This is what Craig sent me at the end of August 2002;
Ric,
Thanks for all the work you do on the '62 page. Here's a rundown of what I've been doing since June of '62.
After our graduation I worked at the Star-Bulletin until they had a strike. Then I switched to a Del Monte pineapple cannery down on the edge of downtown Honolulu. Bette Midler was working the line there for a while. Then off to college that fall at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Each summer I came back to Honolulu and worked somewhere else. The second year - '63 - I tried the newspaper again but jumped ship halfway through the summer to work for Pan American as a aircraft cleaner.
I held that job for the next three summers. Graduated Illinois in '66 and came back to work until I got my draft notice in September. As a Pan Am employee I was able to buy a discount round trip ticket to the mainland. I visited everybody I could think of. Then, I got back to Hawaii in October and got shipped off to Ft. Ord for basic training. From there it was to Ft. Gordon, GA and then on to Ft. Benning for infantry OCS. I got married to wife Linda, in late '67 and shipped out to Vietnam in Dec. '68 - my daughter, Birgit, was born while I was there - did R & R in Hawaii (but didn't have enough time to look up anyone) and came back to Oakland Army Terminal on New Year's Eve, '69. I had enough time to get out completely - no reserve duty. Went to live with my in-laws for a couple of months in Wisconsin and then got a job as an editorial cartoonist with the Dayton, Ohio paper.
Spent five years there, a son, Ethan, was born there in '73, giving us two kids, moved to Minneapolis in '75 and have been here since. In '85 I visited friends in Santa Cruz, California and took up surfing again. While I was there, I reconnected with a couple of Radford folks, one of whom was Richard Aubrey. We've stayed in touch. I quit the newspaper in '92 to work full time at home on two syndicated comic strips: Professor Doodles, a children's strip and Sally Forth, a family strip.
In '92 Carole Lewandoski found me and invited me to a 30 year reunion. Found Roger Herman, from San Diego, to go with me. We had not seen each other since '62. He's now a retired airline pilot. I had a ball seeing folks at the 30-year reunion. Then I dropped off Lewandoski's radar screen for 9 years. In March of last year - out of the blue - I got a call from Robin James, who had lunched with Al Beringsmith in San Jose. I don't know how Al knew that I was connected with the Minneapolis paper, but Robin tracked me down and from there it was a flood of email addresses. I got so excited about seeing people again that I planned a trip to California for a mini reunion set for September. Well, along came 9/11 adn my trip was shortened a bit. I did get to San Diego for several days with Roger and his wife, Madeline, then up to San Jose to see Robin and Alan Beringsmith and his wife . . . then on to Salinas, Felton and Santa Rosa to visit old Radford folks as well as some I had known from Punahou and Iolani. In Spring I visited Arkansas to see Fred Parker and his wife in Hot Springs. Didn't make this most recent 40th year get together, but made a vague promise to attend the 50th . . . if there is one.
Thanks for all the work you do on the '62 page. Here's a rundown of what I've been doing since June of '62.
