Atherton High School

Class of 1956

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Reunion 2006

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The Year 1956

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William Baer Portland, Oregon wbbaer@comcast.net

After we graduated in 1956 I went off to college at MIT. I studied electrical engineering and graduated in 1960. I had become aware that engineering was not really the field I wanted and returned to the University of Louisville for a year and took premed courses. I went to medical school at the University of Louisville and graduated in 1965. My internship was served in Syracuse New York at the University Hospital there. Shortly after moving to Syracuse I met and later married Joan Teckler. She had graduated from Syracuse University at the same time as I graduated from medical school. I spent another year there in surgery residency and then went off to serve my military obligation with the U.S. Air Force. I was stationed in San Antonio, Texas and assigned to Brooks Air Force Base, a medical research facility. While I was there, Joan died in 1968 at only 25 years of age. We had no children. I was transferred to Hamilton Air Force Base in California where I served the rest of my tour as a squadron flight surgeon. At the end of my military tour I found a residency in ophthalmology in Portland, Oregon and moved there in the fall of 1969. I completed my residency in the fall of 1972 and began practice with another physician who was established and who had been seeking an associate. We practiced together until his retirement 15 years later. I have practiced solo since.

In the spring of 1976 I met Sydney through mutual friends. We were married at the end of 1976. Our children are Allison, born in 1980 and Louis, born in 1982. She is a fine arts graduate of the University of Oregon and works in interior architecture in Portland. Louis graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2005. He moved to Washington, DC to work around government and gain experience. He plans to attend law school in the next year or so. Neither of our children is married and there are not yet grandchildren.

Bill and Sydney enjoy bike riding in beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon.

Louis' graduation from Washington University.

Louis and Allison Baer

Harriet Baron Dunski Chesterfield, Missouri

After graduation I attended Indiana University for 2 ½ years, but graduated from U of L. I worked for 6 years as a dental hygienist while “hubby”, Neil, worked on his PhD in chemistry. In 1969 we moved to Charleston, W. VA, where Neil worked as a research chemist. Our two daughters, Sharon and Michelle, were born there. In 1972 we moved to St. Louis, MO, where Neil accepted another position as a research chemist. After our children were born, I stayed home to “play Mommy”. When the girls reached high school I went back to work part time for friends/neighbors, who produced Customer Service Training videos; which we sold to “Corporate America.” I stayed there 10 years. We have two darling granddaughters, Hannah and Jordyn. Neil and I have been married 43 years.

Neil still works, but will retire in August. We’ve taken some nice trips, including 6 to Israel. I love to read, going to estate and house sales and talking to every dog I meet here and abroad. (And I’ve never been bitten.) Our granddaughters are also dog lovers. I’ve been blessed with a good life. I wish all of my classmate’s health and happiness, and I’m looking forward to seeing all of you again at the reunion.

Dottye Sue Benkert Gray Kingsport, Tennessee dbgray@charter.net

After graduating from Atherton and Centre, I married Flint Gray. We moved to Kingsport, Tennessee after graduate school at the University of Florida. Kingsport has been a wonderful place to raise our two sons and one daughter who now live in Atlanta, Clifton, VA and Blowing Rock, NC. We now have 9 adorable grandchildren who we enjoy visiting. Although Kingsport is still our home, we spend time in the winter in Vero Beach, Florida and the summer in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. We enjoy playing a lot of tennis, golf and have traveled a great deal. Time does fly by. I am really looking forward to all the activities at our reunion! DOTTYE BENKERT GRAY

Judy Benovitz Greenberg Louisville, Ky

Besides Wisconsin, I married a wonderful guy, named Norton Greenberg. We have four children: Rick is a lawyer, Jill a housewife (living in St. Louis), John is in charge of all commercial floor contracts at K&I Lumber Co. here in Louisville, and Betsy is a housewife in Indianapolis. We are proud to have "eleven” grandchildren, which includes a set of twin boys. The grandchildren range in age from college to preschool. We adore each and every one of them. They are our lives! ! ! ! Becoming empty nesters has given us the opportunity to cruise and travel to foreign countries, to New York to see Broadway shows, to indulge our passion for sports, and to volunteer for Jewish Hospital. But, for now, Norty isn’t well, and we just reminisce about good times of the last 50 years. (We will be married 49 years in March). I hope every one of you will stay "happy and healthy", always! I miss you guys, and all of the fun we had. JUDY BENOVITZ GREENBERG 2006

