Classmate Profiles

This is your opportunity to provide a little bit about what has occupied your life for the past 60 years.  Be as cryptic or as verbose as you desire.  Just one little word of caution -- our committee reviewer is known to strike out explicit profanity.  Any photographs you also wish to share can be downloaded in the 'image box'.

Provide as much or as little contact information you wish to appear on your profile page.  Should you seek unlisted contact information about a classmate, please send us a query on the "Contact Us" page.  We will endeavor to coordinate your inquiry with that person.

Profiles for the 2011 and 2016 Reunions have been retained.  Use yours as you wish to modify, delete and/or add more comments.

If you have forgotten or lost your personal password, please create a new Profile and we will make an effort to combine the current and older information together.  Since we have no record of your old password,  please keep track of your new one.

 

Melinda McKillip (Hays)

Marital status: Widowed
Children: 4
Occupation: Retired

Karen McPherson (Keehn)

Now Now
Marital status: Widowed
Children: 1
Occupation: retired
Comment: Can it really be 50 years?  Similar to some of you, my life has had lots of twists, turns, peaks, valleys, u-turns, dead ends, and amazing blessings.  All and all it has been rich, varied, full of challenges and wondrous adventures.  I am now living the good life enjoying my wonderful family (my son's 3 little kiddos + 7 more I claim who all live close), fabulous friends, & fun hobbies in retirement.   

 


FIFTY YEARS!!!  Our little orb keeps on spinning.  If we’re lucky, we just keep holding on, despite being held together with tape. staples, rivets and owning fewer factory-original parts.  We sure have some amazing stories to tell, though!  I look forward to hearing some of yours.


 


Karen (Keehn) McPherson

Susie (Ellen) Melzo (Engman)

Marital status: Widowed
Children: 2
Occupation: retired
Comment: How can we possibly be celebrating 61 years!  Are we even that old?  There have not been many changes in my life. I was widowed nearly 19 years ago.  I have a son and daughter and one very perfect granddaughter. She is attending the Uof W studying Bio Chem and it has been such a joy reliving my days of living near the campus!!  It is fun to walk the campus and tell her stories of my days there, when I worked at the UW medical center and ran the heart cath lab.  

I still go to the gym 5 days a week and keep busy with my friends and family. My son lives in Puyallup and my daughter in Colorado.  Other than the usual aches and pains that come with aging, I've been blessed with good health. I look forward to seeing everyone in September. 

Sharon Meyer (Wayno)

Marital status: Married
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired
Comment: In 1964 I moved to San Francsco and worked for the Federal Government where I met my husband of 42 years.  My last position was that of a Public Information Specialist for all levels of government in the San Francisco bay area.



After raising our two children, we sold our house and traveled for a year in our motorhome.  We still enjoy traveling and are fortunate to be living in northern San Diego County, close to the ocean and mountains.



We are enjoying our three grandsons, family and great friends.  Every day is truly a blessing and life is very good!



A special "thank you" to all the committee members who are making this reunion possible.  I am looking forward to seeing you and many others at the dinner Saturday night. - Sharon

Eric Moore

Marital status: Divorced
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired and part-time marketing consultant
Comment:

When I graduated from CP in '61 I had a Presidential nomination for both West Point and the Air Force Academy.  However, my military career was dashed when I failed the physical (asthma).  So I enrolled at the UW in Seattle and graduated in Dec '66 with a BA degree in Business and a major in marketing.  Spent a year with Boeing in Seattle right after graduation but quickly realized that a marketing degree in an engineering company is futile without an engineering background.  Found my niche after being recruited by The Coca-Cola Company.  Lived and worked in some great places (Eugene, Denver, Dallas, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Atlanta).  Highlights: Director of Marketing for the Coca-Cola Bottling Company in New Orleans ('76-'81), Director of Marketing for the CC Bottling Co in Denver ('81-'87), national Brand Manager for Cherry Coke in Atlanta ('87), VP Marketing for Sunkist Soft Drinks in the U.S. ('87-'88), Marketer for the Coors Brewing Co. Southern Region (13 states...'89-'93), Group Marketing Mgr for Coca-Cola USA ('94-'98).  Took early retirement from Coca-Cola in '98 and became a marketing consultant.  I'm divorced and living in the Atlanta area.  Have 2 sons (25 and 21).  The older son (Jon) graduated from the University of Georgia with a history degree and his goal is to get into the Foreign Service or CIA.  My younger son is a senior at Georgia Southern University majoring in Excercise Science leading to a degree in Physical Therapy. 



