BROOKFIELD EAST HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1964

Thomas Asbeck

Sometimes, you think what you consider the good things in life will fall into your lap. Tom did when he met Ann Miller on a blind date at the University of Wisconsin in 1966.

“I thought she was related to the Miller Brewing Co.,” Tom wrote, “but found out otherwise after we were married in 1968.”

Despite the disappointment, Tom and Ann are still married. They have two children and six grandchildren. Son Chris is a surgical nurse, living in Elk River, Minnesota, with his wife, Steph, and three children, Cullen, Brennan, and Ellie. Daughter Sarah owns a dance and fitness studio in Jackson, Wisconsin. She is married to Luke, with whom she has had three daughters, Rory, Kendra, and Riley.

Tom is semi-retired, “working more or less when I want.” In his semi-retired state, he likes to fill in the time with golfing, motorcycling, boating, and working with dogs. On a sad note: “My hunting dog Rocky passed away in late June 2014 after 14 wonderful years,” Tom wrote. “We do have another dog, a miniature labradoodle. Her name is Angel (named by one of the grandkids) but we have been thinking about changing her name to ‘Satan,’ ‘Lucifer,’ or ‘Come here you little s …’ She seems to be settling down quite a bit so for now she is still an Angel.”

His plans for the next year are “to hit the four corners of the U.S. on my motorcycle, mooching lodging and food from my friends.”

“I started off my career as a photogrammetrist (go ahead, look it up in the dictionary),” he wrote. So look it up because we are never too old to learn something new or to forget something old. He is still employed in that field. During my career, I also worked in software development, and started a couple of companies.”

His fun job, though, was being a private in the Army. “I’m still amazed that so many people were interested in how my shoes were polished.”

In order, he has lived in Wisconsin, Missouri, New Jersey, Germany, North Dakota, Maine, Kentucky, Maine, and Kentucky before settling back in Wisconsin.

About his career he said this:

“While pursuing a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin, I received my first job offer that I couldn’t refuse: the U.S. Army wanted my services. I became very well versed in time schedules, waiting periods, and review processes for the draft board. I was able to barely finish my graduate work and because of my formal education and interest in civil engineering, surveying, mapping, and photogrammetry, the U.S. Army decided to use me in electronic repair. “

He served in the Army from 1970-73, attained the classification as SP5 working as a fixed ciphony (this word does not appear in the dictionary, but you can find it on the Internet) repairman. He was stationed in Frankfurt, West Germany, for two years.

“After my tour ended,” he continued, “I worked for the U.S. Geological Survey in Rolla, Missouri, making quadrangle maps of the U.S. After two years, I felt the USGS offered too much security so I joined an engineering firm in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and stayed there for 17 years while raising a family.”

From then on, he did a bit of bouncing around. “I went into software development in Maine and stayed there eight years and enjoyed sailing in Penobscot Bay. Then I went to Kentucky for a couple of years before going back to Maine and starting a mapping company. Then I merged that with a company in Kentucky and eventually moved back to Kentucky. Then after a couple of years, I found an opportunity to move back to Wisconsin. Finally, I settled in Three Lakes on the property where my grandparents started a resort in the late 1930s. Home at last. It took me 35 years to get back home to Wisconsin and I’m not leaving.”

In additions to his travels in the U.S., Tom has visited Germany, France, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Russia, India, Australia, and Minnesota. (Okay, for those familiar with Garrison Keillor, you betcha Minnesota can be considered a foreign place.)

Tom likes to brag that he is “Staying alive.” (Wonder if he will bring a white disco suit to the reunion?)

About high school memories, he said: “There are many, but one that has served me well through the years is how Albert Braun’s social studies course taught me how to think and question everything.”

E. Robert Banes

What Bob misses most from high school was all that free time, something that doesn’t come easy when supervising the family business — Frankenmuth Jellystone Park RV Resort.

The resort is located in Frankenmuth, Michigan, one of the state’s busy resort towns, which, Bob writes, is “home of the largest year-round Christmas store, ‘Bronners,’ and two of the largest restaurants in the country.” Each restaurant seats more than 1,200 satisfied diners.

Then again, Bob considers this his fun job and when you’re having fun, it’s like having all the free time in the world.

Bob is helped in this endeavor by his wife, Marilyn (nee Sorenson). She graduated from Shorewood High School in Wisconsin. The two met at UW-Stout. Also helping out as managers are their son Craig, who also runs a CPA Business, and their daughter Cindy, who also runs a cosmetology business.

There also are six grandchildren to round out the immediate family. Molly Banes, 22, is a graduate of MSU and is into writing. Craig Banes Jr., 13, enjoys playing baseball and basketball and is big on computers. Jack Banes, 11, also enjoys baseball and basketball.

Cassie Keinath, 16, is taking college classes and wants to be a doctor. She is good in all sports, but especially basketball and soccer. Willie Keinath, 13, likes football, basketball, and baseball. He also enjoys 4H and plans to be a farmer after college. Grace Keinath, 10, enjoys all sports and plans to be a teacher.

There are no great-grandkids yet, but another member of the immediate family is Chase Alvin Banes, six years old, the family’s third schnauzer.

Bob feels his greatest accomplishment has been building the family business. Still, that left him enough time to visit Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Ireland, Mexico, Canada, and 49 U.S. states. He also has lived in Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, Brookfield, and, of course, Frankenmuth, Michigan.

He finds enjoyment in sports, watching the grandkids, and traveling.

The one thing he wishes he had known in high school was investment planning, something that comes in handy when you are running a successful business.

Of the car he drove in high school, he says it was white. He worked at Harmon’s Upholstery. Having enjoyed all the Beach Boys’ songs during high school and now enjoying listening to ’50s and ’60s music, is it any wonder that is fond memory of high school includes all the dances. His favorite hangout during high school was at the Milwaukee Yacht Club.

Bob feels he has led “a blessed life with good health, a successful business, and a great family.”

William Bargenquast

Bill retired as a vice president after a lengthy career with Bank of America leasing, where his fun job included asset management.

He has been married to Diane for 44 years. They have two children, Mark and Bridget, and two grandchildren, Ava, 10, and Brayden, 7. In fact, he confers on himself bragging rights for raising “two lovely children.”

The family also includes a pet dog, Rosie.

Bill keeps busy as president of the church council, golfing twice a week, and being a member of Sons in Retirement.

Currently living in Concord, California, he previously lived in Germantown, Wisconsin.

Looking back to high school, Bill misses the friendships. He drove a maroon 1956 Chevy, worked at Kohl’s bakery, and hung out at the malt shop on Lilly Road and Capitol Drive. Rock and roll remains his favorite music.

Shirley (Behl) Evans

On Sept. 2, just three days before the start of the BEHS’ Class of 1964 50th Reunion, Shirley and her husband, Cliff, will mark their 47th wedding anniversary.

She has traveled extensively, visiting Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Ireland. With Cliff, she has visited England, France, Scotland, Canada, Mexico, several tropical islands, and many parts of the U.S., including an anniversary trip to Hawaii.

“Now, most of my travel is with Cliff,” she wrote. “We go to San Diego to spend time with our family and like riding our Harley when Wisconsin weather permits. ”

The family includes their son Kurt, 41, and his wife, Corri. There are two grandchildren — Lucas, 4, and Charlotte, 2 — to spoil. At home is Daisy the cat, 14 years old. In all, Shirley and Cliff have had six cats during their married life.

Shirley took a circuitous route in places to live, from Brookfield to Washington, D.C.; Maryland; Fort Irwin, California; and back to Maryland. She bounced from Maryland to Milwaukee to Scottsdale, Arizona, and to Downers Grove, Illinois, before returning to Brookfield.

She feels making it to the 50th Reunion will be one of her greatest accomplishments since high school.

She wishes she had taken time back then to “learn about the lives of family members who are now gone from this world. I have so many unanswered questions now.”

She fondly remembers the Friday night school dances, but doesn’t miss in the least homework, tests, or showers after gym.

Her favorite song in high school was the school song — lyrics which were written by Robert Potter, her favorite teacher. Today, her musical tastes runs to songs from the ’50s and the pre-Beatles era, and Christian praise and worship songs.

Shirley says she has no untold story about her high school days, but does say her and her then boyfriend’s favorite hangout was on Royalcrest Drive, which stretched from North Calhoun Road to Imperial Drive, before the subdivision was built. “Oh, the memories,” she wrote. She actually lived on Royalcrest from 1987 through 2002.

Her first car was a new 1965 blue VW bug. Her dad had to drive it home from the dealership because she didn’t know how to drive a stick shift. “My next car was a brand new 1966 candy apple red Mustang that I bought off the showroom floor at Zweifel Ford. How I’d love to have that car now!”

During the Christmas season of 1963, Shirley worked at Gimbels, Mayfair. “I was a floater,” she wrote. “Each time I went to work, I was sent to a department that needed extra help. It was an adventure into the unknown on a daily basis.”

Now, she keeps active by being a self-employed caregiver, something she had done since 1995. She calls being a caregiver her fun job: “All the elderly people keep telling me how young I am.” She also helps a 92-year-old lady friend once or twice a week.

“I look forward to seeing classmates in September,” Shirley wrote. “I’ve enjoyed working on all the reunions since our first one in 1974 when we were only in our late 20s.”

Timothy Birkholz

Tim was killed in an auto accident in the mid 1970s. If you wish to see a full list of classmates no longer with us, go to the In Memoriam page.

Below is a tribute about Tim written by John Saar.

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Memories of Tim

by John Saar

Tim Birkholz was my friend. A lot of you knew that but I’m going to tell you a lot of things that you probably didn’t know. I met Tim early in my junior year when he started dating the sister of the girl I was dating. We hit if off right away. I’m not sure why, maybe it was his easygoing manner, maybe it was his devil-may-care attitude that I so much wanted to have but didn’t. At any rate, we stayed friends long after the two of us broke up with the sisters we were dating.

Tim didn’t go to college, in fact I’m not sure he ever graduated from high school. Shortly after I started my sophomore year at Oshkosh, Tim enlisted in the Marines. Before I knew it, he was off to Vietnam. He spent two tours there, spending most of his time in Da Nang working on helicopters. I’m not sure he ever got into battle over there but he didn’t like to talk much about any of his tours there. We kept in touch by mail as much as two guys 19 and 20 would do back then. I was so very glad he got back in one piece. Vietnam changed Tim a lot. It did everybody I knew back then. He became more introspective, less easy going. Maturity will do that to a guy.

I didn’t see much of Tim after he got back. I was finishing my college work and getting married. He was finishing his Marine duty and getting back to Milwaukee to get his life going again. He did go to my wedding, but we lost track of each other after that.

Shortly before our 10th reunion we started up again. I was a new father and he had bought the house he lived in all those years off of Capitol and Pilgrim. His dad had died by then (remember Lt. Birkholz of the Brookfield Police?). He was in the process of fixing up the place and was working at Briggs and Stratton as a second shift maintenance man trying to work his way up to being a tool and die maker.

We stayed very close for the next three years. Going fishing, watching the Packers on TV, working on each other’s houses. I tried to fix him up with my wife’s sister, but he was pretty convinced on spending the rest of his life on the single side.

Just going to the store with Tim was an experience. Once we were on our way back from getting something from the store when his 1960 Volvo started on fire. Just like that. We stopped along the road and had to put the fire out with beer. I’m sure the people going by watching us pouring beer on the engine of his car and laughing until we couldn’t stand made us quite a sight. That was Tim, he could make a desperate situation something you laugh about 25 years later.

Those were great times. Then one Sunday evening before I went to bed my wife calls to me from the other room, “Tim died in a car accident!” Couldn’t be, I tried to console myself. But it was. Tim was a terrible driver, very unsafe. He would drive when he shouldn’t and got in all sorts of trouble crashing into things. This time it took his life, coming back from the same lake where we would go fishing. It was late and I guess he got T-boned by another car at an intersection. Don’t know the details, you never do in things like this. His mother was in no condition to tell me anything when I called and asked her if I could help her with things.

We went to the funeral, my mom, my wife and I. Mom and Tim were pretty close. It was very sad. He had a close family, two brothers and two sisters, good people. He’s buried at the Wisconsin Memorial Park next to his dad.

Shortly after that I moved out of Wisconsin and never came back. Don’t know the connection but somehow I’m thinking that if he was still there, I would be too: 30 years old is too young to die, especially when you got so much of life ahead of you. Tim did. But, like I said up top, he was a friend of mine! And I miss him.

Diane (Blank) James

Diane, a retired certified veterinary technician (her fun job), keeps busy with volunteering, delivering “Meals on Wheels twice a week and visiting the veterans at the VA hospital in Milwaukee twice a week.”

“Giving comfort and care to all of our dear pets and binging happiness to the elderly and the veterans” are some of the joys in her life.

She notes that in a previous life, she had been an X-ray technician.

Diane is married to Ronan, who is part owner of Total Merchant Systems. He handles all the reps’ accounts as well as the database rollup. She has a stepdaughter, Darlene, who has two children, Sabastian and Alec.

There are two cats in the family, Joey and Dickens. “We just lost Dickens’ brother Mischief recently,” she writes, “and we miss him terribly.”

She has lived in Indiana and currently lives in Wisconsin, but has traveled extensively, visiting “Germany, Italy, England, Scotland, Hawaii, Wales, Austria, Switzerland, New Guinea, Australia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Greece.”

The one thing she knows now that she wishes she had known in high school is Spanish. But as most classmates know, high school unfolded at its own pace and with its own priorities.

“Good friends and fun” are what Diane misses most about high school. “Life was simpler then.”

Her favorite memory was “having a party at my home and driving to Madison with a bunch of friends to go to a party there. Reading through my yearbooks, I can see how many times people talked about these two events and what fun they had.”

Diane’s favorite hangouts in high school were “dances in the cafeteria with The Legends playing the music and Marty’s Pizza.” “Blue Moon” was her favorite song. Today, she listens to ’60s and ’70s songs and classical music.

She worked at Halan’s Grocery Store on Capitol Drive during high school and like several other classmates did not get her first car until several years after graduation, “yellow 1967 Pontiac Firebird (sweet).”

For classmates eagerly awaiting an untold story about high school days, sadly, Diane says she has none.

Arthur Bobrowitz

After graduating from Brookfield East, I worked in the Milwaukee area and attended what is now MATC. In 1966 I enlisted and served four years in the United States Air Force with the Strategic Air Command. It was a profound educational experience. After my USAF service, I worked in commercial broadcasting and public relations for several radio stations in the Midwest and West Coast. My roots were then planted in the Pacific Northwest and the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

In 1974, I was accepted by the Oregon State Police and had the honor to fulfill a public safety career in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. The highlight of my life was June 4, 1988, when I married my bride and joy, Roseann! We love the Pacific Northwest and its endless beauty.

After my retirement from the Oregon State Police, I created Compass Rose Consulting Inc., a management and productivity group. I love being a business consultant and to travel as a public speaker. I have authored two books on personal productivity and leadership. My career has given me the opportunity to earn a commercial pilot certificate, fulfill my love of writing, public speaking, working with business leaders in small, medium and large organizations. I continue to volunteer for the Oregon State Police Fallen Trooper Memorial, American Red Cross and am a lifetime member of the FBI Citizens Academy Alumni Association.

I have come to realize and cherish that every day is a gift, being thankful for family, friends and when given the opportunity, to make the world a better place.

Kristy (Brodersen) Galt

Kristy transferred to BEHS from Madison and only spent her senior year with the Class of 1964.

“Bad timing on my part,” she wrote. “I didn’t have the confidence then to really make friends with other girls. After high school, I returned to college in Madison for four years and then moved to Washington” state,” where she met George “Lee” T. Galt III.

“The man is crazy for golf,” she wrote, “and me, which is ever so nice after 36-plus years. Raised in a military family, he lived all over and then continued the pattern with a federal civil service career as director of Air Force Arts and Crafts Centers.”

Kristy worked for 30 years, “mostly in management and in Children’s Administration for Washington state. Every day was a new challenge.” Now retired, Kristy wonders “why does everything take longer?”

In addition to living in Madison, Wisconsin, Kristy has lived in Olympia, Gig Harbor, and, currently, Tacoma, Washington.

Now, her husband, Lee, “just wants to stay put in the Pacific Northwest, with as many trips to Hawaii as we can afford. I am lucky to have him by my side.”

As for travels, she wrote “maybe not enough, but it’s pretty darn nice right here.”

Concerning her greatest achievement in life, Kristy wrote: “Oh, goodness.” Answering, “this would be too long, complicated, and probably boring.”

She wishes she had known in high school “that there are many many more options in the world than I ever knew about for careers, places to live, people to know, etc.”

Back then, “Norm (Faulstich) was my boyfriend and very good to me,” she wrote. She included two photos from then that she only discovered after a family tragedy.

”In 1984,” she wrote, “my ‘little sister.’ Jill, her husband, and 8 year old were killed in the Barneveld tornado. I was stunned and devastated and suddenly an only child. I am including wo pictures that I found covered in dirt in a cardboard box at the Red Cross center two days later.

“One is of Norm in his band uniform. The other is of him and me on our way to what I think was a BEHS homecoming.”

During high school, she thinks she drove a Buick convertible, “my parents’, of course.” She worked at Kohl’s one Christmas, “but really, babysitting” was the job that gave her spending money at the time.

Kristy misses most the “innocence” of high school days.

Though she only spent one year at BEHS, she “would love to reconnect with anyone from BEHS. So please be in touch and come visit us.”

Fellow graduates can request Kirsty’s contact information from any member of the BEHS Class of 1964 50th Reunion committee.

Roger Brown

Roger died October 8, 2013, in the crash of an ultralight aircraft in Sante Fe, Texas. A brief obituary appeared on the Crowder Funeral Home of Dickinson, Texas, website:

“Roger Arthur Brown, 67, of Sante Fe, passed away October 8, 2013. He was born February 26, 1946, to Arthur and Lena Brown in Norwalk, Connecticut. Roger grew up in New York and lived in Wisconsin. He and his wife, Joan, moved to Texas in 1976 and have lived in Galveston County ever since. Roger mde neon signs for a living but for relaxation he was an avid outdoorsman. He loved sailing, fishing, hunting, riding horses, back packing and prospecting gold. All of which inspired his painting. He also was an inventer.

“Roger was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his loving wife, Joan, and his brother Donald L. Brown.”

Daniel Buran

I’ve never been in jail.

I’m still married to my high school sweetheart — Sue Tanel.

We have three daughters.

I retired in 2004 — my choice — and then again in 2007.

My dog’s name is Molly.

Our whole family is healthy.

Now for the rest of the story.

My last month of college (five years of study) I joined the Army National Guard and got my first real job at Cutler Hammer. Then the first week out of school I married Sue.

After four years at Cutler, I moved to Miller Brewing’s corporate headquarters in Milwaukee. Talk about living the dream. I was working at a brewery. So when people ask me what I did for a living, I’d say I made beer. Then Sue shook her head and said, “He was in data processing.” After 31 years, I retired only to have Miller hire me back the next day as an independent contractor. That lasted another three years.

