Comment by Mary (Earney) Whitehead

Mary left this as a comment on one of the post. I thought I would re-post so everyone could see it. Also just a side not I tried to reach a favorite teacher of mine and one that Mary mention's. Mr. Ethridge passed in 2000 according to his wife. I wish I could tell him how much he meant to me and what an influence he was on my life. I know all his students of the class of 1979 will miss him dearly....

Mary's Comment
I know at least a couple guys who benefited from Jerry Ethridge's class! :) It sounds like you have a full, fun life and are very happy -- that is great! Thanks so much for all you've done to bring us all together online and hopefully even more people at the reunion. It's been a lot of fun already on Facebook (a first for me) & reading the blog. I see a lot of life experiences, love, loss, and happiness again for many of us in all of the postings. I hope anyone who needs a litle nudge to post something on the blog will take a leap of faith & do so. Peace.

Alexander Paz Jr. (just Alex or some friends call me Al)

Like I had mentioned on the post earlier......Warning this is long, possible TMI and like I said before you can always walk away if you get bored or tired of reading it. : ) ap

Where did 30 years go??? Doesn’t seem so long ago but to make things surreal my daughter and step son graduated last weekend. So there is no denying the 30 years. Hmmmm…..where to start. Here goes nothing. It seems that I wasn’t a good high school student and my only savior was vocational drafting. My Vocational Drafting teacher Jerry Ethridge was so influential in my life and helping me make it to graduation. With my vocational drafting skills, I was able to land a job to co-op part of my senior year to gain some drafting experience. Then right out of high school I landed a job with Granite City Steel as an Engineering Design Draftsman. I thought wow what a dream job and salary for right out of high school but within 6 months the bottom fell out of the steel industry. I was one of the first to get laid off. Then, I tried to go to college and school just wasn’t for me. I sucked at it. I would be all A’s up to midterms and then try to coast on that till finals. I could never break that pattern and to this day I don’t know why I did that. I was even approached by the BAC soccer coach but fell to the same pattern. I was able to stay eligible for one season, a very successful season I may add, but fell to poor study habits once again. So then I turned to the military to bail me out, give me some direction and see some of the world.

So with the Navy I spent 9 years, 10 months and 27 days seeing the world, training young sailors right out of boot camp and yes PLAYING SOCCER! I enlisted in the advanced electronics field and became an electronic warfare specialist. Some of the highlights during my time in the Navy were getting married, my daughter was born March 13, 1991, lots of travel and getting selected two years in a row to the All-Navy Soccer Team. Although the marriage didn’t work out, to Patricia Black from Granite City, we did have a beautiful baby girl Alexis Marie Paz who was born while I was doing instructor duty in Pensacola, Florida. Even though Alexis’ mother and I didn’t see eye to eye, we have always been a team when it came to parenting. We put all differences aside and made sure we were there for Alexis. I think Pat is an excellent mother and my hat is off to her for raising Alexis Marie. Don’t get me wrong I was there doing the every other weekend, Wednesdays during the week and paying child support but it was nothing like being there full time 24/7. Thanks Pat! Sorry for the tangent but stuff I felt I had to mention. Back to the Navy, I experienced cruises on both coasts, east coast that took me to the Mediterranean Sea and a west coast that took me to the Pacific Sea on to the Persian Gulf. I served on three ships, one nuclear cruiser and two aircraft carriers. (USS Texas CGN-39, CVN-68 USS Eisenhower, and CVN-69 USS Nimitz) The last thing I’d like to mention is that at every command I was attached to I played soccer. While I was at one of my training commands I had a very successful soccer season and was nominated for the All-Navy Soccer team. I had to leave that training command for the USS Eisenhower and while I was headed for a training exercise near Cuba I received a message to immediately report to Little Creek, Virginia to try out for the All-Navy Soccer team. Next thing I know I am on a rickety old cargo plane being catapulted off the deck of an aircraft carrier!!!! Talk about a crazy ride….. I made the team two years back to back and was the closest I came to being a professional. I guess technically I was because all I did for 2 months was practice three times a day to prepare for the All-Service soccer tournament.