I regret to say that I have not been back to Clover Park HS since I graduated.  I was hoping to attend the 50th Anniversary but my schedule wouldn't allow it.  I was in Seattle a few weeks ago and wish it could have been held then.  If any of my classmates ever travel to Atlanta I would love to get together with them if they have time.  You are more than welcome to share my information with them.



Sure wish I could be at the 50th this year.  It would be great to see some '61 classmates again after all these years.



All the best.....Eric Moore

Barbara Morrow (Rieck)

Marital status: Married
Children: 1
Occupation: financial consultant
Comment:
After growing up traveling as a military dependent, seemed natural to me to do a lot of international studies at Barnard and Columbia, and later at Harvard Business School and the London School of Economics.   I took the first African studies program offered by Columbia, when it was not considered a real subject so was offered without credit. !!!  Also took Oriental Civilizations in great depth, so not only knew where Vietnam was before we were really involved, but its history.  

 

Wall Street called to me, for reasons perhaps different than anyone else's who ever worked there, namely because I am passionate about history, and the lure for me was that Wall Street is like going through a time machine to another era.    I was first female institutional account exec, and after joining Teachers Insurance, was a founder of the first international investment program in the US, including later emerging markets, which I helped the World Bank establish. 

 

Then I joined AIG, became a founder of their institutional global asset management business.  AIG is worth several novels even before the great sucking sound of extinction in 2008.   With the backing of Shell Oil's pension fund as a client I had created my own consulting firm, leaving AIG long before 08.  We do specialized global research ( such as on emerging markets and on cybersecurity), currency and risk advising, and help companies raise money through my affiliation with broker dealer IICC in Houston.   



One of my best ever adventures was as the white half of the two token female members of President Clinton's first mission to South Africa, led by Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, to lift all sanctions from South Africa, since Apartheid had ended. The delegation of 25, plus State Dept, secret service and various agency personnel flew over in Air Force 2, which was at that time of course assigned to Al Gore. The pilot we had, Colonel Snow, was a friend of and admirer of our classmate Brem Morrison, who had transferred in senior year as did I, from Wiesbaden Germany.  Brem had become pilot on Air Force 1, and of course I was very proud of him, even though I was surprised because I thought he was going to become a rock star.



I have had only one husband, Eric Morrow.  He and I were the first two section mates ever at Harvard Business School to  marry, so I tease him that he went from MIT to Harvard to find a wife. 



He and our marriage are alive and well, I am happy to say.  We lost some pregnancies but were blessed with a son, John, getting a degree in economics and interested in economic development as am I, almost did a career in Peace Corps. 



Chuck Creesy, whom I dated part of our senior year, did some time in Peace Corps also, which inspired and amazed me. We have stayed friends these many years, as I have with classmate Steven McGruder.  Steve has lived a more focused financial career, being an expert in new technologies, so I have learned a lot from him.  My husband Eric, after a career in consulting and venture capital, most of it in health care, decided to tackle a new career, and he just got another master's and is teaching the throw away kids in a public high school in the worst part of NYC's Bronx borough, and changing some lives, and enjoying it enormously.  I hope they give him a purple heart. 



I read that the best way to keep the brain healthy is to study, play games, as well as eat and sleep well and drink less than we will at reunion, but also to learn a new language.  As I am getting involved more in angel investing, one of the side benefits is learning entirely new technologies which always includes a lot of vocabulary. 



German was something I learned as a young kid, later became proficient for a while in French, learned some conversational Mandarin and Japanese, which is now almost forgotten, and can read most European languages, so wanted to tackle something new and studied introductory Tibetan for a while, quite exciting, like reading paisley.  Have not tackled a language in any depth at all since I did an intensive in Spanish in Quito, in 02, visiting my son in summer school there. .



My Dad is still alive, WWII medic and a teacher, rather like the character played by Tom Hanks in Savig Private Ryan, so will see him again while I am home. 