We have not moved around much. Sue and I graduated from Brookfield East (’64 and ’66) and all three of our daughters are Brookfield East graduates (’90, ’92 and ’94).

Ok, here comes the bragging — biggest accomplishments.

— Daughter Number 1: Keri is an occupational therapist with two daughters.

— Daughter Number 2: Kristi is a cardiac intensive care nurse with three boys.

— Daughter Number 3: Kelly is a graphic artist with three girls.

They are all married and live in Brookfield, Oconomowoc, and Watertown. That makes eight grandkids and they all live close. Eat your heart out.

Sue and I spend a lot of time helping with the kids. If we are going to volunteer, it’s going to be to help the kids. So now we work for food.

We love watching them catch their first fish, learn to paddle a canoe or kayak, build a campfire, snowshoe, cross-country ski, identify animal tracks in the snow, and just enjoy the outdoors.

Sue and I have traveled much of the United States and most of Europe, England, Ireland, and the Mediterranean. This year we are checking Alaska off our bucket list.

As far as activities, I enjoy golfing (sometimes I don’t), fishing, biking (bicycle), hiking, boating, and woodworking. I designed and did most of the work on a large addition to our house. Ah, to be young again. These days the projects are smaller. Last year, I built Kristi a deluxe chicken coop with screened in porch. This year I am building rustic tables for our lake home in Eagle River, Wisconsin.

My kids tell me I have ten more good years. Now that I think about it, they have been saying that for years. So for now, we are just trying to stay healthy and enjoy the friends we have made over the years.

George Campbell

I stumbled through college, finally graduating in 1971 from UW-Madison. Mary (Dewey) Bliss and I had two children during that time so that, work, and the general UW distractions are my excuses for the protracted time it took. We have two great kids, George III and Mara who both live in the Chicago area.

In 1987, I married Claudia. She was living in San Francisco at the time but moved back to Madison with me — what a shocker that was. Natalie was born in 1992 and she has helped keep me young at heart. Not content to stay at UW-Madison like her older sibs, she has become a Gopher.

My first career was in social work. I did a big switch to sales and marketing in 1988, and in 1993, I took a job in Atlanta with a security printing company. That job also took us to San Antonio, Texas, where we enjoyed three years before moving back to the Madison area where I worked from home until I retired in 2004.

We have enjoyed traveling and just hanging around Madison. The old haunts are mostly gone, but fortunately have been replaced by newer and better. My brother and dad live in Santa Barbara, California, so we spend a couple months there over the winter. I still manage to golf but had to hang up the more strenuous sports a few years ago.

Sad to say, I have not kept up with my BEHS classmates so I am looking forward to reacquainting with old friends.

Christine (Chambers) Fredrickson

Chris is married to fellow BEHS graduate Lee Fredrickson. “You all know him,” she wrote. “I’ll let him tell you about himself.”

Their daughter Karin (pronounced Car-in) is married to Chris Orwig. Karin spent many years teaching before being called to the ministry. Karin and Chris recently moved from Peru, Illinois, to Normal, Illinois, where she leads children ministries in the church. Cris is a letter carrier with the USPS. They have two children, Abby, 6, and Noah, 3.

Chris and Lee have had a number of pets over the years. “Kelly, the Irish setter,” Chris explained, “Sir Edmund, the English setter; and Gracie, the golden retriever. They all hunt the fields of heaven now.”

Chris sees no retirement in the near future. “For the last 20 years,” she wrote, “Lee and I have been packing and shipping, crating and freighting. We have a Pak Mail franchise and we never know what is going to walk in the door each day.”

They recently moved their store because their former shopping mall planned to shut down for six to nine months for renovations. They are exicited about the new location.

Chris lived in Brookfield while she went to college (two years at UW-M and two years at Carroll College). She taught at Burleigh Junior High School while Lee was in The Nam. After he retuned and they were married, they moved to Hoffman Estates, Illinois, to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Madison, Connecticut, and back to Cedar Rapids in 1988.

Outside of family, church, and Pak Mail, Chris’s top activity has been the P.E.O. Sisterhood. “I have been privileged to serve on two state executive boards and serve as the president of the Iowa State Chapter, 1994-95,” she wrote. “In those roles, I have been able to serve on state boards and committees for P.E.O.’s international and state philanthropies.”

Chris didn’t have a car in high school, but made up for a few years later. “My first car was a bright blue 1968 Mustang with white strips on the side.”

During high school, she earned money by babysitting. She didn’t have any one favorite song but enjoyed folk music. Today, she enjoys a wide variety of music genres, but listens to a lot of classical music.

“I went to France the summer after our senior year,” she wrote, “but other than that and a couple of day trips to Mexico and Canada, I’ve been in the U.S. However, during the years our daughter was growing up, we did a lot of tent camping, hitting 42 states and lots of National Parks over the years.”

Robert Coddington

Bob is one of those classmates no longer with us. If you wish to see a full list of classmates who are deceased, go to the In Memoriam page.

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Remembrance

by Marc Liotta
BCHS Class of 1963
Husband of fellow BEHS graduate Jenny (Littman) Liotta.

Bob Coddington was a longtime friend of mine and passed away from ALS about two years ago. He graduated from Wisconsin in 1973 after a stint in the Marine Corps. He studied behavioral disabilities in Madison and became interested, for the rest of his life, in religious and political issues as well as technology in the banking industry.

After high school, Bob moved with me to Boston and worked in a bank. He accompanied me to night school classes at Harvard and found, to his great delight, that he could do college level work if he wasn’t bored by the subject matter. Bob would listen while I furiously took notes and after class we would ride the subway to our apartment in Boston and discuss the class. He found that he had a considerable level of intellectual curiosity.

That year led to the Marine Corps and after the Marines Bob, decided to room with me and John Marcello in Madison while taking full advantage of the G.I. Bill. He stayed in Madison until he graduated and then took a job — also with my new employer, Wang Labs — in Sacramento.

He moved on to Bakersfield and worked for Xerox, a company that was known for its great training programs. Bob and Cherie Eberhardy (Brookfield Central coed) were married right after college and Cherie still lives in Sacramento where she is a therapist in the Veterans Hospital, treating vets with psychological issues resulting from their service.

After being married for quite a few years, Bob and Cherie had a son, Will, who looks a lot like Bob. Will works in San Francisco in high technology after graduating from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. I’m certain that Bob would say that raising Will was the crowning achievement of his life. Will is a wonderful, successful, and charming young man, and Bob and Cherie did a great job raising him.

Bob’s dry sense of humor and friendship will be missed by all of us who spent more than 30 years with him out here in California.

Rudy Cudzinovic

Though retired, Rudy continues to spend 14 days of work each year as a consultant to six manufacturing companies that have ISO quality standards they must maintain. That gives him loads of free time of which mostly “is spent with the grandkids and doing volunteer work with our church.”

With 14 grandchildren, he does need all that free time. Married to Marjorie, Rudy has five children, JoAnn, 50; Chris, 48; Lisa, 47; Jill, 46; and Michael, 45. The grandchildren, by age, are James, 27; Eden, 25; John, 23; Kelsey, 23: Jordan, 18; Anthony, 17; Tyler, 16; Bradley, 16; Connor, 14; Aaron, 11; Dylan, 10; Amanda, 9; Andrew, 8; and Julian, 7.

Rudy retired from Tower Automotive (formerly the A.O. Smith Corp.) in 2000. “I was there for 33 years,” he wrote. “I enjoyed every year I was there except for the one year when I was a supervisor. I learned I didn’t like doing that so I went back into the union and joined the quality department.”

His most interesting job is “the one I’m doing now as a consultant in my own company. I get to meet a lot of people and keep my brain active with getting prepared for the audits I do for my clients as well as keeping up with changes in quality standards and keeping my clients informed of those changes that affect their business.”

Rudy and Marjorie have always lived in the Milwaukee area. “We recently moved from our home in the Alverno College area to a condo in Greenfield. The move was only a few miles.”

As far as travel, Rudy says he hasn’t left the country since he came to the United States from Germany in 1953.”

The things he wishes he knew in high school are “how important it was to have a few good friends that you treat well and how important it was to pay attention to finances.”

His favorite hangout while attending BEHS was Kovac’s. You could see Rudy tooling around in a peach-colored 1955 Plymouth.

What he misses most from high school days is “seeing all my friends everyday and not having to worry about a job or money.” And his favorite memory is getting into the National Honor Society.

Rudy feels his greatest accomplishment was managing “to finish college in 1986 (with lots of pushing and encouragement from Marjorie). After getting my bachelor’s degree from Cardinal Stritch College, I went for another degree in quality and productivity management from Marian University. The degree from Marian helped me qualify for a new position at A.O. Smith that laid the groundwork for my post-retirement job of consultant and having my own company, Cudzinovic Consulting LLC.”

Mary (Dewey) Bliss

Mary met her husband, Fred, through their sons, who were good friends at Madison West High School. At the time, Fred was a plant geneticist/breeder at UW.

“He took a similar position (research on fruit trees instead of beans) at UC-Davis in 1988,” she wrote.

In California, Mary became a perinatal clinical nurse specialist, working for 25 years with Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento. “In this nursing leadership position,” she wrote, “I engaged in patient and staff education, patient safety and quality outcome measures, research, consultation and risk management activities. I was able to be involved in Sacramento County community groups, with emphasis on the DA’s Domestic Violence Coordinating Council and the Breastfeeding Coalition.”

She considers consulting “through my hospital as well as a private firm to review hospital OB departments focusing on improvement of patient care outcomes and risk management” as her fun job.

In the meantime, her husband, Fred, became director of worldwide plant breeding for Seminis Vegetable Seeds. He retired from Monsanto in 2010 and now is on the Driscoll Scientific Advisory Council. He also teaches a plant breeding management short course at UC-Davis.

“We have been married close to 30 years and have a wonderful blended family,” Mary wrote.

The blended family includes Mary’s two children from a previous marriage, George Campbell and Mara (married to Rick Carter); and Michael Bliss (married to Gina), Allen Bliss (married to Kathleen), and Jordan Bliss. There are eight grandchildren ages 11 to 16: Michael, Mia, Christian, Elliot, and Charles Bliss; and Kaitlyn and Cameron Carter.

“We have a 17-year-old dog, Meggie,” Mary wrote, “who is the sweetest girl dog in California. She actually has more friends than we do on our greenbelt walkways. She wears a Packer collar and gets lots of comments about that, too.”

Now retired, Mary spends her time reading, walking, traveling, exercising, volunteering with March of Dimes, hospital/nursing school committees, professional organizations, and consulting.

Prior to Davis, California, Mary has lived in Madison, Milwaukee, Platteville, and Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She has traveled to Hungary, Brazil, Portugal, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, and Argentina.

She has two major accomplishments in life she enjoys bragging about: “Personally: Having a wonderful family with a wonderful husband, great kids, and grandkids. Professionally: Obtaining the 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award from UW-Eau Claire as well as the CA 2006 Nursing Excellence Award in Community Service.”

What she knows now that she wishes she had known in high school is “that you can change and achieve your goals at any time, even if your path is not a straight line.”

Her favorite memory from high school was “lots of kids at our house shooting buckets; with three Dewey girls at BEHS we always had a gang!” In fact, her favorite hangout was the “Dewey backyard (‘hang on the bar’).”

When she could get it, she drove a white Mercury station wagon. She “rarely drove it except for errands as we were a one car family with seven kids; lots of competition, for sure.”

She worked at the Elm Grove Pharmacy, “(soda fountain); made a great vanilla phosphate soda.”

She does miss the fun at basketball games and dances. Her favorite song was “Chances Are” by Johnnie Mathis. Today, she enjoys classic rock, country, and blue grass music.

Her untold story? “We could sneak out on the upper back porch and climb down the stone side of the house and meet at night.”

“I have had a wonderful life and career working to improve care of women and infants,” she wrote. “We continue to enjoy our trips back to Wisconsin and have fond memories of our times and friends there. We have decided to stay in Davis for our retirement, but plan to return to the Midwest every summer to enjoy family, friends, and the green landscapes. Of course, we continue to be HUGE Packer and UW Badger fans; much to the dismay of our San Francisco 49er fans.”

Marilyn (Enge) Lepak

Marilyn and Wayne Lepak have been married for 35 years. “We both were older when we got married for the first and only time,” she wrote. “I was 32 and a half and he was 30 and a half. (I robbed the cradle :). He was a firefighter and EMT on the Oak Creek Fire Department. When we met, I didn’t even know there was an Oak Creek in Milwaukee County. But we’ve been here our whole married life. Before he retired from the Fire Department he got a part-time job selling wood flooring. Now he works full time for Schmidt Custom Floors in sales and business development.”

Marilyn and Wayne have four children:

“Cammy, 34, is a major in the National Guard and she is in Kuwait right now. Three years ago, she was in Iraq for a year. When she is not deployed, she has a home in Columbia, South Carolina. Sarah is married to Jason and has our three grandsons. She is 33 and lives in Chelan, Washington. She is a full-time mother and a full-time middle-school math teacher. Kale is almost 32 and is married to Jaspar and lives in Seattle, Washington. They lived in Durban, South Africa, for two years. He is in business marketing research. Garrett, our youngest, is 28. He is married to Sarah and they live in Bluffton, South Carolina. He has his own remodeling business. Our kids and their spouses are all doing very well and made the right choices.”

If there is any fault with the family, it’s that “our three grandsons live too far away :(. Tristan is 7, Wade is 6, and Owen is 4. They are very smart, cute, and entertaining!”

The family did have a German shorthair pointer, Echo, for 13 years. “Two years ago, we had to put her down because of her health. We really miss her: cleaning up the kitchen floor when I’ve been making a mess, sitting on my lap and napping in my recliner, and making me get out of my chair to let her outside to go potty.”

Now retired and working at home cleaning, cooking, laundry, paying bills, etc., Marilyn notes three careers over the years. “My first career was as a licensed practical nurse and I worked in intensive care at St. Joe’s Hospital in Milwaukee, a hospital in St. Paul, and a visiting nurse in Milwaukee. My second career was as a stay at home mom, and I also babysat other people’s kids. My third career was as a secretary in an elementary school and I also took care of the health room.”

She now volunteers “at the Ronald McDonald House for families who have a child in Children’s Hospital or Rodgers, etc. I am an office assistant, and a substitute van driver there. Because our kids live so far away, I get down in the dumps missing them so much, so I have to drive around in the sun. I have an unofficial business for friends or relatives. (I write poems or songs for everything.) Are you interested in a scenic tour of Wisconsin or Milwaukee? Just give Marilyn a call; she’ll take you out for free, We also have a bed and breakfast, and airport park and ride, So please come and stay with us and I will be your guide.”

She considers working in the school her fun job “because I liked being around the children and singing to them, etc.”

Marilyn has mostly lived in Wisconsin. “I lived at home for the year that I was in LPN school. Then I rented a room in Milwaukee, close to the hospital, so I could walk to work, as I didn’t have a car. Then when I got a car I had an apartment. In 1971 I moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, and lived there for three years. Then I moved to Butler, Wisconsin, where I lived in my duplex. When I got married in 1979, I moved to Oak Creek to live with my husband.”

This summer, Marilyn visited her 49th state, Alaska. “Hopefully, this winter we will go to Hawaii, the 50th state and my 50th state to visit! We have also been to Europe, Mexico, Jamaica, Canada, South Africa, and the Dominican Republic.”

As far as bragging rights go, she notes: “My husband and I are opposites. It is a great accomplishment that we made it for 35 years so far, and had four wonderful children!”

What she misses most about high school is her memory. “My memory is really bad, so I don’t know what I knew then or now.”

Her first car was a blue Ford Falcon (“I think it was about a 1960”).

She worked at home for her father’s home-building business as a secretary and bookkeeper.

Her musical tastes today run to oldies, Elvis, music from the ‘60s, and hymns.

As a final note, she wrote: “At the reunion, I might recognize your name, but not your face, or the opposite, so I hope I don’t offend you!”

Ronald Ensweiler

Compact version of my last 50 years (play Big Bang Theory theme song softly in background for effect). 😉

At graduation, I was fortunate to be accepted to Northwestern, unfortunately unable to obtain financial aid to attend. Was able, however, to work several jobs each summer and part-time during school years to pay all by myself the then $150/semester tuition and the then $730/year room and board at UW Madison. Also able to buy my first car, 1955 Chevy two-door coupe for $135.

Besides majoring in business, I learned to play mean games of Sheepshead and pool to augment my financial requirements. Attending UW also taught me how to smoke cigarettes and drink beer as well — some of the best times of my youth. In the ensuing years, I have become a Badger football freak, attending every bowl game they have been to since 1962.

Next was two years in U.S. Army, one of which was served in Vietnam in G2 Army Intelligence (the ultimate oxymoron). Was on E-6 promotion list when wounded and medevaced back to Oakland Army Base to be booed by hippies while deplaning as an ambulatory patient. Will never forget that, nor Ms. Jane Fonda, for that matter.

Married Pam Jones, BEHS Class of 1965 (now deceased). Started a banking career with 1st Wisconsin National Bank (now US Bank) as a personnel specialist. Moved to Associated Bank Corp. and became VP Human Resources. Next was senior VP and cashier with 1st National Bank Racine (now Chase) where I met my lovely wife of now 35 years, Glenna Benzow, Racine St. Catherine High School Class of 1969.

Glenna and I quit the banking business to realize the American dream of business ownership, a 100-seat restaurant and bar. After six years of slim margins and working 90-hour weeks just to pay 26 employees, Glenna went back to the banking business with M&I corporation and I became a penny stockbroker.

Via various types of networking, including many hours of telemarketing, built a nice book of clients only to lose 90 percent of them all in one day in the crash of 1987.

Went to work for Miracle-Ear Hearing Aid Centers as a state licensed hearing aid fitter and dispenser in Phoenix, Arizona, for two years. Became a regional manager for Miracle-Ear in Dallas, Texas, the next two years, then purchased the 10-store location Miracle-Ear franchise in Dallas, which I owned for the next 20 years until selling the business and retiring two years ago.

Thirty-four years ago, we adopted a 15-year-old at-risk young man, Jon, who has since grown up, married, had children, and has made us very proud. He has provided us with two wonderful grandchildren, Jacob 15, and Chris 18. In addition, he has recently married a woman with two daughters, Anna 19, and Kat 23, who we are proud to have as step-granddaughters. Kat has a delightful 4-year-old daughter Brooklyn, which technically makes us step GREAT-GRANDPARENTS. Whooaaa!!

After finding in an old file, my W-2 form from 1959 from working at Wisconsin Memorial Park Cemetery, and holding next to it in my hand, my last W-2 from 2012, I realized that I have been going to school and working pretty much full-time plus for more than 55 years. As a result, when people ask me what I do now that I’m retired, I very proudly answer: “Nothing.” And boy does it feel good. After I get over “Nothing,” I plan to take up the piano, which I wish I had done younger.

