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After graduation, Pat Lienau ’60 and I got married and went to South Dakota State where we picked up a daughter and a master’s degree in chemistry. The next stop was the University of Arizona, where we gained a son and the knowledge that trying to live on a graduate student’s salary with two children was really quite difficult, so we relocated to Tennessee.

I taught chemistry and physics at Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens, Tenn., for 19 years. We had a second daughter and I got my Ph.D. while we were managing a men’s dormitory for the first nine years. Using my desire for the stage I learned from Mary Gwen Owen, I acted in a few plays while at Wesleyan, the most enjoyable of which portrayed William Jennings Bryan in a reenactment of the Scopes Trial — in the original courtroom — for its 50th anniversary. We were fortunate enough to have some of the original trial participants in the play. The production was filmed by PBS and actually shown in Great Britain.

I did some consulting with local industries and finally reversed roles, going full-time into industry working for the Research and Development Department of Olin Chemicals (yes, the Olin of Olin Science Hall), while teaching part-time. Pat taught in the local elementary school system for most of the time we were in Athens. I retired from Olin after 20 years and we moved to Sun City, Ariz., to help care for elderly parents and be with our oldest daughter.

Since retirement, I have kept busy at genealogy and have recently starting playing bridge as well as volunteering with the local food bank and the genealogy society. My big month for volunteering is March, when I join about 600 other people working in spring training for the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners at the Peoria Stadium. Last year, we raised over $120,000 for children's charities in Peoria and had a lot of fun while doing it.

I wish I could be joining you folks at the reunion, but due to an already overloaded travel schedule this summer (high school graduation of a granddaughter in May, family reunion in July, golden wedding anniversary later in July), Pat and I just will not be able to make it.