Great satisfactions:  movies, travel, beading, comparative religion (currently exploring Hinduism more deeply)  and foster parenting (Eric and I adopted as godchildren, two Rwandan survivors both of whom have graduated and gotten great careers underway.  I had to freshen up my French to help the younger one study for SAT's and learn to write papers in English, and to help him sometimes translate his engineering texts into enough French to understand them, and since I never took an engineering course before, that was indeed a stretch of my brain. 

 

This may sound as if I had a plan and went after it, but I am still trying to figure out what I will do when I grow up, all that has happened before has been what I stumbled into.  Best way to illustrate this is to describe the meeting with Nelson Mandela during the mission I mentioned.  Until then I had been treated as the token I was, chosen so the group would look diverse, but when Nelson Mandela greeted everyone and then stopped to talk to me about our meetings before, suddenly I was treated less as an after thought.  What no one in the delegation knew, though, is that I had met Mr. Mandela getting stuck in an elevator with him, he wearing a tuxedo with a lot of similarly dressed friends and colleagues and me wearing sweats returning from the gym, hardly an auspicious beginning.

 

Serendipity, like the rest of my life, both frustratingly unpredictable and rewardingly adventurous.  

 

 





 

Michael O'Neal

Marital status: Single
Children: 3
Occupation: Management Consultant
Comment: Retired from US Army in 1982 as a Major. Worked 21 years in the corporate world in Project Management and Business Development. Began consulting practice in 2002 and am still working part time. Married to Merrilee Bye for 23 years, divorced in 1989. Married to Lucia for 22 years. Saved by the grace of our Savior, Jesus Christ in 1991. Father of 2 sons, 1 daughter and grandfather to 6 grandchildren (ages 19-2). Favorite quote: "Let your yes be yes and your no be no" AND "we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us."

Mary Jane Ohl (Lehman)

Marital status: Married
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired Teacher
Comment: Life is great!  I enjoyed teaching for 30yrs but retirement is alot more FUN.  Mel and I enjoy living in Poulsbo, WA. and spending winters in Yuma, AZ.  We both enjoy golfing, I love to garden vegetables & flowers as well as do water color painting.  I have sold several paintings!  We have alot of fun doing short trips with our local RV group.

Wesley Parks

Marital status: Married
Occupation: Associate Professor of Engineering, Penn State, Wilkes Barre
Comment: 1961-1966. University of Washington. Student. BS mathematics.

1966-1969. US Army. Private to 1st LT. Served at Ft Knox, KY, Ft Lewis, WA, Ft Hood, TX.

1969-1975. University of Wasington. Student. PhD Fishery Oceanography.

1975-1989. Fishery biologist. Southeast Fisheries Center, Miami, FL; Living Marine Resources (Fishery research and development consulting firm), San Diego, CA; Southwest Fisheries Center, La Jolla, CA; South Pacific Commission, Noumea, New Caledonia; Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

1989-1991. California State University, Frsno. Student. MS Civil Engineering.

1990. Married long-time best friend, Patricia, an elementary school principal, San Diego Shool District.

1991-1992. California State University, Fresno. Assistant Professor, Engineering.

1992-1997 Assistant land surveyor. California Department of Transportation.

1997-present. Assistant, Associate Professor of Engineering. Pennsylvania State University, Wilkes-Barre.



Pat, Skipper (fox terrier) and I divide our time between our restored 1870 town house in Wilkes Barre and our 1977 town house in San Diego.

Jane Pauley (Paukey)

Marital status: Single again
Children: 1
Occupation: retired
Comment:

Better late than never....finally getting around to putting something down after semi working on the committee. 

Since high school I went to college and got my teaching degree. I taught in CA for 5 years then came back to the Pacific Northwest to teach for Clover Park School District.  It was fun teaching alongside my former teachers!!!  Especially when I became a remedial math specialist and Hal Cross was my supervisor! 

I took early retirement when I turned 50 and spent time with my mother who had cancer.

Then a new opportunity came to me to manage a Christmas store.  That was so much fun.  I did that for 10 years.

I am now having fun playing with emeralds, rubies, diamonds and other gem stones in the fine jewelry department of Macy's in the Tacoma Mall.  This is a fun hobby that I get paid to do.  Come see me for that special gift!

I have one daughter who lives in Anacortes and three granddaughters, and a stepson in Vancouver who has three children.

Life is great!