Relative to some of the questionnaire subjects, my first NEW car was a 1969 Volkswagen 1300 (Bug) for which I paid $1,510. My second new car was a 1970 Corvette for which I paid $4,885. (My bank salary at the time was $6,900).

My favorite place to hang out in high school was Kovac’s Custard Stand at Lilly Road and Capitol Drive (which a number of you have also indicated on your bios). I also worked there during three of my four high school years.

Very much looking to reconnect with y’all (that’s Texin) in September.

Norman Faulstich

Norm came late to the unfettered joy of roaming the nation on two wheels. “Alice and I have been avid Harley riders for the last 10 years,” he wrote.

Alice, of course, is his wife (BEHS Class of 1966) and sister of fellow graduate Dan Buran. They have a son Max and three grandchildren, Tyler, 16; Cean, 13; and Emma, 10.

He is retired after a career in banking and brokerage, though he does some “remodeling work in Seahorse Park where we leave in Florida.”

That allows much time to hit the open road.

“We ride to Sturgis, South Dakota, every year,” Norm wrote. “Last year, we left St. Petersburg, Florida, on June 13 and rode north to Laconia, New Hampshire, then across New York and into Canada to Ontario then west back into the states to northern Wisconsin to our lake home on Archibald Lake.

“From there we headed to Sturgis and then headed west to Great Falls, Montana, and then up to Glacier Park. From there we headed into Canada to Lethbridge, Alberta. From there we headed east to Winnipeg going through those interesting places such as Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and Medicine Hat, Alberta. After Winnipeg it was back home to Wisconsin just in time to pick up our three grandkids and head to Niagara Falls.

“ What a great trip that was. Once back in Wisconsin, we enjoyed our lake home until September when I packed up the Haley and headed it south back to St. Petersburg. Total round trip was just over 10,000 miles. Harley is right when it says, ‘Ride To Live, Live to Ride!’ ”

He wishes that in high school he “would have taken shop class and had taken and been better in math.” That goes along with what he considers his fun job:

“Building and remodeling have been the most interesting and rewarding jobs I have ever had. People always ask me what the biggest difference is between building and banking. I tell them that with building and remodeling, at the end of the day, you can stand back and see what you have accomplished. That rarely happened in banking and brokerage.”

Over the years, he has lived in Wauwatosa, Richland Center, Green Bay, Wausau, Galesville, and South Milwaukee in Wisconsin; and now in St. Petersburg for the last 10 years.

Travel has allowed him to tour “all of Europe, including Yugoslavia and Greece as well as Canada from the Maritime Provinces to British Columbia.”

Norm feels getting his MBA and brokerage license as major achievements, “especially getting my MBA when the kids were little. However, what really has provided the greatest sense of accomplishment has been the building of our lake home, two townhouses, one for our son and one for us, and a 2,400-square-foot ranch in Sussex for our son, not to mention the multitude of remodeling projects that I have completed in Florida, including the remodeling of our mobile home.”

Norm served with the U.S. Army from 1965 to 1967, attaining the rank of SP4 as a radio Teletype operator. He duty postings included Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Fort Ord, California; Fort Gordon, Georgia; and Fulda, Germany.

What he misses most about high school is the “camaraderie of being with friends.”

Back then he drove a “1935 Ford Coupe that I painted dark blue.” He worked for Crestway Homes. “I was a handyman for them cleaning up and getting their models ready for showing and sale.”

As far as his favorite memory of high school goes: “I am trying to remember one!!!”

The same goes for trying to remember his favorite song. Today, he leans toward country/western music. “ If it ain’t country, it ain’t music!!!”

James Ferrel

Jim is one of those classmates no longer with us. If you wish to see a full list of classmates who are deceased, go to the In Memoriam page.

Below is the information Jim submitted to the previous incarnation of this website in 2001. The text is self-explanatory.

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After graduating from BEHS, I went to UW in Madison where I finally got my degree in 1969. After college, I went to work for IBM in Chicago selling computers. That led to a 25-year career with a number of computer companies in Dallas, Cincinnati, Detroit, New York, and now Atlanta. During that time I got married and had 2 beautiful girls, Rachel and Amanda. Unfortunately, the marriage only lasted 17 years.

In 1994, I left corporate America to start my own career consulting/headhunting firm. In 1997, I was diagnosed with ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. I got married in 1998 to a wonderful women named Bonny. As I am writing this in March 2001, I am a quadriplegic with about 6 months left before I cross that last goal line.

Gloria Finn

Gloria is one of those classmates no longer with us. From what the committee has learned, Gloria was a veteran of the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of first lieutenant. She did serve in Vietnam.

Richard Flesch

Dick is married to the former Carlen Jessen. They have two children: Jason, a computer geek, who is married to Christine; and Jonathan, a supervisor for a large local and private bakery. They have one grandchild, an “adorable little girl named Alice.”

The family does include four dachshunds and one Jack Russell/shih tzu mix.

He is retired from work as a supervisor, managing inventory for an international heavy equipment company.

He has lived in Appleton, Manitowoc, Hartford and Omro in Wisconsin; St. Cloud, Minnesota; and twice in Boise, Idaho. (“Not moving again,” he wrote).

Dick has traveled much of the United States.

He feels his greatest accomplishment was in being the “No. 1 store manager at several large retail stores.”

What he knows now that he wished he had learned in high school is that: “You are responsible for your own success and achievement of your dreams. No employer, company, supervisor cares. Make your own dream and do not let anyone steal that from you.”

Regrettably, he wrote, “I am unable to attend the reunion.”

James Flood

James and his wife, Catharine, have been married for 39 years. Their son lives in Gilbert, Arizona, and their daughter lives in Duluth, Minnesota. They have four grandchildren: a boy age 5, and three girls age 3, 2, and 6 months.

He owns a lawn-care business, but only works during the summer. During the winter months, he spends his time in Arizona.

The one fact he knows now that he wishes he knew in high school is that “history is fun.”

During his high school days he worked at Grash’s and Food Fair. He drove a blue Ford and enjoyed hanging out at Marty’s. His favorite music genre is country and he did serve a stint in the Army.

Jerome Flood

Jerry finds three things in life he considers his greatest accomplishments:

— “Marrying my wife” (Pauline, RN at Waukesha Memorial Hospital) “and raising two well-educated, successful children” (Shannon and Sean).

— Earnlng a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UW-Stout.

— Staying on the right side of the grass.

He and Pauline have two grandchildren, Sarah, 3.5 years old, and John, 1.5 years old.

Jerry is retired from sales and sales management for various meat companies, though he still does some part-time work.

While settled now in Waukesha, he has lived in San Francisco, California, and St. Louis, Missouri. He has traveled to England, Hawaii, and most Western and Southern states.

In high school, he drove a blue 1956 Ford, worked at Grash’s Food Store, and enjoyed hanging out at Carter’s Diner on Bluemound Road. His musical tastes run to everything but rap.

His favorite high school memory? “Watching Joe Gennaro throw a cherry bomb up the exhaust duct in woodshop.”

Lee Fredrickson

Lee is married to fellow BEHS graduate Christine Chambers. They have a daughter, Karin Orwig (whom he considers the greatest accomplishment in life), and two grandchildren, Abigail, 6, and Noah, 3.

Though there are currently no pets in the household, they have had over the years three dogs and a cat.

His fun job is his current one, owning Pak Mail, a packaging and shipping store.

In addition to Wisconsin, Lee has lived in Chicago, Illinois; Madison, Connecticut; and currently in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Travel has taken him to Hong Kong, Guam, and Vietnam, the latter during his stint with the U.S. Army from 1966-69. His duties found him in Bien Hoa, Vietnam, from May 1968 to September 1969, working as a Vietnamese translator. He achieved the rank of SP6 and also was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Monterey, California; and San Angelo, Texas.

His first car was a dark turquoise 1958 Chevy Biscayne, something he misses most from his high school days. His favorite memory is of meeting his future wife. He worked for Kohl’s department and grocery stores. He enjoys the same must today as he did in high school.

John Goad

After finishing the two-year program of professional photography at the Layton School of Art (now the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design), I entered into my four-year stint in the USAF and got stationed at Nellis AFB, just outside Las Vegas. I met my lovely wife, Sonnie, in 1968 and together we raised two boys.

I worked as a photographer for the Las Vegas News Bureau, Lake Tahoe News Bureau, University of Nevada Las Vegas, and had my own commercial photo studio for about 10 years. In 1987, I set aside my cameras and went into full-time ministry as an associate pastor for five years and then as a senior pastor for six years.

I left the ministry in 1998 and sold cars for five years, then partnered with my son selling real estate for six years. When the housing bubble burst, my wife and I decided to leave our desert home of 42 years and move to North Carolina. Both of our sons and their families followed us to North Carolina. We now live in a small town 20 miles south of the Virginia state line called Reidsville (former home of Lucky Strike cigarettes).

We enjoy our grandchildren (immensely); I play golf (poorly), follow NASCAR (avidly), serve God (devotedly), and sell appliances at the local Lowe’s store (resignedly, yet gratefully).

I am looking forward to seeing everybody at the reunion and trying not to embarrass myself on the golf course.

James Gollnick

It should be no surprise that Jim’s favorite hangout in high school was the golf course. His most memorable moment from then was “going to the state golf tournament as a sophomore and thereby receiving the first Major Letter at East.”

Semi-retired and living in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, Jim still does research and writing in the psychology of religion, depth psychology, and dream analysis. This is an outgrowth of his career choice as a psychotherapist. Before becoming semi-retired, Jim was professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. During that time he also had a private practice.

During his career, he published seven books, including “The Spiritual, Social and Scientific Meanings of Dreams” and two other works that have been used as undergraduate and graduate textbooks.

Jim and his ex-wife, Deb, remain best friends. They have a son, Aaron, 21, who is an electrician.

Jim enjoys getting out for a walk, sometimes with golf clubs in hand, other times with his border collie Sammy. He also has a cat named Skittles.

He has mostly lived in Toronto and Waterloo, but has spent time studying in Berlin, Germany; Zurich, Switzerland; and Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Travels have also taken him to France, Italy, Spain, Japan, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, and Israel.

The one fact Jim wishes he had known in high school is one we all can understand: “How quickly life moves on.” And the one thing he misses is having “so many great friends and being young and healthy.”

Back then, you probably heard The Beatles blaring from the radio of the 1958 black Chevrolet Impala he drove (“loved that car”). That is when he wasn’t working in the school library. Today, he still listens to The Beatles as well as Bob Dylan, The Eagles, and classical music.

“I want to wish everyone in the class of ’64 the very best at the reunion and in the future,” Jim wrote. “Unfortunately, health problems continue to plague me and consequently I am not able to attend.”

Sandra (Golner) Kohls

I’ve had several jobs ranging from an engineering firm to a lawyer’s office to my current “semi-retired” status working in the bakery at Pick ‘n Save. I also volunteer at West Allis Memorial Hospital.

I lost my husband, Bill, to cancer in 2003. We had been married for 38 years. I’ve been single ever since. We were blessed with three children — Tracey, Jill and Todd — and more blessed with four grandchildren. Brittany, 21, graduated from Carroll University in May. Noelle, 18, is a student at Gateway, Racine. Liesel is 16 ad Noah is 14.

I am a huge Brewer fan and Noah is my Brewer buddy at games.

I have lived in the same house for 45 years with three kitties and a dog — my “rescue” family.

I enjoy gardening (beling to the Greenfield Beautification Committee), cooking, collecting recipes, and am active in my church, Oak Creek Assembly of God, which has a travel club for day trips and a week long trip once a year — New York City in May.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in September.

Thomas Grogan

Tom likes to brag that he is “staying alive on an unhealthy diet.”

He is married to Patricia, who works for the Funjet travel agency. They have three children, Kelly, 46; Shannon, 41, a Milwaukee police officer; and Tim, 36. They also have four grandchildren, Kali, 17; Jacob and Logan, 16; and Gabby, 11.

The family pet is a 9-year-old shi/chi named “Peanut.”

He lives in Michigan and is retired, but his fun job was in original equipment manufacturer sales with Briggs.

His travels have included Europe, Mexico, and Vietnam, the later courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Tom served in the Army from 1965-67, attaining the rank of SP4. His duty posts included Fort Knox, Kentucky; Fort Wolters, Texas; and Tan Son Nhut (today known as Tan Son Nhat), Vietnam. He was a Huey gunner from July 1965 to August 1966 in Vietnam.

The thing he knows now that he wishes he had known in high school was information about IRAs. He could have socked away a little of the money he made while working at Victory drive-in during high school.

Tom added a special comment for fellow graduate Vickie (Dikeman) Werry (who, unfortunately has not yet been located). Tom wrote: “Vickie. Sorry about Tom Schubert.”

In a separate email, Tom wrote: “My wife and I remained friends with Tom and Vickie after BEHS and my service stint. They had a place by Whitmore Lake in Michigan. We were both starting our families and had some good times. Do you all remember his 1955 Chevy with straight pipes? Once put aircraft landing lights on it, talk about high beams. Don’t know how he passed. Talked to him in California late 90s. As the class elder, all you youngins, enjoy.”

Karen (Groth) Cornelius

After high school graduation, I headed to the UW at Oshkosh to get my college degree, including a teaching certificate. Remarkably it, indeed, lead to a job teaching — first in Milwaukee and then in Germany for three years before coming back to an inner city school in Milwaukee. Walking the picket line during a teacher strike, I wiled away the hours reading a National Geographic magazine article about Alaska.

Through the proverbial long story of coincidental events, I soon found myself heading north in my 1975 brown Plymouth station wagon — off for the adventure of a lifetime — bouncing up the 1,000 mile gravel road to Alaska to teach 2nd and 3rd grade in Anchorage. What a sight I made in my mammoth “brown cow” with my head barely showing above the steering wheel.

Two years later, another coincidence linked back to my reading that National Geographic magazine article lead me to meet Don Cornelius, a wildlife biologist, who was to become my husband in 1980. Don came with two children (Tamia, now 40, and David, now 43 years old). In 1982, we added Amanda to our family. David and Tamia both live in Wasilla, Alaska, while Mandy lives in Seattle.

Upon marrying in Anchorage, we moved to Glennallen, then Ketchikan, before finally settling in the small commercial fishing port of Petersburg in 1984. Petersburg is located on an island close to the center of southeast Alaska (the Alaska panhandle) where the end of the road is at mile 34. If you want to go anywhere, such as Wisconsin, you have to either take an 18-hour ferry ride to Prince Rupert, British Columbia; drive 2,400 hundred miles (if you’re heading to Wisconsin); or fly to Seattle and on from there.

It took me awhile to adapt to this coastal rainforest, so wet with thick brush and fallen trees littering the forest floor, as compared to the friendly woods “up north” in Wisconsin. Now, I cherish its wildness, seeing whales, bears, salmon, so much wildlife. We have snow and glacier-capped mountains on the mainland — year around — and we love having eagles and deer right outside our window. Blueberries and salmonberries abound. All summer, I would start my morning with Don’s fine coffee and a handful of berries from our premises.

Don, and I share a website through which to show our art. You can see it and learn a bit more about me at Cornelius Studio. More recently we have started writing a blog. Each week we post stories, photos and/or paintings depending on what we’ve been up to. You can see that at Alaska and Beyond Through Artist’s Eyes. Don does most of the writing while I’m the main photographer.

Ronnie Hart

Ron lives in Prescott, Arizona, where he does work for the city’s golf course. Previously, he had worked as a designer of 3D advertising, which he considers his fun job.

He has two children, Kelly and Mandy, and two grandchildren, Paige and Shean. He also has a cat, Cinnamin, to keep him company.

In addition to Wisconsin, Ron has lived in San Francisco, California; Dallas, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; and Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

It has been a great life, he wrote.

He doesn’t miss anything about high school, though his fondest memory is of his girlfriend. The song he liked best was “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.” He still enjoys listening to rock and roll. He earned spending cash working at Parentes Restaurant.

His first car was a yellow 1970 Plymouth Duster.

Margaret (Jensen) Hoppe

After graduation, I moved into my grandmother’s house in Milwaukee to attend UW-Milwaukee and not have to pay nonresident tuition. Brookfield, you know, is so so far away from Milwaukee. At the end of the first semester, I met Bill whom I would marry in August 1966.

After three semesters of college, I realized that this was not for me.

Bill had just finished an apprenticeship with the Falk Corporation and got me a job in the office where I worked a year and a half before becoming a “stay at home mom” of three. Our daughter Teri is 47. Her brothers are Mark who is 45 and Jeff who is 41.

In September 1975, we built a home in Wales, Wisconsin, and are still there.

When all three kids were in school all day, I became a “Hot Lunch Lady”. I started at Kettle Moraine High School and was there for seven and a half years. I then worked at UW-Waukesha for eight and a half years, ending my career there as manager.

From school hot lunches, I went into banking, working for Bank One (Chase) for one year and then M&I for four years.

Wanting to work part time and closer to home, I was very fortunate to get a job with The Lang Companies in Delafield. I worked there for four years. They were the best years of my working outside the home.

Bill and I retired 2002. Our new career became “babysitting grandchildren.” We have six. We are very much enjoying retirement.

Gary Johnson

When people ask me what living was like in my high school days, I tell them it was like the TV show, “Happy Days.” It was a great time for a goofy, naive, immature, ne’er-do-well like me.

The best place for hanging out was right in our neighborhood, as several classmates lived nearby. You could always find enough folks for pick up games of all ball sports, and somebody’s house would have a basketball backboard, a pool table or Ping Pong table. Bicycle riding was always a welcome activity.

However, by the time junior and senior years rolled around and driver’s licenses and part-time jobs were held, a few us would pool our few dollars for fuel and “cruise” the hot hamburger spots — McDonald’s on Highway 100, Big Boy on Capital Drive, and Gilley’s on Bluemound Road. Although I didn’t have a car, I could occasionally “borrow” my mother’s red 1962 Ford Galaxie 500 convertible.

In addition to lawn mowing, snow shoveling, and babysitting, I worked at Kohl’s on 124th and North Avenue sacking groceries, stocking shelves, and being a member of the infamous night scrub crew. I also worked at the Lime House where I was bitten by the restaurant bug.

After graduation I enrolled at UW-Oshkosh and had too much fun … way, way, way too much fun, while working in bars and restaurants while skipping class.

My parents had moved to Wheaton, Illinois, in 1967, and then on to Signal Mountain (Chattanooga), Tennessee, and to Shelby, North Carolina, and finally to Houston, Texas. By 1970, it finally dawned on me that I needed to settle down and find a real job or complete my education. I married a UW-Oshkosh classmate in early 1970, and started classes at The University of Tennessee in that fall. The university graciously allowed me to enroll (under strict probation until I improved my D average), as I was considered an in-state resident because my folks lived in Chattanooga.

Late 1970 found us the parents of a beautiful baby girl. By 1973, I was enrolled in graduate school, was divorced, and a single parent. I had a double major — history and political science in under grad, and majored in advertising, minored in marketing in grad school, which required taking most MBA courses. I had worked hard in school and at part-time jobs to make it through.