Jerrie Berg Barnett Bayview, Ohio jerriebarnett@aol.com

In 1992, I retired from teaching after 30 years in elementary education. I enjoy good health, which I am very thankful for each day. Playing bridge, reading, doing volunteer work, walking, knitting, and spending time with my three grand children keeps me as busy as I want to be. My Bay Village home is a five-minute walk to Lake Erie, and both my stepdaughters and their families live close by. I belong to the Bay Democratic Club and keep active in my local city government. In 1998 I turned 60 and became a widow. Since then I have done little traveling and prefer to stay close to my home. With God’s help, I hope to enjoy many more years of life with my family and friends. JBB 2006

Betty Bersot Bradford Culman, Alabama bettybradford@bellsouth.net

At Florida College, I met and married Dave Bradford, a minister from Birmingham, Alabama, July 3, 1959. Dave and I love working for the Lord. We have lived many places, these being: Bradenton, Florida, 2 years, where our son David was born; Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 3 ½ years, where our daughter Danna was born; Birmingham, Alabama, 3 years, where our daughter Allison was born. Then it was off to Calgary, Alberta Canada for 5 ½ years. We learned to ski there in our 30's in the beautiful, awesome mountains of Banff and Lake Louise. We also camped on Vancouver Island one spring break. We moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee for 2 ½ years and then to Auburn, Alabama, where we lived for 26 years. While there, with a predominantly college age congregation, we built a rugged log house where we could entertain and finished raising our children. We learned to water ski at age 40 and rode a motorcycle for a short time.

Barbara Bizianes Orthman Deceased 2005

Joan Borders Louisville, Kentucky bordersjlb@insightbb.com

After graduating from Atherton I entered U of L’s School of Business in 1956, and graduated in 1989. You’re probably thinking, date wrong, or very slow learner. Well, the date is not wrong. For 26 years I worked in accounting and office management. In the late 70’s, computers came into my life, I was handed the responsibility of purchasing a “mainframe” computer system and then convert the accounting, and inventory control over to the new “system”. My introduction to the “PC” was a two floppy drive mini, with the CP/M operating system (before Microsoft DOS). That was the beginning of my second career. In 1986 I returned to U of L and entered Speed Scientific School. My advisor asked me if I realized I would be competing with all those 20-year-old want-to-be computer geniuses. I had a lot of fun and made several young friends while I was there, my age was never a factor. At age 46, there I was on campus wearing blue jeans and sporting a backpack. I sweated blood with every test (the horrible “TEST” syndrome). I earned an AAS (Associates Applied Science) degree in 1988; with Highest Honors, I’m proud to say. My ultimate goal was Information Management Systems (IMS), so, I then went on and finished up my BS from U of L Business School in 1989. Sysco/Louisville Food Services Co. hired me within weeks of graduation. They were looking for an accountant that could also program. I really enjoyed my 11 years there working in the field I loved.

Cruising October 2004.

Emmalee Bowers Tarry Nashua, New Hampshire EmmaleeT@msn.com EmmaleeTarry.us www.neseabirds.com AHS56.com OakhillNH.com

Update 2011
I am just finishing a second winter in San Diego helping with the grandson who is now almost 2 years old and a handful. I did spend a week on St. Lawrence island off the coast of Alaska and 35 miles from Siberia.  It lived up to expectations but only for a dedicated birdwatcher.  This winter I did the San Diego Zoo.  It is one of the best zoos in the world and I went many times. This will be my last winter in San Diego as I plan to return to being a typical grandmother.  That is  one who comes for short visits and then goes home.

I have been working on a geneology of my Mother's family who  immigrated to the U.S. between 1830 and 1850. This has been an interesting trip, but I can't get anyone in my family to even read what I have found.