After an honorable discharge, I joined the work force in the IT field as an entry level pc technician. The Navy exposed me to computers but all my pc skills were self taught. But as anyone knows who has worked in the IT field you need to jump from shop to shop to get those pay increases. I worked at A.G Edwards, Washington University, Bryan Cave, and PMSI Consulting. At PMSI as a consultant I had assignments at BJC Health Care and an automotive parts company called Federal Mogul. Almost everywhere I went I took an interest in email systems and wound up specializing in a system called GroupWise. So when my contract was up with Federal Mogul I applied at BJC Health Care as a full time employee and was hired on as their GroupWise Email administrator (BJC has one of the largest GroupWise systems in the Midwest) which lasted 8 years from 1999 – 2008. At BJC I expanded my resume by tacking the task of learning and deploying the BlackBerry solution. My Blackberry experience and contacts made while supporting the product led me to my next job. My new found Canadian friends, BlackBerry is made in Waterloo, Ontario, were eager for me to join their team. So after a couple years of being scared to leave a safe job, I made the leap of faith and applied for a position at Research in Motion (RIM) the makers of BlackBerry. I accepted the position at RIM right after the New Year of 2008, my last day at BJC was the 18^th of January and had to be at a conference to meet my team in Orlando on the 20^th. Nothing like hitting the floor running! I have never looked back and am kicking myself for not making the move sooner. I work from home, no commute, some travel and work with some great people. For the most part, I have been only traveling to Canada and Utah on a regular basis. A new program I over see had me going to India and may add a potential customer in Columbia and one in northern Italy. Hate to see that happen. Also the other project I over see will take me to NYC, England and more than likely Northern California.

Last, I’m sure I didn’t mention Alexis’ mother and I were separated for quite some time. I was in no hurry to re-marry so never pushed for the divorce but finally got the paperwork completed in December of 1996. I wandered through relationships and always had those commitment issues. I dated some wonderful people but could never seal the deal and truthfully I had issues from childhood that needed to be dealt with before I could let anyone really in, if you know what I mean. Yes there was therapy involved but doesn’t everyone need a little??? Well it’s always a little hard to say but these days it is becoming more and more common I met the love of my life over the internet. I saw her first on match.com and saw her again on myspace. I never published my profile I just read a lot of profiles. Hers stood out of the crowd and we started posting emails on myspace. We hit it off and had so much in common. The truth of the matter is I had never met anyone like Diane. Her love for her children, family and friends were like no other. She has the biggest heart and as a single mother she deserves mother of the year. Luckily, her heart had enough room left for me and Alexis too. I am the luckiest man on this earth to have met and married such a wonderful woman (Oct. 24, 2008). My only wish is that we would have met sooner so we could have had a beautiful little Mexican baby but we are both too old to have another. We have four children between us, Josh and Alexis are 18, Jacob 15 and Jordan 13. Diane and I spend most of our evenings at baseball, cross country, soccer, track, and the occasionally award ceremonies. Our kids keep us very, very busy. Our oldest two are headed for college Josh is headed to Washington University and Alexis is headed to DePaul University. We couldn’t be prouder of the two of them. When we aren’t at events with the kids, I play indoor soccer 3 nights a week and Diane rarely misses a game. I couldn’t be happier and feel blessed to have a wonderful wife, great children and a challenging job.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the reunion…

ap
lxpaz@yahoo.com

A plea for more stories....

Well I am pleading for more stories. I ran into a few of the alumni and I was told they wouldn't post their story until I did mine. Darn, them! So I created my story and am posting it soon. I just wanted to give a warning! Its long and may be bordering TMI, but I figure if you don't like it you can always walk away. : ) So on that note I want to say no story is too long or too short. Its just a way to let fellow classmates see what we have been up too for THIRTY YEARS....