After school, my daughter, Laura, and I moved to Houston where my parents were living.

With all that knowledge, it was obvious where I would find employment — in restaurants! And I have been a hamburger flipper ever since. I have traveled all 50 states and lived in a dozen during my career. I am going to retire in time for the 50th reunion.

Since I didn’t have a car in high school, I have designated my 1957 Chevy Bel Air two-door hardtop as my daily driver for my “golden years.”

My daughter (at right with her dad) is my parent’s only grandchild. In 2006, she gave me my first grandchild, and my dad’s first great-grandchild (my mother had died in 1997). Since we thought a grand/great-grand child was pretty cool, she obliged us with triplets three years later! Dad’s still kicking at 91. Last August at age 90, he threw out the first pitch at Wrigley Field, and then attended a pre-season game in Green Bay. He has held on to his Packer season tickets all these years. And he took The Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., for WWII veterans earlier that year.

After ten years of dating Lee (with Gary top left), in 2010 I finally felt I could be married again, so I asked her. On Christmas morning, we married ourselves in our own private ceremony in Rocky Mountain National Park. Her two children have given us grandchildren numbers five and six. Her daughter lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, and her son lives in Colorado Springs in the U.S. Army after two tours in Afghanistan. Lee and I live in Cypress, Texas (northwest Houston), and listen to rock and roll from the’ 50s-‘70s, and traditional country.

The greatest accomplishment in my life was raising my daughter in spite of the odds. She graduated from Stephen F. Austin University, has a great career with Dell, and lives in Round Rock, Texas, with her husband and children.

When not tangling with the grandkids, we tinker with our old car and motorcycle collection and fly our airplane. And we try to figure out where we are going to live in our retirement years.

What I miss most from high school is the innocent fun and camaraderie we had. My favorite high school memory has two chapters: when Todd Kursel and I were freshman at Central, upperclassman, basketball star, and next door neighbor, Jeff Kursel, made sure nobody gave us “little guys” any problems. And then, when my brother Glenn was a freshman at East and we were seniors, upperclassmen were kind to him just because he was my little brother.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in September. Thank you reunion committee!

Jerold Kehoe

Jerry is retired from a career in electrical construction products consulting.

He is married to Imthip (Om), originally from Bangkok, Thailand. They have three children — Brian, 47; Kelly, 46; and Sean, 35 — and one grandchild, Lucy, 3.

Currently living in Santa Rosa, California, Jerry has lived in Madison, Wisconsin; Peoria, Illinois; and Reno, Nevada. Travel has taken him to Europe and Southeast Asia.

During high school, he worked at Bud’s Home Cleaners and tooled around town in a white 1963 Triumph TR3. His music tastes run to smooth jazz. His favorite memory is “falling asleep after lunch in physics class.”

Suzanne (Klein) Muenster

Susan is married to fellow graduate Richard Muenster. They have three children and four grandchildren: Debbie, married with 2-year-old twins Chloe and Connor; Julie, married with Mia, 16, and Nick, 13; and Richard.

She is retired and spends her time doing “window treatments and taking classes at WCTC and traveling between Minocqua and Las Vegas homes.” As far as a fun job goes she’s “still looking for it.”

Aside from their home in Las Vegas, “I have stayed in the Wisconsin area.”

The family had a pet “cat named Smokey that I loved, but had to get weekly allergy shots, but worth it. Since Richard hates dogs, I go see Julie’s dog Leo.”

Susan brags that her greatest accomplishment in life is “staying married to my husband for nearly 50 years and raising three children.”

She has enjoyed traveling to Europe, Australia, and Japan.

Susan wishes she had know in high school “how valuable the land on Bluemound Road would be.”

She misses the carefree fun times of high school. Her favorite memory is of meeting her husband.

The car she drove? “Exciting to say my father’s white corvette.”

During high school, Susan worked at the bakery and deli at Sentry in Butler. Her favorite song was any one by the Beach Boys. Today, she’s “still listening to the ’60s, some country, Celine Dion, and instrumental music.”

Her favorite hangout during high school was at “Fiesta Drive Inn on Highway 100 because they used Cheese Whiz on their burgers.”

Susan is “Looking forward to seeing my classmates.”

John Kryder

After graduation (a Very Happy Day!) I embarked on a combination of college and travel. Once travel stopped, I became serious about college and graduated in January of 1970 from UW-Milwaukee with a degree in business administration. Having survived the demonstrations, tear gas and general chaos of the late ’60s, I promptly went on seven months active duty in the Army Reserves (my part-time home for the next six years).

In 1967, Nancy (Kuhl) and I were married and by the late seventies we had a son and daughter to round out our family.

By 1978, I had gone into business with my dad and it was time to move the activities out of the basement and garage. (We were a small manufacturer of specialty shrink tapes that were used by the electric motor and defense and aerospace industries.)

What better than to follow the sunshine to Charlotte, North Carolina! We did that at the first signs of spring thaw, and have never looked back. (I have not owned a snow shovel since!)

Going South though, provided the opportunity to finally learn to snow ski — sounds a bit counterintuitive, but we do have mountains! Life in the Carolinas has been very good and we took advantage of our geography by spending time in the mountains and the beaches on the coast.

Both kids graduated from college and moved up and out. Matt is in New York and produced our first grandchild (James, above, pictured with his grandpop). Sara is in Arlington, Virginia, but refuses to listen to her dad rant on about politics. Other than that, both kids are pretty tolerant of their dad.

Nancy and I separated in 2005 and divorced shortly afterward. I remarried in 2012 and recently moved back to Charlotte after spending three years in Chicago. (Had to borrow a snow shovel while there!)

My working career expired a few years ago, mostly because I just didn’t have the time for it anymore! So many things to do.

My wife, Patti, and I are active and in good health. Enjoy sunshine, PBR, motorcycling, skiing, in-line skating, scuba diving, kids, grandkid, friends, laughter, joy of life, and staying in trouble of one sort or another!

Take Care my Friends!

Todd Kursel

Todd is married to Eileen, “a ‘Tosa girl who loves dogs, golf, swimming, and theater.” He added, “Our dog is our only child.”

He spent his career in investment property and art. Today, he dabbles in landscape gardening. However, he considers the three years he spent as a cab driver as his fun job.

Except for a few years in Florida, Todd has lived in Wisconsin.

Travels have taken him to Belize, Honduras, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Singapore, Tahiti, Mexico, and Canada.

Todd feels his greatest accomplishment has been living life, something that goes along with the fact he knows now that he wishes he had learned in high school: “Do what you enjoy.” Although his outlook on life (“reality is a crutch”) adds the element of thinking outside the box.

His first car was a blue 1954 Olds. He worked at Kohl’s grocery during high school. His favorite hangout: “Johnson’s house next door.”

What he misses most about high school are “old friends.” As to a favorite memory of the time, he merely cryptically wrote: “Maybe.”

He enjoys all kinds of music.

Richard Larsen

Richard Larsen (seen here confronting a muse in St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, Ireland, in 1997) left Brookfield two months after graduation when his family moved to Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

He spent the next six years trying to keep Uncle Sam from noticing him. Along the way, the family movved four times between two cityes. He attended four different colleges but did not tally up many credits. He worked as a file clerk in the advertising accounting department of the Chicago Tribune, as a file clerk in the accounting department of the Standard Oil Co. (long before Big Oil became not so nice), as a grill cook at Topps Big Boy restuarant in Glen Ellyn, and as a stock clerk for Doenges Stationery store in Wheaton, Illinois. For two weeks in 1969, he worked as a reporter on the Du Page County Times, a weekly newspaper. Unfortunately, his new 1969 Mustang convertible came with a monthly payment, so he went back to being a stock clerk at Doenges for a while longer. (Even 25 years later, journalism was not a high-paying career).

This period also included his “wanna-be-rock-star phase.” He had received a guitar as a graduation present — a 1964 Gibson Firebird III. He played rhythm guitar with several basement bands; the most successful was The Doodes, which actually secured at least three paying gigs. No hotels were trashed in the process and the pay for performing did buy an after-gig hamburger. This phase quickly faded, though he still has the guitar and occasioally pretends he can play.

He was nearly drafted in October 1969, but President Nixon, in only one of two acts that greatly pleased Richard, canceled two-thirds of the draft notices. Richard was one of the lucky ones. Sort of. In 1970, his fate rested on the draft lottery. His number was called in June. A delaying tactic gave him one month’s reprieve, but that was it. Come the middle of July 1970, he would have to report. Unless …

“I fooled them,” Richard says. “I enlisted in the Air Force on its delayed-enlistment program to avoid the draft.”

The silly logic not withstanding, he served slightly more than two years of a four-year hitch, then got himself tossed out for “apathy, defective attitude and failure to expand effort creatively.” His honorable discharge came on the weekend the Paris Peace Accords were signed and a cease-fire went into effect in Vietnam, no doubt the true reason he was given his discarge: The military no longer needed the warm bodies.

Back in Chicago, he got a job as a reporter on the weekly Suburban Topics Newspapers, covering the news in Wheeling and Buffalo Grove, Illinois, including following the story of Seymour the Snake. (A harrowing experience in which the Buffalo Grove was paralyzed over a weekend when people thought an Egyptian cobra had escaped. As it turned out, it was only a rat or chicken snake.)

Like before, the wages at the weekly newspaper were not enough to keep body and soul together. So, when a friend from the Air Force offered him a job putting out a monthly magazine (and other public relations items) for the Pomona-based California Credit Union League, he jumped at the chance.

A year and a half later he quit, for reasons he’s never satisfactorily explained to himself. After a few months of unemployment, he moved back to the Chicago area and worked as a news announcer for the station where his dad was a disc jockey at the time. The restless urge to be back in the world of writing took him back to California, where he went back to the college on the G.I. Bill, nearly completing his bachelor’s degree requirements in two and a half years’ time. He was a senior project and two units short when he applied for and was hired as a copy editor at The Press-Courier newspaper in Oxnard, California.

By this time he was married, his wife was expecting, and the job seemed the right thing to do.

In his 14 years time at The Press-Courier, he moved up to news editor and then managing editor. He wrote editorials and a mostly weekly column for several years until a change in management brought about another change in his life.

Before getting too far ahead, Richard and his first wife divorced in 1984. Their daughter Kristin was 5 years old. Today, Kristin is in her thirties, married with five children. She lives in Idaho where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and is working on a doctorate in education. She always was an overachiever.

Richard met Terry in the 1980s. They lived together for several years and decided to marry in 1992, May to be exact. A month later, the newspaper’s publisher was dismissed and a new one began dismantling the newspaper he had come to love. The editor who had hired him retired and the new editor was merely a carbon copy of the publisher, which meant lots of style but little substance.

So, Richard jumped ship in September 1992. He got a job at the rival paper — The Star-Free Press, now merely The Star — in the next town over, where he gleefully shed his management duties to return to the front lines of journalism, seeking out adjectives and killing them, desperately trying to save adverbs, and just generally bemoaning the lack of language skills that seemed to be running rampant in the younger generation. (There will be no rants here about tweeting and texting aside from the very necessary statement: “Bring back grammar and puncuation and spelling — puhleeze.”)

During the spring of 1999, Richard and Terry decided to separate, a very amicable split.

In 2002, Richard move from the copy desk to the opinion section where, for the next six years, he enjoyed ruffling their feathers of diehard Republican conservatives in Ventura County and bringing them apoplexy. In November 2008, the newspaper decided on a massive layoff and Richard’s newapaper career came to an end. However, after 22 months in semi-retirement he found work as the senior writer and then deputy managing editor for Hispanic Business Magazine. Unfortunately, after 18 months, the magazine (which had been ailing terribly before he got there) closed.

Now, Richard enjoys his retirement. He has self-published four novels (“The Private Dick,” “Deadly Stakes,” and “T. and Me,” available as Kindle ebooks, and “Days of Decision,” available in paperback on Amazon.com and as a Kindle ebook) and a compilation of his columns (“You, Sir, Are an Idiot,” available in paperback on Amazon.com and as a Kindle ebook) . For hobbies, Richard studies The Sixties extensively, reads nearly everything he can get his hands on, occasionally lapses into model car building, has become a passable stir fry and no frills gourmet cook (that is, no mushrooms, no sour cream, no coconut, no brie), dabbles in Web page design, and continues to write.

Dad, the “Coffeehead,” died in 1981 at the age of 61. Mom, who gave me a killer sense of humor, died in 2011 at the age of 86.

Robert Last

After high school, I attended the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) and picked up an associate’s degree in computer engineering, which lead to a really good job with Bell Labs in their Electronic Switching Systems program. Although I thought I had a good job, Uncle Sam and an overzealous draft board had a better idea and the U.S. Army became my employer for the next two years. Although initially trained as a combat medic, I received last-minute orders to report to the Pentagon (barracked on Fort Myer) where I wrote computer software. We called ourselves “Chairborne.”

After leaving the Army, I stayed in the Washington, D.C., metro area and worked for a number of companies all targeting government contracts. As such, I worked on information technology contracts for the EPA, Navy, Department of Education, Army, FBI, CIA, and DIA. I eventually went to work for the FBI in the division responsible for managing fingerprint-based criminal history records, the NCIC program, the national background checks for firearms purchases, and others. My career began with writing computer software but ended as a technical adviser to executive management and working with a team to define the technical architecture for the FBI.

I was married for 23 years, starting later than typical, and have two lovely daughters ages 26 and 21. My 21-year-old daughter will be starting her senior year at West Virginia University this coming fall. Yes, that means I’m still paying tuition!

Before marriage, I enjoyed skydiving, motorcycling, whitewater rafting, and acquired commercial pilot’s and flight instructor’s certificates. I also built an experimental airplane that I flew for 25 years.

Until recently, I was a volunteer basketball referee in a Christian sports program and for Special Olympics. My retirement time is spent volunteering with several ministries at a local church, helping others, and gardening.

I kept a pretty low profile while at BEHS and have been away from the area since leaving MSOE. As such, I haven’t been able to keep in touch with the class of ’64. I’m very much looking forward to the reunion. Thanks to all those who have helped (and nagged us) to put this together.

One of the memories I have was being in Mr. Mitchell’s physics class with all my fellow “urchins.”

Jennifer (Littman) Liotta

After graduation, I attended CWC (Colorado Woman’s College) in Denver for two years. Then I transferred to UW-Madison my junior year. While standing in Madison’s registration line, I reconnected with Marc Liotta whom I met my freshman year at Brookfield Central. We married after my graduation in 1968. Forty-six years of marriage is a record in California!

Teaching Middle School in Brown Deer was a terrific first-year teaching experience. After we had our son, Dave, we moved from Whitefish Bay back to Brookfield. Marc worked at IBM in sales for four years and then yearned for a different climate. Wang Labs needed IBM sales people in San Francisco and that was our first and last big move. We settled into Lafayette (East Bay suburb) and have lived here for 42 years. The Bay Area felt like Nirvana then … and still does.

From 1974-76, I worked in an innovative program, which taught kids reading using naturalistic approaches. Marc left the corporate world, got a contractor’s license and started a construction business. I assisted him in his business until 1986 when I satisfied my long-time curiosity about working as a residential real estate agent. How can a job be so stressful and so much fun all at the same time? My retirement came in 2000.

Our son, Dave, is now 45. We have 2 granddaughters — almost 3 and 5. They live nearby in Santa Cruz where the redwoods meet the Sea. We feel so blessed to finally have a terrific daughter-in-law and grandkids whom we visit almost weekly.

We love California coastal car trips and have seen wondrous parts of California through a hiking club. Other travels include France, Germany, Italy, Sicily, Switzerland, Austria, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, Hawaii, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.

What do I wish I had known in high school? More of my classmates! I wish I had gone to junior high with you instead of being a transplant from the city. Also, cheerleading was great fun but I wish I knew the joys of what it was like to be on a girls’ high school athletic team.

My favorite music was R&R and Motown. Classical and Latin dance music are now added to the list.

I think I was the first girl in the school to get her driver’s license. I drove “Pedro” a white Renault, which felt like driving a tuna fish can. It was so light that the boys moved it during a school dance as a prank so I couldn’t find it after the dance. On a good day my dad let me drive his ‘63 red Stingray.

Current joys are family, friends, hiking, swimming, and dancing. I fear I need a 12-step program for Zumba dancing, which I do several times a week.

Last year, Marc and I stayed at Brookfield Suites for Marc’s BCHS 50th Reunion. It was a fantastic venue for reconnecting. A hearty thanks to all the hard workers on our reunion committee!

Pamela (Lorenz) Small

I’m still living in Marathon, Wisconsin, and I’m retired. My daughters are both married and I have seven grandchildren! Husband John is retired as well but is very active in local government. He is the Village of Marathon president and serves on the Marathon County Board of Supervisors. I see less of him now then when he was working full time.

I spend my summers at our cottage on Fox Lake with my two dogs. We are on an island so there’s lots of room for them to run and the fishing is great.

We’ll be celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary July 2013.

The picture is of Chris (Chambers) Fredrickson (on the left) and me that was taken before the 1964 Memorial Day parade in Brookfield. If you remember it was a REALLY HOT day!

James Mabbott

Jim, along with Peggy (Zarske) Lazarchic, are co-leaders of the 50th Reunion of Brookfield East High School’s first gradutes, the Class of 1964.

“How this reunion came about is an interesting story all by itself,” he wrote. “About seven years ago, we were living in La Quinta, California, a desert community consisting mostly of retirees. One afternoon, I was at the local indoor mall in Palm Desert and as I was walking down the second story walkway, I recognized Peggy Zarske coming the other way. I said ‘Hi Peggy.’ she didn’t recognize me. I then said, ‘Jim Mabbott.’

“We hugged and exchanged telephone numbers. She and her husband, Rich, have a winter home in the desert community of Indio. It wasn’t long after our meeting we scheduled a dinner for the four of us at a local restaurant. It was there we discussed the idea of organizing a 50th class reunion, as we weren’t aware of any discussion of having one.

“Peg then made contact with Wes (Niemcek), Lee (Wendt), Dave (Whisner), Sue (Tacke Barth Geils), Shirley (Behl Evans) and Richard (Larsen). Our committee was formed.

“Everyone has done an amazing job of putting together all the details for this event. Let’s just say we are really excited about making this event a memorable one.”

Jim took a more or less zig-zag route after graduation before settling in Southern California with his wife, Donna. He has lived in Schaumberg and Joilet, Illinois; Issaquah, Washington; and Carlsbad, Newport Beach, and Coto de Caza, California.

While attending UWM, he worked as an undercover operative for Pinkerton’s Detective Agency,what he calls his “fun job.” He was assigned to work at numerous companies in the Milwaukee area to identify theft, substance abuse, fraud, and others. That was a far cry from his job during high school as a bagger and part of the scrub crew at Kohl’s on North Avenue.

Jim graduated from UWM with a bachelor science degree in the school of education, but went on to become a financial planner (securities and commercial real estate), a career he found eminently rewarding for “helping others reach their financial goals.”

Though he still has a small number of clients, he has basically retired, enjoying his time with bicycling, motorcycling, yoga, golf, hiking, and volunteering for the Special Olympics.

