What fills my Hours; As a retiree: I enjoy catch-and-release bass fishing as well as doing yardwork and home maintenance chores. While fishing I’ve enjoyed seeing wildlife including otters, beaver, bobcats, muskrats, mink, groundhogs, deer, osprey, eagles, trumpeter swans, loons, pheasants, turkeys, and numerous other small birds. I also like to watch Cubs baseball and Blackhawks hockey. I used to enjoy hunting until most of the habitat was cleared to produce more corn (about half of it) for ethanol. My shooting skills were enhanced during college while aiming at and occasionally hitting a pigeon while following John Cobb around and tagging along with Paul Bogaard west of town. Lois and I also enjoy travel. We’ve visited all 50 states and 13 foreign countries. We also enjoy walking on the trails around Lake Red Rock and have done some bike riding on various central IA trails. We also enjoy bird watching at Red Rock (especially the hundreds of eagles in winter plus lots of white pelicans) and other species in our own backyard.

Family/Children; We have 2 children. Our son Justin (Central class of 96) and spouse Jessica live in Albany, NY. Justin is a computer network engineer for a NY state agency. Daughter-in-law Jessica Salmon is a college professor at Sienna College teaching business courses. Our daughter Ellie is Global Head of Digital Acceptance at Discover Financial. She previously led a team responsible for implementing computer chip cards and is now leading a team working on worldwide web acceptance of Discover cards. By the way, Lois’ mother and father both attended Central.
After Central; Lois and I were married in June right after I graduated. Fellow Phi Delt Tom Patterson was my Best Man and Phi Delt Knight Wells was a Groomsman in the wedding. After Central we stayed in Pella while Lois continued and graduated from Central in the class of ’68. In January of ’68, Uncle Sam invited me to visit Ft. Leonard Wood. 24 months later, I returned to Pella (after spending some time in South Korea and declining numerous invitations to re-up). During the years BK (before kids), we rode our horses around the area and generally enjoyed living in a small town. Later, Lois got a master’s degree in library science and worked as technical services librarian at Central. Meanwhile, I went to work at what was then Rolscreen Company – later known as Pella Corp. At Pella Corp., I had various responsibilities in the purchasing group and later worked in supplier quality.
Phi Delta Tau Memories; Life in the house was terrific with a great group of friends, parties, Valentines dance, decorating for homecoming, pigeon shooting, etc. One particularly memorable night after a Phi Delt party west of town, I got my car stuck on the edge of the road. Rick Fairlamb gave Lois and me a ride to her house where we woke up her dad to help me retrieve my car. On the way, he said he got his car stuck while dating Lois’ mom. Lois’ grandpa came with a team of horses to pull out the Model T. Luckily, that family tradition didn’t continue with our son at Central.