (from Ionia, Michigan) that same year. Wendy and I moved to Arizona in 1980 so I could attend Arizona State Univ. studying graduate geology and Wendy worked in commercial banking. I decided to give teaching a shot for a couple years, but when I was offered an opportunity with Triple S Plastics in Vicksburg, I took it. We moved back to Michigan in 1985 where I worked with Triple S and Wendy continued with her banking career. We lived on a fantastic little farm at the corner of Muskrat Rd and Buckhorn Rd. Our son Rob was born in 1989. Shortly thereafter, we moved back to Arizona (Tucson) where I ran the Triple S manufacturing operation. Our daughter Mary Jean (MJ) was born in 1991. We regularly travel back to Vicksburg and our kids say that somehow Michigan seems like home to them too. We stay at Dan & Caryn Zonyk’s place on Barton Lake, so I have to admit it seems like summer camp in the neighborhood in which I grew up. I left Triple S in 1997 and have worked various jobs since then including real estate, buying/working on fix-up houses, teaching, and tutoring in high school. I have officially retired as of this spring, but wouldn’t be surprised if I decide to work sometime in the future associated with public schools. For now, staying busy with family, golf, travel, and working on various properties. Wendy and I have many common interests, so I am very lucky to have a wife who is also my best friend. I am smart enough not to bet with her on the golf course. My son Rob is now nearly 20 years old and living on his own in Tucson. MJ is an avid and talented softball player, is a junior in high school and considering college in Michigan. We will not be making it back to the reunion because we will be celebrating Wendy’s folks’ 60th anniversary in Durango, Colorado. However, as luck would have it, we will be arriving at the Zonyk’s late on Sunday, August 3rd. So…..close, but no cigar. I do have many fond memories of my classmates, teachers, and neighborhood friends. Ed Knapp = amazing. He could find the best in any student and know how to motivate them to succeed . Johnny Grohs was my best man in our wedding. My kids, who have never met him but heard many stories, consider him to be a legend in good times and “best friendedness”. Wendy and I did make the 30th reunion and hope to make the 50th. Thanks to all reunion committee workers for your efforts. Have fun and behave just the perfect amount. EuGene Beattie - 07-21-2008 Guess what I'm doing now-a-days by my e-mail address. I've always been a musical person so now I'm a karaoke DJ. My first marraige lasted 19 years with two kids. (Daron & Nicole) I left Michigan in 1994, while working at the Post office, and transfered to Springfield, Missouri. In 2000 I met a wonderful woman (Pat) and we were married in 2001. Amanda, her oldest daughter is making a career in the Navy, and Amy her youngest lives in Washington Missouri and will be giving birth in August to our first grandaughter. Because of this we will not be able to attend the reunion. All total we will have five grandchildren from 2 of the kids. Not sure where it will all end? I was surprised to hear of Terry Pinkerton's passing. I worked with him at the Kalamazoo Post Office and I will miss him. You know what they say about the spirt is willing ect. Well I've had a broken neck from service in the Army in Vietman, a hip replacement in 2002, and a knee replacement in 2004. I'm not sure what will be replaced next. No, they don't have an insurance policy that covers a lobotomy. If anyone will be traveling to Branson, Missouri on vacation, let me know and I may be able to help you with some of the sights near here. We are only about 40 minutes away. 40 YEARS. OK It's official, I FEEL OLD. I'm a member of The American Legion Post 639 in Springfield and put together the monthly newsletter. I'm self taught in repairing computers and have enough mp3's for my karaoke show to fill a 120 GB hard drive. We moved to Battlefield, Missouri in November of 2007 (Just south of Springfield) I hope I'm around for the 50th. At least now I'm planning ahead some. See ya then! Pages: 1 2 3 |
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