He and his wife, Donna, have a son Mark, 36, who is married. He recently received his master’s degree from USC and has started an export business in Thailand. Jim and Donna have no grandkids yet, but they do have a nine-year-old mini Schnauzer named Jack.

Donna, a native Californian, attended California State University, Fullerton. She retired 12 year ago from Franklin Covey, a provider of time management training and assessment services.

Travel has included excursions to England, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and Canada. Jim also had a chance to “visit” South Vietnam, courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Jim served in the Marines from 1965 to 1969, assigned as a plane captain on F4B Phantom jets in Vietnam during 1967 and 1968.

Age makes us all mostly wiser. Jim wishes that, while going to high school, he had understood then the “critical importance of enjoying the moment and living well in it.”

Though his music tastes today run toward country western, pop, and classical, back in the day, his favorite music came from Roy Orbison and The Beach Boys. He had “Fun, Fun, Fun,” but not with a T-Bird. The car he drove in high school was a 1953 navy blue Ford Victoria.

Jim says he misses fun with friends and sports, and fondly recalls the Brookfield Rejects basketball games, the Junior Prom, and football games, as well as one of those slightly mischievous things high school students seem to enjoy: “Bob Coddington and I would slip out of seventh-hour study hall and drive to Brookfield Park Bowling lanes to play pool.”

Frank MacKondy

Frank married fellow BEHS 1964 graduate Karen Kindt. Together, they have two children, Nicole and Marc, and three grandchildren, Olivia, Sophia, and Laila.

He is retired but still works part time in the family business, Buon Giorno, an Italian market, and I Nonni, a restaurant. This was and is his fun job.

In addition to Wisconsin and his current residence in Minnesota, Frank has lived in California. Travels have taken him to Italy, Peru, Mexico, Kenya, and Canada.

What he wishes he had learned in high school, but didn’t until latter in life, was “how tough the real world really is.”

During high school, Frank worked at Kohl’s food stores and Rothe’s restaurant. He doesn’t miss anything from his high school days. He enjoyed doo-wop music and his favorite hangout (where else would someone of Italian heritage who made a career out of food and restaurant businesses spend his time?) was Mama Mia’s Pizza.

Jerry Martin

Graduating from BEHS was so long ago that I really can’t recall much about the pomp and circumstances, or even the parties afterward. I attended MIT, which at the time was the Milwaukee Institute of Technology (or MIT), later to become MATC.

I do vividly recall Dave Roncke, Mark Rose and I looking for a part-time summer job after that first year of college. I applied at Square D Company for some random factory position. My application listed electronics classes, so I was offered a second-shift position in their engineering lab. That continued for several years while I continued going to school. The draft board was very interested in my ability to stand upright and able to breathe, thus competing for my attention. I had a 2-S (student) deferment then later had an “occupational deferment” since Square D was a defense contractor.

I finally received “the letter” stating, “Greetings from the President of the United States.” It was so thoughtful for him to take the time to write…I didn’t want to be drafted into the Army, so I “shopped around.” I narrowed the search to a Navy recruiter who offered a 4-year active duty in their nuclear sub program, including sleeping on clean white sheets and ice cream with every meal. This also involved a 2-year active reserve program to fulfill the total 6-year obligation. He then pulled his trump card and invited his colleague, the Marine Corps recruiter, to give his pitch. I could see the Navy recruiter preparing my paperwork in anticipation this ploy has worked well in the past.

“Sgt Rock” was up front and gave no BS. He offered 3 years of active duty and 3 years of inactive reserve time but stipulated that I would be going to Vietnam. I appreciated his candor and honesty and enlisted with him, So, on July 7^th, 1967 my life began in earnest.

I graduated with my 75-man platoon as “Platoon Honorman”, and was promoted to E-2, Private First Class, and awarded a set of Marine Corps dress blues to wear for graduation.

I was trained as a field radio operator, sent to Vietnam in December 1967, and attached to a field artillery battery that fired in support of a battalion of infantry (we fondly called “grunts”). I would receive radio calls from the guys out in the field who were taking fire and needed artillery support.

My duties expanded by my “volunteering” to go out in the field with the “grunts” to make those calls, instead of receiving them. I would partner with a Marine Corps pilot who would coordinate fixed-wing assets from our Marine Air Wing along with the Air Force, and Navy. I would call on artillery and naval gunfire assets as needed.

Soon the war came alive with the 1968 Tet Offensive that rapidly swept country-wide rather

unexpectedly, followed closely by a nasty engagement in a rather modern, yet historic northern Vietnamese college town called Hue (pronounced WAY) City.

I rotated out of Vietnam in January 1969. Two Christmas Holidays away from home. Didn’t plan on that.

I was able to choose my next duty station, so I selected Marine Barracks, Naval Ammunition Depot – Oahu, Hawaii. I was able to “choose” this duty station because my performance & conduct marks were high, so it was a reward for good behavior. I chose that duty station figuring my parents might visit because they sure wouldn’t plan a trip there on their own. I was so pleased that they did take the opportunity to visit and they spent a month there. Since that was my third Christmas Holiday away from home, at least I had some family to share it with.

I received my Honorable Discharge from the Marine Corps as a Staff Sargent (E-6) and I went back to the engineering dept at Square D. I spent the next 4 years being groomed for an additional responsibility in the Technical Engineers Association, an unaffiliated union that also had a chapter at A.O. Smith Engineering as well. Started as a shop steward, then as an alternate on the bargaining committee, and ultimately became bargaining unit Chairman at Square D.

In 1973 I married Maureen Engle, who was born in Oshkosh and later lived in southern Ohio, and southern California, before moving to Wauwatosa. We lived on the NW side in the Sherman Park neighborhood and raised three terrific kids there.

I interviewed for and was offered a position in the research dept at Cutler-Hammer. I loved the resources available and enjoyed the work. . .until I worked on a new high-current connector and had to interview some electrical contractors to see how they select, install, and service them. That’s when my “research bubble burst”.

After spending a lot of “sweat equity” in materials selection and engineering, the interview of the contractors disclosed their two primary concerns were; “do you have it in stock, and what’s your lowest price.” BAM!! I was ‘outta there. My research bubble had burst.

I transferred from engineering to the Sales Training Department. I justified my qualifications for that major career change through a part-time college job when I was hired for a winter season by the Milwaukee County Park Commission as a ski instructor. They offered free ski lessons to county residents. They were attracted to the fact I was in their very first class as a student in 1961, and now I was back as an instructor.

My teaching credentials were further expanded by another part-time job I also held for several years working at Sea ‘n Ski in Milwaukee. They were a sporting goods store and health club on Appleton and 76^th St. I got my foot in the door there because I was a skier, and regional trainer on the National Ski Patrol and was very good with the customers.

Later was sent by store management to San Diego to become a SCUBA instructor to work during the summer as well. Our students ranged from non-swimmers and fair-weather underwater photographers; to police & fire departments wanting to learn search & recovery in the winter under the ice. It was a fun challenge.

Well, I was offered the position at Cutler-Hammer as a

Training Specialist and had the time of my life. That’s when I began to appreciate how people learn. That was a life-changing experience and helped me design, develop, and facilitate many programs in Milwaukee and across North America for our employees, distributors, and large customers.

We even started to produce and direct our own corporate training and marketing videos. That guided me in a whole new direction. We had a broadcast-quality production facility and I put it to good use as a Producer/Director.

After 18 years at Cutler-Hammer (Eaton Corporation), I left and took a position with one of our vendors who sold us our broadcast video equipment. My customer base was Milwaukee broadcasters, universities, major corporations, and public service locations including the Milwaukee Police and Fire Departments. That was a huge and very competitive market, with many customers going directly to the manufacturers.

The Milwaukee P.D. had a unique customer request. There were staff in their Internal Affairs group who used video surveillance, but were brand new to that position and had no prior knowledge of how to use the equipment. We provided unique in-person training to bring them quickly up to speed.

They threw the next “curve ball” as a request for help in staging a trade show in the Milwaukee area directed towards rather unique law enforcement units that focus on drug enforcement and gang activities and who are on local, state, and federal agencies in the upper Midwest.

That law enforcement business was great to me but cyclic with drug seizure funds returned to the local departments through the judicial system. The business was boom or bust. Wanting something a little more consistent, I went back to the corporate world.

I was recruited by Sola/Hevi-Duty who made power conditioning equipment, single and three-phase transformers. As Training Manager, I was doing similar duties as at Eaton Corporation (Cutler-Hammer).

Our first family move was from Milwaukee to Lake Zurich, Illinois. I had responsibilities for facilities in Elk Grove Village (near O’Hare) and Goldsboro, NC, our office east of Raleigh, NC.

After two years below the Mason-Dixon Line, another corporate consolidation re-directed our future and we were off to Connecticut.

This lasted for another two years when another corporate consolidation set us back to the Chicago area. Responsibilities and management kept changing. The economic downturn in 2005 found me “between opportunities”. By now age discrimination affected my ability to jump back into the workforce. I tried managing a RadioShack because they did have great benefits for managers and it’s always better to look for a new job when you have a job.

Our three kids were growing up and after high school off to start their own life.

I spent 10 years working for an affluent school district driving a school bus. I worked with Special Needs kids (on the autism spectrum) and loved every day with them. Great pay and benefits. It was a delight to get up at 4:30 AM every morning.

In 2013 I combined my firearm skills from the Marine Corps and the teaching skills I developed from the years as a Training Manager and began teaching firearms safety and issuing NRA training certifications at a Milwaukee gun shop for people who wanted to get their Wisconsin Concealed Carry licenses. A year later, Illinois passed their concealed carry law and I started my own business and began teaching at a Bass Pro Shop in Gurnee, IL.

I followed the philosophy of “continue to invest in yourself” and that led me to take several continuing education courses to stay ahead of the competition. The most recent was several years of law school-level courses on the Judicious use of Deadly Force for Self-Defense. This has helped me translate the legal jargon into terms that the average person can understand and help them stay within the law.

After working with nearly a thousand students, in February 2021, I sold my Firearms Training business. I felt it was time to cut back and dive into some of my other passions, once again proving I still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up…

Richard Maglio

The last 49 years in a few paragraphs….

Following high school, I attended the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, and graduated in 1968. I then enlisted in the U.S. Navy and attended Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island. My first assignment was in Key West, then a year in Vietnam. My time in the Navy was actually pretty cool. It was a great learning and maturing experience for me.

After leaving the Navy in 1972, I settled in Orlando and took a position with what is now Darden Restaurants. That led to a great 14-year career with that company, culminating in a senior human resources position for one of their restaurant divisions that included several developing concepts such as The Olive Garden.

In 1986, I followed in my father’s footsteps and became an entrepreneur. I wound up with two businesses; retained executive search, and a related but separate pre-employment screening service. In 1999, I sold the screening service and concentrated on executive search until I retired in 2010.

Liz and I married in 1975. She is originally from Ashland, Kentucky, and is now a retired teacher. We have two married daughters who live in Central Florida. That makes it easy for us to visit our four grandchildren.

Our transition to retirement was fairly painless. We spend a lot of time with our grandchildren and socializing with friends. Liz and I also enjoy traveling. I started playing golf (sort of) and got involved with city government. We both volunteer. Liz is an active Guardian ad Litem, and I serve on our area’s military Honor Guard.

Like everyone else, life over the years has presented its challenges; but all in all, it has been very good to me. I have been blessed in more ways than I deserve.

I don’t get back to Wisconsin very frequently anymore. Having said that, I look forward to attending the next BEHS ’64 reunion. Our reunion in 1995 was a great time to re-kindle old friendships and an opportunity to develop new ones with classmates I only casually knew during our high school days.

Hope to see everyone then!

William Mead

I began my college education following graduation in the fall of 1964 at UW Madison. Shortly thereafter, my parents and the rest of the family moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This resulted in the university informing me that after my freshman year in Madison, I would have to pay out of state tuition. UW has since changed this policy, which would have allowed me to stay as an in-state student. I knew that I wanted to graduate from UW but didn’t want to pay out of state tuition, so I decided to attend Louisiana State University for a couple of years and then come back to Madison. I made it back to UW in 1967 and graduated in civil engineering in 1969. During those last two years at Madison, I shared an apartment with Kent Crawford a fellow ’64 BEHS grad. Kent passed away several decades ago and he was the first of my generation’s friends to die. It really made me aware of my mortality.

After graduation, I took a job with a large consulting engineering firm north of Detroit, Michigan, working on a variety of small and large projects, including highway design, drainage, recreation, and much more. After a few years there, I went out with a fellow engineer and formed a new engineering firm, which was successful and fulfilled one of my early ambitions. I became very active in the American Society of Civil Engineers, eventually becoming president of the Detroit metropolitan branch. During my work in Michigan, I traveled back to Madison to take the engineering exam and became licensed in Wisconsin and then in Michigan. I have kept my Wisconsin license since 1973 although I have never worked in the state.

After enduring many Michigan and Wisconsin winters, I decided that a change in climate was necessary. While visiting my folks in Baton Rouge, I was approached to join a local firm and head up a major project that it had just acquired. After completing that project, I was solicited by a national firm to join them in order to head up the largest public works project in Baton Rouge’s history, which involved more than 75 contractors. I also served as public works director for a parish (in Louisiana we have parishes instead of counties, a carryover from French rule) near Baton Rouge.

I have retired from full-time engineering although I still do a little consulting. I own a couple of apartment buildings, which at times keeps me busy full time. I also develop housing, which includes building several new homes as well as remodeling existing ones. Retirement is not what I had originally thought.

Thomas Merkel

After high school, I attended UWM for a year. I didn’t do too well and was not too interested in school. So, I joined the Air Force in 1965 to avoid getting drafted. My first assignment was in Sault Ste. Marie in Upper Michigan as an accountant. During that time, I met my future wife JoAnn, who was also in the Air Force. We were married in 1967. We were both then assigned to Frankfurt, Germany, where we spent two wonderful years.

I was discharged from the Air Force (honorably) in 1969 and we settled in Milwaukee. Ron Ensweiler helped me to get hired at First Wisconsin as a computer programmer trainee. As it turns out, I enjoyed programming and was successful at it.

In pursuit of the American dream, we decided to move to a smaller town, so in 1973 I was hired as a computer programmer at the Parker Pen Co. in Janesville. We had a small home built out in the country on seven acres near Edgerton. The time at Parker Pen was very enjoyable and I worked there for five years. In 1978, JoAnn wanted to go on a two-month camping road trip. I couldn’t get the time off from Parker, but JoAnn said she would support us for a year if I quit my job and went on this trip. That was an offer I couldn’t refuse!

Off we went on Tom and JoAnn’s great adventure. We started off on the northern route and went to Devil’s Tower, the Badlands, the Blackhills, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, and the Grand Tetons. Then we visited my cousin in Blackfoot, Idaho, and on to Yosemite and stopped in San Francisco to visit my brother. On to Sequoia National Park and San Diego to visit my Aunt and Uncle. We had to go to Vegas, then on to Phoenix to visit another Aunt and Uncle, then Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Carlsbad Caverns. We stopped in San Angelo, Texas, to visit JoAnn’s parents before heading home to Edgerton.

While I was at home being a house-husband, I decided to start a contract computer programming business. I began Merkel Programming Service in 1978 and did freelance programming for a number of companies including Ray-O-Vac, Hydroline, Madison Gas and Electric, Sanna (makers of Swiss Miss), and Parker Pen.

During this time we decided to adopt children! In 1982, we adopted our first newborn baby girl, Christina from Catholic Charities in San Angelo, Texas. Then after 18 months, we decided to move to San Angelo, Texas, to adopt our second baby. We bought a house and waited for a year, and our beautiful baby girl Lisa was born in November 1985. We wanted to settle down in San Angelo (and live the American dream), but there weren’t too many opportunities for computer programmers, so we sold our house and went back to Wisconsin with our two beautiful little girls.

We bought a house in Greendale and I worked at Johnson Wax in Racine as a contract programmer. However, we had been weatherized by living for two years in Texas — it seems the cold of the great white north was a little too much for us. So after only one winter, we looked south again and ended up in Clute, Texas. Clute is on the Gulf of Mexico near Houston and I worked at Dow as a contractor. Dow was a great place to work and Clute was quite interesting. It is known as the mosquito capital of the world! At their annual festival, they crown the woman with the skinniest legs “Ms. Quito Legs.” Fun.

But in the end, the mosquitoes, humidity, and chemical environment convinced us to move again before our daughter started first grade. In 1988, we hauled all of our stuff to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I worked at RJ Reynolds tobacco company as a contractor for a few months, then was hired by Wachovia bank. Working at a bank as a computer programmer may sound rather boring, but it was not. I worked on a project that used an IBM artificial intelligence product called Expert Systems. Interesting. We bought a house, got Christina into school and continued living the American dream!

Not so fast. JoAnn is not happy. She misses Texas. She “convinces” me to move back to Texas. So, we sell the house, pack the U-HAUL and off we go. It is 1991 and we arrived in Austin, Texas. I worked as a contractor with the Texas Department of Transportation for a few months and then was hired by the Texas Legislative Council (TLC). The TLC sounds like a secret organization or cult — it is not, although it does sound rather abstract. They actually provide IT support to the Legislative branch of the Texas government. We got the girls in school and had a house built in nearby Round Rock, Texas, and were living the American dream!

This is great, but, after seven years I got a little bored and restless at the TLC. I was working with a product called Peoplesoft and decided to look for some contract work. I found a good opportunity at Dana Corp in Toledo, Ohio. We still lived in Texas, so I commuted; leaving on Sunday night and arriving back home on Thursday night. I really enjoyed this schedule and did it for a year, and then my schedule changed — I worked from home for two weeks and commuted one week. I did this for about another year until that contract was ended.

There was not much work in the Austin area at this time, so we looked outside of the area and ended up in … Erie, Pennsylvania. Erie is JoAnn’s hometown, so there were many relatives there. I was hired by a company called Rentway. It’s 2001 and we sold our home of ten years in Round Rock, bought a house in Erie. Now we’re living in the great white north again.

Living in Erie is a little different than living in Wisconsin. It doesn’t get as cold (rarely below 15 degrees above zero) and the average snowfall is 100 inches (I think Milwaukee is around 40). We lived on a large lot with a big driveway. Two of my favorite activities were using the snow blower and cutting the grass with my riding lawn mower. By this time, I had a grandson. Both of my daughters and my grandson were living with us. All of us really enjoyed the snow — we could tube in our yard (it had a big hill). Things were good in Erie; we loved living the American Dream there for three whole years.

Then, Rentway was going under. So, update the resume again. JoAnn found an excellent opportunity in, yes, you guessed it, Texas! And off we went to see the Alamo in San Antonio. The opportunity was with USAA, a military insurance company. We sold the house in Erie, bought a house in San Antonio. Headed to Texas again, y’all.