Have a great day everyone,

ap
lxpaz@yahoo.com

Meeting notes from April 26th......

Sorry for slacking, here is the meeting notes from the last meeting that Rocky emailed me.

Hi Alex, Lisa & John,

Here's the update on our meeting tonight (Sun,April 26th):

There were 4 of us there: me, John Prazma, Joyce Mangan Heiman, & Beth Worthen Parente. It was great to see all of them and catch up. As fate would have it, John was just there to get a beer and we dragged him into the meeting and now he is one of us!

- Beth is still going to work with her cousin to decorate the hall
- Rocky is going to take care of ordering a carrot cake from MacCarthar's(sp??) Bakery (awesome cake!!)
- John Prazma will make sure the beer situation is taken care of
- Joyce is going to be the treasurer and the checks are going to go to her
- Beth is going to make copies of the invitations once she gets the rough draft from Rocky
- We are going to try to mail out the invitations at least a month before the RSVP deadline which may be July 25th because Ravanelli's needs a one week lead time for the final headcount
- Our next meeting will probably be sometime in mid-June to stuff the envelopes and finalize the planning
- Alex will be asked to mail merge our address list and make mailing labels and name tags if possible
- so far no one has stepped up to do a pre- or post-party such as baseball game, golf or picnic but that may be OK
- We are thinking the hours will be 6 - 11:30 pm, with 6-7 pm socializing, 7-8:30 pm eating, 8:30 - 11:30 pm band/dancing
- we may do a 50/50 drawing to raise money to offset cost
- considering $35 / person cost based on 150 people, if we have more and make more money we can add more alcoholic drinks or something
- We may consider providing a maximum of 2 kegs of beer which is around $300 and if we run out then everyone can use the cash bar
- sodas/water will be provided
- Lisa is getting Ravanelli's to cater the event and the possible menus are online at http://www.ravanelliscatering.com/contact_us.aspx
- We will need make sure that we have a PA system available to us possibly through the band and that everyone will be able to hear announcements
- dress will be Business Casual

Well, it's late and that's all I can think of right now. Everything seems to be going well and I believe this will be our best reunion yet. Thanks for everyone's help!!! Rocky

Mark Whitehead - Mary (Earney) Whitehead

Dear Classmates,

My name is Mark Whitehead and I have been remembered mostly as “that guy who married Mary Earney”. Mary and I have two grown children. Our son Scott is a manager at Pepsi Americas, and our daughter Emily teaches high school English and is working on her master’s degree in English. We also have a daughter-in-law and son-in-law. Scott’s wife, Jane, is a stay at home mom and has a photography business part-time. Emily’s husband Bill is a lawyer.

We have been blessed with two granddaughters, Ava who is four and Audrey who is two. Ava is sugar and spice, Grandpa’s little princess. Audrey is rough and tumble. Her first words were “Go Irish!” She will help you with your tools and she will “fix” things for you.

Mary has worked at Ameren for 24 years. Her hobbies are baking, spending time with our children, their spouses, and grandchildren, listening to music, and embroidering baby quilts. She also volunteers for the St. Patrick’s Center casserole dinner program through our parish, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.

I worked for 27 years as a structural draftsman (less five years that I worked for American Water Works) and retired in November 2006 due to health issues. On January 7^th, 2007 at 10:30 in the morning we were told that I have Parkinson’s Disease. I kind of knew it already, I could not control the shaking in my right hand.

Today, with the help of Mary, of course, and a drug called Levadopa, I live comfortably with my illness. Most days the drugs work well and I play my guitar, and draw renderings of buildings and houses. I also draw portraits. (Directed motion and muscle tension stops PD tremors.) I’m lucky.

My artwork is for sale (more on that on my Facebook page) with all profits going to the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, St.Louis chapter. St. Louis APDA

We still live in Granite City, along with our Golden Retriever, Gabriel, in a condo, so I don’t have home maintenances issues. We have been together since our first date in November 1978.