June 2004, back in Texas in beautiful San Antonio, we continue our adventure. My oldest daughter Christina was working several hours away, so our grandson was living with us and also my youngest daughter, Lisa. Within a few months, Lisa moved to the Austin area to attend art school. Excellent. Life was good. I would be ready to retire in five years! JoAnn traveled to Austin quite a bit to visit Lisa and discovered a place for our retirement. When I retired in 2009, we sold our house in San Antonio, and had our retirement home built in Sun City (north of Austin) in Georgetown, Texas.

Sun City Texas is a Del Webb retirement community. There are three 18-hole golf courses on-site and about 50 different activity clubs, including tennis, bocce, sheepshead, poker, cribbage, pool (billiards), fishing, gardening, hiking, model airplanes, art, computer … well you get the idea, lots to do.

I’m playing a lot of golf, growing vegetables in my garden, learning the art of cooking, and thoroughly enjoying life. My daughters and grandson live 30 minutes away and we see them often. In the end and after all these moves and job changes, I have discovered that living the American dream is having the freedom to live the American dream! Unfortunately, that does not help to improve my golf score; it has not changed in 50 years, no matter how often I play … oh well!

Gary Mitchell

After graduating from Brookfield East, I attended the University of Wisconsin and got a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s in business. I met my wife, JoAnn, at Madison, and we were married in 1971. She was an occupational therapist. Fifty-four years later, we have four children and twelve grandchildren. JoAnn is a natural with kids.

I worked at IBM for my entire career (marketing and finance) and retired in 2001. JoAnn and I love to travel and have been to many countries now. Part of the travel bug may come from the fact that our children live in Bangkok (Thailand), Brookfield, Calgary (Alberta), and Port Townsend, Washington. We spend as much time as we can with each of them.

In 1980, I became a Christian, and that has shaped my life ever since. JoAnn and I have volunteered much of our time helping a small, struggling church in Pewaukee and leading groups that meet in our home in Delafield.

Robert Morrisey

The one thing Bob wished he had known in high school was “that I was going to eventually become 5 feet, 11 inches tall, and there are many benefits in being a straight male dancer.”

More on that in a little bit.

Bob is one of several classmates who did not graduate with the rest of BEHS’ Class of 1964, but still has strong ties to the class. “Sadly, my parents sold our house and moved to Wauwatosa the summer before my senior year,” he wrote. “So I spent my last school year at Wauwatosa West and graduated from there, Alas! I headed off to Madison where I spent 4 and a half wonderful years growing up and discovering who I was, and making lifelong friendships.”

“It always made me sad that I was not able to participate in previous reunions,” he wrote. “I tried a couple of times to find out if and when they were happening but was unsuccessful. I’m very grateful that 50 years later there is an Internet so the committee could track me down. I so look forward to seeing you all after 50 years.”

The thing is, going back to the revelation about being a male dancer, you might have seen Bob over the years. He feels his greatest accomplishment is “having a 50-year career in the performing arts.”

While attending school in Madison, Bob “soon discovered the theater department. I had spent five summers at the Sunset Playhouse in Elm Grove. I knew by the end of my first season there that the theater was my home. I spent my summers performing in and producing musical reviews in the Wisconsin Dells and other places.”

It was after leaving Madison that things began happening for Bob. “I was hired by a producer in Milwaukee to join a group called the Brothers and Sisters, a singing group that was hired to be backup singers for Doc Severinsen. By this time, I had married one of the girls in the group and we moved to New York City. We spent the next three years doing concerts around the country. And pretty much just reveling in our good fortune. Small-town kids made good type of stuff!” (Didn’t Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland make several movies with just such a plot line?)

“Being surrounded by the incredible level of talent in New York City,” he continued, “sent me into every dance, acting, and voice class I could find. Serendipity took me to Paris to do a show, where I met my second wife, a French ballerina. I stayed there for about three years, dancing 10 hours a day, six days a week. Skill set in hand, I was able to return to the states and enjoy a wonderful career in musical theater, including seven Broadway shows.

“Age and injury sent me into the nonmusical theater world. This eventually lead me to Seattle where I spent five years with the Seattle Repertory theater. While there, “Northern Exposure” had been shooting. I played a couple of characters on the show. When one of my characters was made a reoccurring role, I discovered there was gold in them thar hills!”

“I spent a couple more years doing dozens of television shows in Vancouver, Canada, which was booming at the time. And, when my relationship broke up, I took my broken heart and moved to Los Angeles to become a star. I showed her! Kidding … sort of.”

For the last 15 plus years Bob has made his living mumbling on television. “And I mean that literally. Trying to hear your cue from a mumbling Gillian Anderson was an art form. I live in Los Angeles and still work from time to time. And I am eternally grateful for a lifetime of doing what I love to do. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!”

In addition to “Northern Exposure,” he has also appeared in episodes of such television shows as “Six Feet Under,” “Star Trek: Enterprise,” “Desperate Housewives,” “The Shield,” and “NYPD Blue,” to name but a few. He also had roles in several films, such as “The Terminal,” “Eagle Eye,” and “Fun With Dick and Jane.” If you want the full skinny, check out his career credits on the IMDb website.

Of course, his fun job is related to entertainment: “Working with Anthony Hopkins on Hamlet.”

The thing he misses most about high school is “being 18.” At that time, he drove a blue 1956 Buick. His favorite song then was “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” but he doesn’t listen to music much today.

Richard Muenster

Richard is married to fellow graduate Susan (Klein). They have three children (Debbie, 45; Julie, 41; and Rich, 39) and four grandchildren (Mia 16; Nick, 13; and Chloe and Connor, both 2).

Richard is retired as president and owner of Capital Equipment, a forklift distributor company. He considers starting the company, which eventually grew to four locations and more than 80 employees, as his greatest achievement.

Yet, his fun job was “playing the role of a clown for the grand opening of a gas station for $1.10 an hour.”

Richard has lived in the lake country area in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He has traveled to Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America.

His first car was a green Cutlass 4-2-2.

During high school, Richard worked at Wally Behl’s and as a gas attendant at a Clark station. He enjoyed Sonny and Cher songs and today likes to listen to anything from the ’60s.

What he misses most about high school is playing football, which also is his fondest memory of high school.

His favorite hangout was Marty’s Pizza.

Randall Myers

“Hey Class of 1964 Brookfield East High School. This is your old classmate Randy Myers, “Randall” to the government. I am here in the right wing nut state of “insanity” Texas.

“I have been very sick from Agent Orange poisoning from Vietnam. I was a Green Beret, 403rd USASA Special Forces “Sneaky Pete” with a top secret clearance of the highest level access with a need to know anything the Pentagon had: “Limitations applicable: None.”

“Much more to tell. For now I’m on Facebook. Call me and we will get updated.

“If I can, I will make it to our 50th class reunion, if my wheelchair will make it along with my Agent Orange ravaged body.

“Call me at home at 281.392.2078. I say no more for now.

“Peace.”

Robert Nevens

Bob met and married Anita in 1967 while he was stationed in Arkansas. “We will celebrate our 47th anniversary this September. Someone asked her how do you stay married to Bob for so long? Her immediate response, ‘I am long suffering!’ ”

They have three adult sons Steven, Robert Jr. (Bobby), and Michael. “Steven and Michael work in Nashville. Bobby is in Houston with a large hospital system. He is also a very gifted writer and authored a screenplay about WWII USMC canine units in the Pacific.”

Bob and Anita have two grandchildren, Ryan and Allison. “Ryan is working in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and his sister Allison is a high school senior this year.”

He has a golden retriever named Sandy. “Through the years, I have always been a golden retriever person. The goldens are rescued dogs. “

Bob has had a long career in the insurance field. “After graduation from the University of Arkansas and my service years, I went into the insurance property-casualty insurance field and worked for several insurance companies as a claims adjuster and various promotions. I especially enjoyed the professional medical malpractice area.

“In 1981, I joined Hospital Corp. of America (HCA) in Nashville as the largest for-profit hospital entity in the U.S. After serving more than 30 years as vice president and director of claims, I retired in 2012. My position required a great deal of national travel from California to Florida and 20-plus other states.

“Following retirement and taking some time to decompress from the strains, I initiated a solo consulting service, assisting plaintiff attorneys in high exposure catastrophic medical malpractice cases.”

One of Bob’s passions is hiking the backcountry in Yellowstone, and as an amateur photographer of grizzly bears. “I also spend time with Tennessee Walking Horses. I have learned and participate with mounted patrol techniques and training.”

After graduation, “I became a Southern boy living in Little Rock and then moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1976.”

Business travels have taken him to Australia and Great Britain. “However, my favorite places to visit are the Northern Rockies in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho.

He doesn’t see just one thing as his biggest accomplishment in life, “but rather the sum of a 50-year path of marriage, raising my family, graduating from college, military service, and the good fortune of a successful career.”

What he does wish he had known in high school is “what the real world was really like and the many challenges we all would have.”

During high school, Bob worked on weekends and some school nights. “I worked at a very poor imitation of a Polynesian restaurant named the Tiki. I was a dishwasher and bus boy, having to wear a hideous straw hat, bleached white knee knockers, and Hawaiian shirt. I still remember the owner that I called the ‘Dragon Lady.’ I was glad to get back in the kitchen just to get away from her.”

He drove a 1951 Chevy with push button starter that he affectionately named “The Green Latrine. “The first car I bought and loved until the transmission dropped in the driveway one morning was a ’58 Chevy hardtop, gold and white.”

Other than “my wonderful classmates,” Bob doesn’t miss much of high school. “However, while we were far from perfect, I wish our early ’60s experiences could be a guide for young people today.”

As to his experiences back then, his favorite memory was “all the trouble and grief we gave the shop teacher. Well, really it was Joe Gennaro’s lead, but we actually shut down the wood shop one day. Oh,” he wrote recalling more memories, “and while on the bus to a baseball game we had at Port Washington, Bob Schultz lit up a Marlboro in the back. We got away with it; the coach up front never smelled it. I think we lost 2-0 on a one hitter, Speaking of Schultz. Bob was our very good catcher. While pitching in a home game, I bounced a fastball in front of the plate. It sounded like the crack of a rifle when the ball hit Bob square in the cup! He rolled over in agony… saved me from a wild pitch and himself a ‘passed ball.’ ”

His musical tastes in high school were fairly typical. “I liked many of the mid/late fifties records and the early British Invasion groups. Some of my favorites were “Sherry,” The Beatles “She loves you,” “Soldier Boy,” and “Runaround Sue.” I also liked the ballads by Andy Williams and the Ray Charles Singers.”

Today, he listens to “the good oldies from ’50s and ’60s, country.”

His favorite hangout was “anywhere but home working in the yard or having to listen to the Lawrence Welk Show.”

Bob served fours years in the Air Force, attaining the rank of sergeant, working in aircraft technical publication support. He was posted at the Little Rock (Arkansas) AFB, a SAC base that had B47 bombers and Titan II missiles. “Shortly after North Korea captured the U.S. Peublo (which occurred in early 1968), I was reassigned to a one-year tour in Korea.”

Bob is hoping to make it to the reunion, but “there could be some unavoidable events, hopefully not. What a great job the entire class of ’64 committee has done to put this together! To the committee and all my classmates, all the best to you and yours.”

Wesley Niemcek

Wes was a familiar sight to BEHS classmates who enjoyed cruising around Brookfield. He worked at Hutchins Standard Oil Station at the corner of Lilly Road and Capitol Drive, pumping gas, cleaning windshields, and checking the oil or the air in the tires, even if a classmate asked for only 25 or 50 cents’ worth of gas.

However, it was a little push from teacher John Enigl in eighth grade into Ham Radio (KN9SOW) that set him on his career.

“This lead to the broadcast engineering program at MATC in Milwaukee,” he wrote, “which lead to positions at three local TV stations, which lead to a career at Wisconsin Bell, Ameritech/SBC, AT&T, TDS Telecom, which all enabled me to attend Marquette University, DePaul University in Chicago, and the University of Innsbruck, Austria.”

In fact his most fun job was as a regional management position at Ameritech/SBC headquarters in Chicago. “It was a challenging mix of telecom technology, accounting and advertising/marketing with staffs in three cities.”

Despite five years in TV broadcasting and 27 years in telecom communications, he felt himself too young to fully retire. “Too much yet to do,” he wrote. He thinks he may retire “when I’m in my mid 70s, God willing.” For these past six years of semi-retirement, real estate (with his own brokerage) fills in the time around family visits, warm weather vacations, and travel.

One important outgrowth of his work in TV broadcasting was meeting his wife, Donna.

“We met at a local TV station where she worked in the front office,” he wrote, “I was on the engineering crew. We became closer after a Greek dance at MATC, which we both attended. I pinned her about a year later. We were married at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic church in Milwaukee on August 23, 1969.”

Come August, they will have been married for 45 years. They have three daughters: Kerry who lives in Green Bay with her husband, Joel, and two daughters; Julie who lives in Seattle with Joe, three boys and a girl; and Lori who lives in New Berlin with husband Rob and two daughters.

That gives he and Donna eight grandchildren: in Seattle Ben 14, Josh 12, Maggie 10, and Will 8; in Green Bay Arianna 14 and Lily 2; and in New Berlin Kiley 12 and Morgan 9.

And great-grandchildren? “Oh, not for a long while,” Wes wrote.”

Though he and Donna have lived in several cities during his career, his home base has always been in Muskego.

The Niemceks have visited all of the United Kingdom, central Europe, Alaska, Central America (including the Panama Canal), and most of the Caribbean Islands.

He feels his greatest accomplishments since high school have been “keeping faithful, loving my wife and children, continuing my education to this day, and making a good living doing things I love to do.”

His car of choice in high school was a very fast 1956 Ford (painted blue by Donna and Art Mehnert’s father). “That car had a (modified ) 312 CI V8 with three on the tree,” he wrote. “Clearly, it was faster than the stinkin’ Chevys, Olds, Pontiacs, Corvairs, etc.”

He has several fond memories from his high school days: “The smell of new construction throughout BEHS, helping select the school’s permanent mascot and colors; and being an upper classmen for three years.”

His favorite hangout was at Kovak’s Custard Stand just across from Hutchins Standard Oil Station. “Hot dog and Coke, 25 cents,” he wrote. “On the jukebox, Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line.”

One memory not particularly fond was losing his varsity letter in track (along with several others) because of Gerald Stern.”

He enjoyed listening to “Blue Moon” and “Sleep Walk” in high school, but today his music tastes run to light jazz.

“The BEHS experience — then to now — has been more rewarding than I had ever imagined,” he wrote, “partly because I’ve lived in the Milwaukee area since graduation, which has allowed me to stay close to a majority of my schoolmates. This proximity has allowed me to work on all of our reunions. But most rewarding has been ongoing friendships with my ’64 school friends — especially the core group — that I’ve kept fairly close to over all the 50 years!”

Oh, and one last thing, his untold story from high school: “I was secretly in love with …”

Dennis Passman

Denny lives in Fort Pierce, Florida, where he has a small-animal veterinary practice. He opened it in 1973, but he hasn’t “figured out how to stop working.”

He is married to Chris (“love of my life; met in college”). They have two children, Todd and Jodi, and a grandson, Luke.

He has lived in Ames, Iowa (for college); Springfield, Massachusetts (for his internship); and Fort Lauderdale, Florida (for “getting my feet wet in private practice”), before settling in Fort Pierce (“will probably be buried here”).

He has traveled to Turkey, where his son Todd lives; Italy; and Israel.

He likes to brag about “being able to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” The one fact he knows now that he wishes he’d know in high school: “That God has a plan for each of us.” He likes to listen to contemporary Christian music. He wrote: “God is good all the time and all the time God is good.”

His first car, obtained in college, was a white VW Beetle.

Denny doesn’t miss much about high school, but he does have a favorite memory: “Learning to drive stick shift in Jean (Schroeder) Brinkman’s brother’s beater of a car. Have driven stick shifts ever since. Gotta admit, better cars now.”

Walter J. “Joe” Pischke

After high school, I attended UW-Madison and graduated in “69” with a BS degree in Chemical Engineering. Was recruited by S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. in Racine and accepted a manufacturing engineering position. SCJ is a consumer products giant whose product listing includes Pledge, Windex, Glade, Shout, Off!, and a host of other well-known household products. I worked for SCJ for only 39 wonderful years and retired in 2008.

Retirement is a blast. Golf, travel, and working around the house seems to be taking up the majority of my time.

I have one daughter (Jodie) who is living in New Berlin only a few miles away from me. Yes, life is good!!

John-Ivan Palmer

John-Ivan Palmer (John Pyle), author and stage hypnotist, lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Japan with his wife, kabuki dancer Harue Miyazaki.

Besides investigative journalism he has published fiction, essays, poetry, interviews and reviews. He is author of the novel “Motels of Burning Madness.”

Details available by Google search or at John-IvanPalmer.com

Mark Reardon

Wouldn’t it be nice to go through life tripping the light fantastic? Well, it seems fellow graduate Mark and his wife, Sally, do just that — not all the time, but enough to enjoy the pleasures of dancing.

The two met in Los Angeles, California, about 1990. “Sally owned and operated one of the largest dance schools in Southern California,” Mark wrote. “I was on a couple of country/western dance teams and frequented her events.”

Mark must have made an impression because they began dating in 1998 and were married in Palm Desert, California, in 1999.

“In 2000,” Mark wrote,” we moved to Arlington, Texas, as a result of my job transfer. There, we began competing in couples’s competition in country-dance. Our dance career peaked in 2003 when we took third place overall in the World Championship of Country Western Dancing held in Nashville. We won first place in two-step and West Coast swing. We’ve taught dancing as a hobby on and off. Sally is now a professional quilter and runs her business out of our home. She is highly sought out by quilters for her quality and attention to detail. Her biggest challenge is limiting her business as we approach retirement.”

Mark has a married daughter living in Germantown, and he has “two beautiful granddaughters, Olivia and Samantha.”

“We have two Welsh terriers that have AKC titles in Earthdog competitions and Obedience,” Mark noted. “We just recently added a golden retriever puppy to the family. My wife, Sally, has become quite the dog trainer. We have an agility course set up in our backyard for the dogs to train.”

Mark has lived in several places around the country. “From Wisconsin, I moved to San Jose, California, to manage a small dental equipment business in 1977, then moved to Stratford, Connecticut, to takeover the purchasing department of Sikorsky Helicopter. From there, I moved to St Louis, Missouri, to start my own CNC Machine shop to support Boeing and McDonnell Douglas; I sold the business in 1989 and moved back to California to manage the F/A-18E/F program at Northrop-Grumman.” He was then transferred to Arlington, Texas, with his Vought Division to manage the 787 Dreamliner project. “I retired from Vought in 2007 and moved to St. Charles, Missouri, to take a position with LMI Aerospace as international sourcing manager.”

He is now managing the MRJ tailcone project for the new Mitsubishi regional jet.

Mark also has had extensive world travel, visiting Ireland, England, Scotland, Germany, Austria, Israel, Canada, and Mexico.

“I’m self-taught and take the necessary steps to know the most important issues and subjects for which I have responsibility.” While Mark prides himself on achieving a reputation in the aerospace community as an accomplished project/program manger, despite not finishing college, he has serveral even greater accomplishments about which he likes to brag, “including convincing my wife to marry me; reconnecting with my daughter whom I had not seen in more than 30 years, and finding my faith during a visit to Jerusalem in 2007.”

Mark served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (961st Engineering Battalion) from 1967-72. He attained the rank of Specialist 4 as a heavy construction machinery operator.

He does wish now that he would have understood in high school the importance of higher education.

What he misses most about high school are the friendships; he worked as a machinist apprentice for his stepfather; and he drove a blue 1964 Corvair convertible, which sparks his fondest high school memory:

“The time Art Mehnert and I were caught racing thru Elm Grove. He had his ’53 Chevy against my ’64 Corvair. The Elm Grove police kept telling him how foolish it was to race my Corvair because he had no chance. Our parents didn’t find it quite as funny, but Art was really mad because he really wasn’t in a position to argue the point.”

Mark’s musical tastes today run to blues, classic country, and Christian.

Pamela (Rechlicz) Buchholz

Pam is one of those classmates no longer with us. She was taken not to long after the class’s 1995 reunion, one she spearheaded with zeal and one in which she infused the atmoshere with the vibrancy of BEHS’ Class of 1964.

Robert Robin

Bob is one of those classmates no longer with us, the victim of a drowning incident. If you wish to see a full list of classmates who are deceased, go to the In Memoriam page.

Below is a memory piece about Bob written by Dave Whisner.

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Memories of Bob

by Dave Whisner

I went to elementary and junior high school with Bob, and we lived pretty close to each other there in the northeast section of Brookfield near 133rd St. and Lisbon Avenue. We weren’t great friends, especially not in high school where we seemed to go off in different directions; however, we played a lot of baseball together, i.e., grade school, Little League, etc. What Bob lacked in height, he more than made up for in physical speed, pure athleticism, courage, and determination. I always admired him for those qualities, and now I regret not being able to tell him so.

He also played a big role (as did Ron Ensweiler) in introducing me to amateur radio, a hobby that I enjoy to this day. Bob even sent morse code gracefully as few people could. I’ll never forget the cubical quad antenna he put up on his parents’ house circa 1960. It was nearly as big as the house, and I’m sure it was an eyesore to everyone in the neighborhood except, of course, for those of us who knew the signals an antenna like that could “hear.” Of course, that was well before satellites, personal computers, and the Internet shrank the world.

Anyway, at the risk of sounding maudlin, I shall always remember Bob Robin tearing around second base at speeds I could only imagine!

John Saar

The English phrase “good things come to those who wait” does not exist as a cutesy saying to John, whose favorite memory in high school was “kissing Linda Rae Rothe” and whose favorite hangout was Linda’s locker. After high school, he and Linda went separate ways, but 36 years later, in 2000, they got back in touch. Of course, this leads to John’s greatest accomplishment in life, which occurred in 2001, “marrying Linda Rae Rothe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.” It also gives him the one fact he knows now he wishes he had learned in high school: “How incredible Linda Rae Rothe really is.”

John has two children from a former marriage, Kim, 40, and Shannon, 35. He has no grandchildren, no great-grandchildren, and no pets.

He is retired from a career in quality assurance, with his fun job occurring at Ford Motor Co. in the 1980s. He keeps himself occupied now with his wife and his hobbies, ham radio (W9ZIP).

As for living and traveling, John sums both up very succinctly: “Everywhere.”

When he wasn’t busy hanging around Linda’s locker in high school, John worked at Kohl’s. He sped around town in a red 1956 VW convertible. He misses most the “clarity” of high school. He continues to enjoy rock and roll.

“Can’t wait to see all you OLD FART,” he wrote.

Oh, almost forgot. Does he have any untold stories from high school? “Yes,” he wrote. “Talk to me about it at the reunion.”

Dennis Schaefer

The one thing Dennis likes to brag about as his accomplishment in life is “creating a lifelong, loving relationship with my wife.”

He and Candy have been married for 47 years. They had one daughter, Jenifer Joy, who, unfortunately, died at 27 years of age.

Dennis lived in North Palm Beach, Florida, for 14 years before moving in 1982 to Genesee, Wisconsin, where he and Candy have lived for 31 years.

He works as a cabinet builder and remodeling contractor, but his fun job was the 11 years he spent as a firefighter for the city of West Palm Beach, Florida.

Dennis has traveled to “every state in the mainland USA, Mexico, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St Lucia, Canada, and St. Martin.”

Dennis served a six-year stint in the USMC Reserve, attaining the rank of corporal (E-4). He was a machine gunner and stationed at Paris Island, South Carolina, and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

During high school he drove a white 1960 Mercury and worked in the family business. His favorite memory from high school was graduation.

Today he enjoys listening to all kinds of music except hard rock and hip-hop or rap.

The one fact Dennis knows now that he wishes he knew in high school is that “education happens continually everyday of your life not just when you’re in school.”

Wolfgang “Red” Schneider

Red and his wife, Annette, have been married for 46 years. The have three children (Michael, Erika, and Joseph) and 10 grandchildren ages 4 to 19.

Red is retired after a career as operations executive and later as a consultant in truck transportation. He also was the owner of a retail store for medical equipment. His fun job had been as manager and leader of a trucking operation. He feels his greatest accomplishment in life is hiring, leading, and developing highly successful teams of young managers.

Though retired, Red and his wife are still active. “We are Independent Shaklee Distributors, lead and coach a wonderful team that helps people improve their health with products from the nation’s No. 1 natural nutrition company. We also spend a lot of time with family including our 89- and 92-year-old mothers. We are so busy now that I do not know how I found time to go to work.”

In addition to living in Wisconsin (Waterford at the moment), Red has also lived in Missouri. He has traveled extensively visiting many states and major cities in the U.S. as well as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Holland, Belgium, Ireland, and England.

His favorite memory of high school is participating in sports, especially tennis. He drove a white Chevrolet then. Today, he listens to all kinds of music from country to classic rock.

Red spent two years in the Army attaining the rank of sergeant (E-5) where he was a combat engineer and leader of receptions station operations.

Jack Schroeder

Jack lived for 32 years in the Milwaukee area before moving to Townsend, Wisconsin, where he has lived for 18 years. He is a semi-retired painting contractor.

He keeps busy with motorcycling, snowmobiling, all types of fishing, swimming, snorkeling, and sailing, especially in the Virgin Islands.

Divorced since 1981, he has a daughter, 40, and a son, 37. His granddaughter is 2 and a half and he has a grandson due July 2014.

Jean (Schroeder) Brinkman

Jean knows it’s never too late to try something new. Jean likes to brag about going “back to school and graduating from Penn State with an IT degree” at age 52.

She has worked for several companies in Tennessee and Pennsylvania. Currently, she is employed by Mylan, the third-largest generic drug manufacturer.

Jean has three children and two grandchildren. Of the latter, she wrote: “both more technically savvy than our generation.” In fact, she found being a parent a fun job, “but the most fun one is grandparent.”

In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, biking on her new orange Trex, and hanging out with the grandkids. She also is a pet sitter for the kids.

In addition to Brookfield and her current residence in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, Jean has lived in Madison, Wisconsin; Syracuse, New York; Erie, Pennsylvania; Memphis, Tennessee; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Her first cars were a green and white ’54 Mercury and a blue VW bug, both of which were likely spotless since she cashiered at a car wash during high school.

She does miss the “carefree days hanging out with friends, before we had to become really responsible.” Her favorite hangouts were Mama Mia’s for pizza and the pool during the summer (“flirting with the lifeguards”).

Her favorite memory was of “four girlfriends hanging around Bug’s house and playing the music so loud the house shook.”

Any untold stories? “You mean the ones where we escaped with our lives and our virtue, in spite of taking serious risks? The ones we never plan on telling our kids. The ones, but for the grace of God …. ? Yeah, those!”

Thomas Schubert

Tom is one of those classmates no longer with us. If you wish to see a full list of classmates who are deceased, go to the In Memoriam page.

Memories of Tom

by Tom Grogan, Class of 1964

“My wife and I remained friends with Tom and Vickie after BEHS and my service stint. They had a place by Whitmore Lake in Michigan. We were both starting our families and had some good times. Do you all remember his 1955 Chevy with straight pipes? Once put aircraft landing lights on it, talk about high beams. Don’t know how he passed. Talked to him in California late 90s.”

Penny (Simandl) Seeber

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I headed off to UW-Stout after graduation and loved it there. Met my husband, Richard (Dick), at Stout. He was one of those Army veterans taking advantage of the GI Bill, so he was two years behind me. We got married, moved into a tin hut otherwise known as “married student housing.” He finished his senior year (engineering) and I finished my master’s degree.

Our jobs after graduation brought us back to Pewaukee where I taught middle and high school in the Hamilton-Sussex School District. I left teaching when our first daughter (Tiffany) was born and we had a second daughter (Amanda) two years later. Along the way we bought a home in Nashotah, Wisconsin, and, in 1976, I co-founded a nonprofit preschool in Delafield, Wisconsin, where I taught on a part-time basis for 10 years.

In 1986, Dick’s job took us to Jackson, Mississippi. This was quite an experience for all of us — akin to moving to a foreign country. To begin with, we couldn’t understand anything anyone was saying. To this day, our daughter claims that is why she became a speech therapist.

Mississippi is a state rich in history as well as physical beauty, but it continues to proudly fly the Confederate flag. I came to realize that everyone should live outside their comfort zone at least once and for that I thank Mississippi. The upside to our time there was that it only lasted three years and that my work experience there (teaching adult GED, presenting early childhood workshops, and teaching in a half-day kindergarten program) led to my job opportunities in our next move to Greenville in upstate South Carolina.

Greenville is “southeast” not “Deep South” and we loved it from the start. Lots of diversity. BMW had brought the Germans, Michelin had brought the French, and the temperate climate with four seasons and low property taxes had brought the Easterners and Northerners. After arriving in Greenville in 1990, I was hired as an early childhood faculty member at Greenville Technical College as the director of its newly constructed lab school. The position evolved into that of department head.

During that time, my husband decided to leave the corporate world behind and do something he had always wanted to do — own/operate a tool and equipment rental business (Bobcats, generators, trenchers, — it’s a guy thing). That led to us purchasing Blue Ridge Rent All some 20 years ago. I have finally persuaded him to put up a “For Sale” sign, so we’ll see what transpires.

In 1997, I left Greenville Tech and went to work for the South Carolina Department of Social Services as a senior childcare regulatory specialist. That meant I licensed and regulated childcare facilities (a daycare cop). Loved this job. Out of the office most of the time, driving my little state car around the county, total autonomy, no one really knew where I was — couldn’t ask for more.

So I am now a retired state employee thanks to Greenville Tech and the DSS and as such am rewarded with a small pension and generous supplemental health insurance. I still do early childhood training through the local school district a couple times a month just to remind myself that I actually still do know a thing or two.

Over the years, we’ve managed to do a bit of traveling, but my most meaningful trip was to the Czech Republic where, thanks to my aunt’s interest in genealogy, we were able to connect with other Simandl’s who warmly welcomed us. Despite the language barrier we traveled the country and traced my family’s history back to well more than 300 years ago.

We have also been blessed with three grandchildren over the past thirteen years (Luke, Paige, and Kate) who, like all grandchildren everywhere, are extremely smart, talented, and good looking. They live on Daniel Island near Charleston, South Carolina.

Dennis Smoody

Dennis has an excellent take on what to do in retirement: “Someone has to watch all that TV.” No, that’s not all he does. He reads, is an active member of the Capitol Drive Lutheran Church, and considers himself “a pretty good house husband.”

He is married to Jan. “She’s four years younger than me,” he wrote. “I met her at UWM when she was starting her freshman year and I was starting my fifth year as an undergraduate. She is multitalented. She has worked as a waitress, teacher’s aide, speech therapist for DD kids, exercise instructor, director of senior programs at the YMCA, assistant tour director, secretary/receptionist, and workers comp claims analyst. She has a BS in speech pathology. We will be married 42 years this August. When I took her around to introduce her to my friends, relatives, and workmates, they all told me: ‘She’s much too pretty for you.’ I would agree. She attended Milwaukee Lutheran High School and graduated in 1968.”

Dennis and Jan have two sons, but no grandchildren. Matthew, 34, lives in Minnesota with his wife and is an airframe power technician. He currently works as an air maintenance controller with Suncoast Airlines. Michael, age 28, also lives in Minnesota and is a bartender. “He is not married,” Dennis wrote, “and to my knowledge has no children.”

Dennis is retired after working for 40 years as a master degree social worker. As he explained: “I was an outpatient therapist and worked with individuals, couples, parents, and children. I worked in unplanned pregnancy counseling, adoption, and foster care. The last 14 years of my career I worked with mentally ill seniors.”

Dennis has mostly lived in the Milwaukee area, but he was an area office director in the Chippewa Falls/Eau Claire area for seven and a half years. As for travel, he has been to Tijuana and Canada.

He likes to brag that he “was happy to have provided for my family and enjoyed raising two sons, who, from what I can see, turned out to be good people. My wife and late mother-in-law both say I am a good husband.”

He wishes now that he would have learned in high school that “things will work out.”

About his time in high school, Dennis wrote that most memories are great, but one does stand out: “I suppose the beach parties at the end of our senior year, even though I made a complete fool of myself. Make that drunken fool.”

He managed to get through high school without have to work, “much to my father’s dismay as he had worries I would turn out to be a bum.”

His first car was a red-and-white 1956 Chevy.

What he misses most about high school were “all my classmates. It has been great to have known you all.”

As to his favorite hangout: “Nothing was more fun than being part of the rowdy crowd at BEHS basketball games, followed by pizza at Mama Mia’s on Burleigh.”

Dennis wrote that a favorite song would have probably been something by Buddy Holly. Today, “ I still like Buddy Holly. I’ve always liked folk music and oldies but goodies. I have to admit I never cared for The Beatles. From my point of view once they came along everybody imitated their sound and it was all the same.”

He joined the Marine Corps right after high school, “but did not complete boot camp due to flat feet.”

Dennis added: “My life has been better because of my high school experience and the people I met during this time. That includes fellow students and teachers. Thanks everyone; it was fun.”

Cheryl (St. John) Hecker

Following my 1968 graduation from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh with a bachelor of science degree in secondary education, I taught English literature/public speaking and worked as a play director at a local high school near Green Bay. In June 1970, Wally Hecker and I were married at Faith Lutheran Church in Appleton, Wisconsin. We have been happily married for forty-three years and live in Green Bay.

At present, our son Rob, his wife, Susan, and our one-year-old granddaughter Charlotte live in beautiful Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho. Daughter Beth, her husband, Scott, and our granddaughter Trinity (11 years) live 12 minutes from us. Wally and I look forward to our third granddaughter expected to be born in May. Trinity will be a wonderful big sister.

Retirement has provided us with many travel opportunities. When we want to truly relax we head for the lake cottage in northern Wisconsin where we snowmobile in winter and ride the ATVs or spend time on our boat. When at home we are active in our church and enjoy volunteer work in our community.

The BEHS reunion promises to be a fun time for all, and I personally look forward to reconnecting with classmates and making new memories.

Duane Strong

After a lenghty illness, Duane died Aug. 31, 2014. A brief obituary appeared in the Sept. 3, 2014, edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. You can view the brief obituary here: Duane K. Strong.

Strong, Duane K. Found Eternal Peace August 31, 2014, at the age of 67. Loving husband of Darlene (nee Brandt) for 45 years. Proud and caring father of Tami (Matt) Jaeck, Tina (Brad) Posnanski, Ken (Robin) Strong. Cherished papa of Sam, Peter, Paige, Brady and Brandt. Preceded in death by his parents Germaine and Gerald Strong and his brother Keith Strong. Also survived by his brothers John and Greg and his sister Vicki Bobb. Further survived by nieces, nephews and many good and dear friends. Visitation Friday, September 5 at HARDER FUNERAL HOME from 4:00 – 7:00PM until time of service at 7:00PM. Private entombment Wisconsin Memorial Park. Duane was a 1964 graduate of Brookfield East High School, graduated from U.W. -Whitewater in 1969, served in the Wisconsin National Guard – Oconomowoc unit from 1969 – 1975 and was the past president of Executive Resource Inc. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Melanoma Research Foundation: Miles for Melanoma. http://bit.ly/1oAkNDh. His son Ken will do a half Ironman in memorial to his dad in October. – See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/jsonline/obituary.aspx?n=duane-k-strong&pid=172339129&fhid=19710#sthash.RWct0dxx.dpuf

Susan (Tacke) Barth Geils

Sue’s fun job is the one she has now, “real estate sales, First Weber Group, Barth and Geils. Every day is a new day and working with my husband is a real adventure.” She and her husband, Rich, work as a team along with Rich’s daughter Laura Steele.

All told, there are four children in the family, two for Sue (Wade Barth and Lindsay Evans) and two for Richard (Jason Geils and Laura). In addition, there are eight grandchildren with one on the way, which breaks down to five boys and four girls.

Currently living in Brookfield, Sue has also lived in California and Iowa. “The most fun traveling has been by boat through the Great Lakes,” she writes.

What has her bragging are “my two wonderful children.”

“Everyone is worth knowing” is the fact Sue knows now she wishes she knew in high school.

What Sue misses most about high school is “missed friendship opportunities.”

She worked at The Grand in Wauwatosa during high school and for her dad’s company during the summer.

Like many fellow classmates, she had to make do with driving a parent’s car, in this case, “my mother’s white Chevrolet.”

Her favorite memory from high school is “my secret” and her untold story remains “untold.” However, her favorite song was “Runaround Sue.” Today, her musical tastes include “everything, even country.”

“Being on the reunion committee and reconnecting with classmates has been such a fun, rewarding experience,” she writes. “Talents and interests are abounding. Life is so short. Hopefully, everyone will make the effort to join all of us for this 50th reunion.”

Margaret (Teuteberg) Roberts

Maggie has owned her own lighting business for the past 26 years, hoping officially to retire this summer. Of her fun job, she wrote, “I was fortunately lucky to be sales most of my life.”

She is married to Jim, a retired systems analyst. They have two children, Tom and Stephanie. About grandchildren, Maggie wrote: “No. Would have been nice.”

The family does have Molly, a mini goldeendoodle, who is “absolutely adorable.”

She enjoys “biking, golfing, my Kindle, and still trying to figure out the rest. Enjoy traveling.”

Travel has taken her to most of the United States, as well as Mexico and the Caribbean.

She has lived in Wisconsin the whole time. “Been in Wales and now Waukesha the last 25 years.”

She said her greatest accomplishment in life was starting her own business and, “of course my children.”

Concerning what she knows now that she wishes she had learned in high school, she faces a quandary: “Where to start??? HA!”

What she misses most about high school are the friendships. She worked at her dad’s custard stand. In fact, she bought her first car, a green 1963 Buick, from “my dad for $350. WOW!”

Maggie wrote that her favorite song during high school was likely something from The Beatles. She still enjoys rock, but a lot of other music, too.

Entertainment note for the reunion: Concerning untold stories from high school: “Oh, so many, but we’ll wait till we meet!!!”

She added as a comment: “I’ve been lucky, still healthy. I have to say thanks to this committee for all their work that they have done! “

(DISCLAIMER: No gratuities changed hands concerning her comment about the 50th Reunion Committee.)

Curtis Thorstensen

After graduation, I attended UWM as an art major for one semester. I car pooled with Lee Frederickson.

In January 1965, I transferred to the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana as an architecture major. My family moved to a NW suburb of Chicago in the summer of 1965 and I lost touch with my friends in Brookfield. I belonged to Alpha Rho Chi, an architectural fraternity and graduated in August 1969 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. I knew one fellow grad of Brookfield East in Champaign, Jan Porter.

After graduation, I was promptly requested to show up for a physical by the draft board. Fortunately, I was classified as 1Y and was not drafted.

In November 1970, I married Lana Auriemmo Thorstensen. We have on daughter born in 1981. Lana passed away in January 2006 from an aneurism.

I worked for a custom home builder in Northbrook, Illinois, from September 1990 until my retirement in 2008, and designed many custom homes in the Chicago suburbs.

I am currently living in Washington, D.C., near my daughter who is a VP at Rails to Trails, a nonprofit in D.C. I am working part time at a historic house museum in Georgetown, Tudor Place.

Jack Venske

I graduated from UW-Oskosh in 1969 and did master’s work at UW Milwaukee in 1995.

In 1970, I took a teahing job at Puaski High School, where I also coached boys baseball, golf, wrestling, girls basketball, and intramural basketball. I started and ran the Ski Club and was the yearbook adviser. From 2000 to 2003, I taught art education at UW Milwaukee.

I retired from full-time teaching in January 2001 and now enjoy gardening, winning the “Yard of Distinction Award” in 1999. I represented Wauwatosa in its “Secret Garden Tour” in 2005 and 2012. The yard has been featured in the May/June 2013 edition of Wisconsin Gardening Magazine and in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article in November 2013.

I am married to Wendy (Marijo Uhal’s sister). I have a daughter from a previous marriage. Her name is Angela Goodman and lives in San Bernardino, California, with my grandchild, Luke, nine years old; and two stepgrandchildren, Hailie, 11, and Amber, 10.

In May 2013, Wendy and I purchased a winter home in Sun City West, Arizona.

I am an artist working in abstract watercolor collage and painted in a yearly exhibition called Open Canvas.

I still enjoy golfing and traveling, and am fortunate to enjoy good wine, good food and good friends.

Judy (Villwock) Kreuzer

Judy has retired but still works “part time doing the accounting for the place I worked for twenty years.” She calls this her fun job.

She has six children — Bill, 46; Christine, 44; Daniel, 43; Timothy, 39; Matthew, 37; and Jennifer, 36 — who have given her eleven grandchildren — Jessica, Amanda, Brian, Bailey, Jordan, Timothy, Sean, Damen, Rhett, Bryanna, and Damien — three great-grandchildren — Ariel, Dominick, and Emilee

Currently living in Tomah, Wisconsin, she has also lived in Milwaukee, Waukesha, and East Troy.

In high school, she worked at Food Fair in Brookfield and Elm Grove. She drove a grey 1956 Chevy and liked Marty’s Pizza as her favorite hangout. Her favorite music was rock and her favorite memory was of homecoming weekend

John Waferling

John moved away during our years at BEHS, but he still enjoys being associated with the Class of 1964. He has not yet submitted any information.

Bruce Wares

Bruce was killed in a motorcycle accident in late 1996 or early 1997. If you wish t see a full list of classmates no longer with us, go to the In Memoriam page.

Below is a tribute about Tim written by Jon Goelz, Class of 1966, sent to the previous incarnation of the website.

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Memories of Bruce

by Jon Goelz, Class of 1966

After Marcy’s death, Bruce remarried and moved to Denver. He was doing OK and bought a motorcycle. His mother, who has since also died, was out to visit him over Xmas. It was an unusually warm day, so he decided to go for a motorcycle ride. He hit a pipe of some sort and crashed.

You may remember Marcy was his girlfriend though high school. She went to high school on the south side of Milwaukee. Her father, as did Bruce’s, owned a bicycle store.

I remember one time we were tobogganing and it started to snow fairly hard, so we all thought to stay at Marcy’s house until it stopped snowing. Well as it turned out that was fine except Bruce, I and Mary didn’t bother to call our parents about our decision. When Bruce and I got home, six nut cases to deal with.

Another time, Bruce was going to let me, two years younger at 14, drive his car. So away we go for the outing with me driving. We stopped at the same intersection as did our folks in their own cars. Who would have ever thought that would have happened. More nut cases.

One time when we were about 8 and 10, we were at a construction site and doing whatever was wrong. He decided to throw a rock at a target that I would set up on the inside. Well, I got caught in the mouth with one of the rocks and of course there was blood everywhere. As he was rushing me home, he told me that we can’t tell anyone what happened and I agreed. So to this day, our parents don’t know. There are alot of those stories I could tell.

Bruce seemed to have alot of friends in school. Of coarse, he was into a lot of the sports stuff and I didn’t even like the word. I was into drag racing and still am today. But I use to go to most of the meets to watch him.

When I think back, we were probably the two closest friends that no one ever knew about. When he did other things with his different friends, he always stopped in to tell me of his outings. When he was working with some fan company, he came to tell me about that and that was about the last time we saw each other, maybe six to nine years ago. (Ed. Note: That would have been in the early 1990s.)

Bonnie (Wendt) Draeger

June 1968. My husband and I were married two weeks later in Brookfield and promptly moved to New England.

There I taught elementary school music while Wayne completed graduate school; we enjoyed two additional years living in Boston. Then it was back to the Midwest for 24 years, raising two sons, Eric and Kyle, in Columbus, Indiana.

I spent 20 years as an early childhood music consultant and performer, before earning master’s degrees in education and theology. I graduated from seminary in 1996 and began a second career as a United Methodist pastor. After appointments in Indiana and New York (White Plains and Manhattan), I co-founded Friends & Cancer, a New York-based cancer education not-for-profit, and was appointed its executive director. I continue in that role today.

My first task was to research and author a book, “When Cancer Strikes a Friend: What to Say, What to Do, and How to Help.” Happily, the book was purchased by Skyhorse Publishing and released in October 2012.

Today, when not on the road giving workshops or book presentations, I can be found at home on Cape Cod enjoying time with our extended family, including four pre-teen granddaughters. I am enjoying life in Massachusetts and eagerly look forward to reconnecting with friends from Brookfield East in September, 2014.

Elroy “Lee” Wendt

Sometimes wanderlust can overwhelm and leave us with wistful thoughts of chucking it all. After a 20-year career with R&J Medical Supply, Lee did just that.

“I sold everything I had,” he wrote, “stored what I wanted to keep, bought a Ford 250 pickup truck and a 30-foot travel trailer, put my motorcycle and tools in the back of the truck, and set off to see back-road America for a year.”

Except for that year touring the back roads and byways of America, Lee has lived in the Milwaukee-Waukesha area all his life.

His is married to Joyce, the “Light in my life. She is a dedicated wife partner, and employee.” She has been employed for Anthem Blue Cross-Blue Shield in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, as a senior IT developer since 1999. The have been together 21 years and come Memorial Day, they will have been married 16 years.

“I have two grandchildren,” Lee wrote. “Shawna who turned 22 on April 12 and Chaz my grandson who turned 23 on February 8. Chaz is now a father of a brand new baby girl named Lana Mary Wendt born December 22, 2013, which now makes me a great-grandfather.”

Lee started his career with R&J Medical Supply doing multiple jobs from unloading rail cars to delivering supplies. “I finally landed in sales,” he wrote, “and spent the majority of my time with the company calling on nursing homes selling medical supplies.”

He considers his time with R&J as his most interesting work. “I made some great friendships with people that I still have contact with after 20 years of leaving the business.”

It was after his son Randy left to the join the Marine Corps that Lee left R&J, which had grown to about 70 employees and took off on his yearlong sojourn.

“When I came back from traipsing around the country,” he explained, “I though it might be beneficial to become a pillar of the community again, so I went and got a job at Bro-Tex out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, selling disposable paper wipers and absorbent products.”

He stayed with Bro-Tex for about three and a half years before joining one of their competitors. “That move didn’t work out so I started building my own business selling the same products in 1994.”

Though his business is dwindling because he stopped making sales calls, he still supplies companies with products out of his home office. That gives him plenty of time to devote to his latest project.

“Joyce and I lived on the north side of Milwaukee where we had plans to stay for about seven to 10 years,” he wrote. “As it turned out we were there for about 11 years. When my mother and father passed away six months apart from each other, it opened up the opportunity to move back to the 20-acre farm I grew up on.

“The upstairs of the house never had anything done to it during the time it was in the family (since 1948). Joyce and I gutted the upstairs and remodeled it putting in a bathroom and walk-in closet.

“The rest of the property was pretty run down so, for the last eight years, I have been slowly bringing it back. We put in a patio off the back of the house, replaced all of the windows, and completely rebuilt the inside of the garage, which is now my ‘Man Cave.’ I continue to repair, tear down, and clean out stuff that has been collected by myself and Mom and Dad. When that is done by the end of this summer we plan to sell the farm and downsize.”

Of course, the old homestead does give the family pet room to roam. “Hank, our yellow Labrador retriever entered our lives at 7 weeks old and has grown into a fine companion and friend. He hasn’t completely figured out yet that part of retrieving is to give up whatever it is he is retrieving. Instead, he prefers that I chase him to try and get it.

“He has us trained into how to give him treats and how often. (Generally, anytime is treat time and then he will do whatever you want.) He turns 6 years old Aug. 23, 2014, three days before my birthday. We celebrate together.”

Lee and Joyce have traveled to Colorado, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Minnesota, and many areas in Wisconsin. “We have been to Nicaragua twice on mission trips with the church. We honeymooned in Cancun, been down to the Panama Canal and Cartagena, Columbia, via cruising.” They also visited a number of islands in the Gulf on cruises.

He does miss from his days at BEHS shop class, both woodworking and metal shop. “I would also be remiss if I didn’t say I miss the camaraderie and the partying as well.”

His favorite hangout in high school was along the fence line bushes during the lunch hour smoking a cigarette.

His first car was a 1956 Ford Sunliner convertible. “It was white over white in color. It was a beautiful car that I put red carpeting on the floor and blue lights in the grill. It was topped off with baby moon hubcaps on black rims with whitewall tires. If anybody knows where I can find a restored ’56 Ford convertible, please call me.”

Lee does have untold stories about high school, but “none that I can tell here.”

For spending cash, Lee worked at Kohl’s Bakery on Burleigh Road and Herker Screw products in Butler.

Lee missed out on military service because of asthma. His “hearing has gone to hell so I don’t listen to music much anymore. I listen to talk radio when I’m driving.”

The one thing he knows now he wishes he knew in high school was “the purpose of learning history. It took a while but, after repeating my mistakes in life, I now understand why we are supposed to remember our past.”

“One of the best times I’ve had regarding our high school has been being on the reunion committee for the 31st reunion and now again for the 50th reunion,” he wrote. “It has been a real honor being part of the committee and planning these two events.

“I have renewed old acquaintances with the other committee members and know that they will be part of my life for as long as God lets me stay here. I will have a sad feeling once this is all over.

“The upside to this is knowing that we all still have something in common after all these years, and that it would only take an e-mail or a phone call to relive the memories past and renew our lost acquaintances, along with making new memories as we continue on.

“It has been a tremendous amount of fun. I look forward to whatever the future holds for the class of ’64’s next get together.

David Whisner

I graduated from UW-LaCrosse on June 1, 1968, with majors in English and psychology, no real job prospects, and a 1-A draft status. On June 13, I was ordered to report for an induction physical, so I enlisted Army OCS (dummy). Having bulked up again to 272 pounds (LaCrosse was the home of Old Style Beer), I was quite confident Uncle Sam wouldn’t want me. Wrong. I recall the Army doctor from somewhere in the South saying, “Don’t worry, son, we’ll run that off you!” But minutes later,I flunked the urinalysis test (Is that too much information?) for reasons still unknown — apart perhaps from that case of shorties the night before — and never did get a chance to serve.

The next day I drove to Madison and asked Oscar Mayer & Company for the job they didn’t offer me on campus. Although they wouldn’t acknowledge it, I’m convinced the change in my draft status from 1-A to 1-Y made all the difference. They hired me on the spot.

In July 1969, when Neil Armstrong was doing his thing on the moon, I married Judy (Racine St. Catherine’s, also 1964), a physical education teacher I met at UW-LaCrosse. We’re coming up on 45 years together. With Oscar Mayer & Company we lived in Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, and had two sons along the way.

In 1975, I joined the Jones Dairy Farm, a food company based in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, as Midwest sales manager (living in suburban Chicago) and spent many years with Jones, ending up as executive vice president. We moved to Fort Atkinson in 1993, and it was great being back in southeastern Wisconsin.

Our two sons, Adam and Ryan, graduated from college, and they are pursuing their dreams. Armed with a degree in theater arts (University of Iowa), Adam is a very busy actor living in the Twin Cities doing television and radio commercials, industrial videos, etc., during the day and live theater at night. Ryan’s degree is in journalism (University of Iowa and UW-Whitewater), and he is the county editor of the Jefferson County Daily Union.

I retired in 2003 and we moved into the home we built in beautiful Sedona, Arizona. We still own a home in Wisconsin, but we get back there only occasionally. I spend most of my time golfing, playing piano, and traveling. Judy is a very active Hospice volunteer.

Douglas Whiteley

Doug received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Ripon College, where he met his future wife, Diane, on the second day of his first semester. He also had attended Marquette, studying applied linear systems, and the University of Wisconsin, where he had studied accounting. Like many young men during the period, Doug’s life was interrupted by one of those letters that began “Greetings.”

He had been working as a computer programmer and analyst at NCR for eight months when, in 1969, he received his draft notice. His service included duty postings in Chu Lai and DaNang, Vietnam. He was a “sergeant with the 196th Infantry Brigade, Americal Division (23rd Infantry, this was the infamous My Lai massacre unit).” (For the record, My Lai had occurred a year earlier in 1968.)

He has been married to Diane (from Wilmette, Illinois) for more than 45 years. They have two children, Stacey, 43, and Kari, 39; and four grandchildren, twins Julie and Tyler, 11; Ethan, 7; and Ashton, 3.

Places of residence have included Milwaukee, Mukwonago, and Middleton, Wisconsin; Reston, Virginia; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Doug and Diane now split their time between Raleigh and Lake Lure, North Carolina.

After his stint in the Army and “spending three months reconciling with the real world,” Doug began a career in financial risk management, domestic and foreign.

He took a job with MGIC as an underwriter. “I had no clue what this job was when it was offered, but it did look better than the one I had, which was none.” He stayed with MGIC for three years learning the ropes, “but got tired of being on the bottom rung of the ladder.”

He only spent one year at his next job, a sales position with Mortgage Associates. (“Discovered B.S. was not my forte. I prefer facts.”

He stayed at his next job with Foremost Guaranty Corp. for 12 years as manager of underwriting and their new computers. It was “a small mortgage insurance company where I really learned the ropes this time.” By the time he left, he had become senior vice president of risk management.

Next, he took a senior vice president of risk management position with the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., the second-largest financial company in the world by assets managed. “Learned more about politics in Washington, D.C., than I ever wanted to know,” he wrote. “After three years of dealing with the lowest life forms in our society (politicians), I went back to the private sector.”

At Republic Mortgage Insurance Corp., he was senior vice president of risk management for midsize companies (risk management, underwriting, IT, operations, etc.) But “800 people in my division made my job seem more like I was in HR rather than a business. After 10 years of listening to personal problems, I had had enough.”

In 2000, Doug became an international financial risk management consultant. He primarily worked in developing countries — Africa (Kenya and Egypt), and Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, and the former Soviet satellites of Kazakhstan and the Ukraine. He also worked in the Dominican Republic for the World Bank, USAID (State Department), Overseas Private Investment Corp.) or directly for the governments of Indonesia, Dominican Republic, and Kazakhstan.

Doug finds life good. Currently he is semi-retired, “focusing on doing things I never had time for when I had a real job.” Although, he will be doing some consulting in Serbia sometime later in 2014.

His preferred option in his semi-retired state is the grandkids. “Being a grandparent is without a doubt the best situation ever.”

He also is president of the HOA, a math tutor for at-risk inner-city middle school kids, and an instructor certified scuba diver. He enjoys traveling (58 countries), motorcycles, auto racing, boating, camping, woodworking, leatherwork, reading, and board games.

His reflections on high school are of good memories, good times, and positive vibes. Then again, he also recalls that “being young and dumb really was a lot of fun.”

Peggy (Zarske) Larzarchic

Peg was introduced to Richard, her husband, by her daughter in 1991. They were married a year later. Between them, they have seven grown children (Peg has three and Rich has four) and 12 grandchildren. Twin great-grandchildren were born the summer of 2013. The family pet is Lily, a 13-year-old Westie.

Peg and Rich’s main home is located outside of Minong, Wisconsin, and they spend the winter months in Indio, California. Previously, Peg had lived in Milwaukee; Wauwatosa; Green Bay; Schaumburg, Illinois; New Berlin; Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; and Rumson, New Jersey.

Both are retired: Richard from the investment business and Peg, after being a stay-at-home mom until her youngest child went to school, from various jobs in sales and at a large Minneapolis hospital. When ask what her fun job was, Peg wrote: “I really had to think about this question. Interesting can mean so many different things. I think the most varied job is the one I have had for almost 50 years — home manager.”

Today, she keeps busy with swimming, gardening, travel, and “of course, spending time the grandkids, as much as their schedules allow.”

Speaking of travel, Peg has had quite an extensive tour of the world: Mexico, Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, England, Ireland, Netherlands, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Montenegro, Croatia, Luxembourg, Sicily, Malta, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia.

She enjoys bragging that she has “three remarkable, forgiving adult children.”

Peg has many favorite memories her days at BEHS (“It was a good time”) and misses the people and “how innocent we were.” But then she also writes: “There are, of course, untold stories.”

During high school, Peg worked at Ben Franklin in Elm Grove. She drove her dad’s 1953 blue Buick — “stick shift.” Her favorite song was “The Way You Look Tonight” by The Letterman. Today, she still loves rock ‘n’ roll and jazz.

“Once I got my license,” she writes, “my favorite place was the freedom to drive wherever I wanted to go — without a parent.” Before that, “I spent a lot of time alone in my bedroom — usually listening to music or talking on my aqua Princess phone.”

The one fact Peg knows now that she wishes she knew in high school is that “this too shall pass.”

And the time has passed. “Working on this reunion — and celebrating these 50 years since graduation — has been so much fun. The years melt away as we look at each other as we are now but only see each other as we looked then. It is very special to reconnect with people who helped us grow up.”