The website for my condominium complex has been a big success.  The management company has shaped up and now responds to requests.   We have new employees, new roofs, and a new landscaping company.   The internet is certainly the way to make change as we learned this year in Egypt.    What I did was somewhat less than overthrow a government, but my little effort has been very successful.  I hope Egypt does as well.

Also this year I completed my funeral plans.  I am going to go out with a "Virtual Funeral" on my  web page.  You are all invited and you won't even have to leave home.   A mail message will be sent to every person in my address book inviting them to attend.  It will also probably be the end of AHS56.com.  At this point I look forward to 20 more years.

Update 2010
I am still living in Nashua, NH but spent the winter in San Diego taking care of my new grandson to protect him from H1N1 and other germs at day care.  Hard work anytime, but worse when you are 71 years old.  I have been seeing the sights here and taking ocean birding trips on the weekend.   We live near the Miramar Air Station.  They have a great Y here and I walk there every morning (1/2 mile) and swim.  I plan to spend a week in Alaska on St. Lawrence Island in the Berring Sea in late May and then return to New Hampshire for the summer.  It will be my 6th trip to Alaska.

Back in Nashua in 2009 I got disgusted with the property management company at my condominium so I did what comes naturally to me.  I started a website. See OakhillNH.com  .   An incident in which the outdoors lights in the parking lot were out for a week while the maintenance man blamed it on something outside the complex proved to be the turning point. He was replaced.  Things started to get fixed. Residents complaints are now addressed.  When I read the biography of our new President, I realized that what I am doing is called "Community Organizing" . Its an idea whose time has come.

Other than that I seem to have entered the age of funerals: friends and most recently a young man who worked for me at Digital and died at age 52.  Of course I miss all the funerals because I am not home.

Update 2007
Wandering is over and I am back home in Nashua, NH.  This comes with a change of address and a new telephone number.  (send e-mail)  I plan to spend my summer being a grandmother, swimming, birding and playing the piano again.  The wanderlust is not dead just a bit more under control. It is wonderful to have my own home again.

 I am supporting a bird club in the jungle of Peru with donated binoculars, field guides and a new telescope.  I hope to visit them again soon. The New Hampshire primary season has started and I plan to be in the thick of it. I am wearing a button that says "Boy do we need a change".  It actually came from FDR's first campaign for president and I picked it up at the library in Hyde Park.

During the last three years I visited 49 of 50 states, all the presidential libraries, many national parks and refuges, followed parts of the Oregon Trail and Lewis and Clark, got interested in dinosaurs, mammoths, dinosaur tracks, and Indian Rock Art.  It is a beautiful country.  EBT June 2007

2006

I graduated from U of L, got a masters from Indiana University, married a medical student and worked four years as a teacher in Indianapolis while he finished school and graduated into the Viet Nam War. With our son and daughter, we lived in Bloomington; Indianapolis; El Paso Texas, Honolulu, Hawaii and Newport News, Virginia. Eventually we settled in Columbus, Indiana. In 1978, we went on a medical mission to Kabul, Afghanistan teaching young doctors urology techniques. See my web page for a description of this and other trips.

After the divorce, I went back to IU and got an MBA in business. I worked in Pittsburgh and Boston eventually getting into computers as a data center manager, trainer and application developer. I worked for several companies including Digital Equipment and IBM. For several years I traveled every week teaching software classes. I ended my career as an application developer writing web pages using the Lotus Notes platform for Gillette and Picturetel. Both of my children are married and I have one precious granddaughter.

During the U of L years I was introduced to bird watching by Dr. Harvey Lovell ( father of Eleanor). After my children were grown, I spent most of my disposable income traveling to all seven continents including Antarctica. I am very interested in seabirds and write a web page called New England Seabirds. I give talks to bird clubs and at nature centers on the 24 species of Albatrosses. I maintain several web pages including AHS56.com as a hobby.

Denali National Park Alaska on Primrose Ridge not Mt. McKinley, but I did climb up there. My first of five trips to Alaska.

I retired in 2001 and hit the road full time. I spent the first year in Australia and New Zealand and the second year traveling to 15 countries in Europe. I am now doing 3 years around North America in a camper. I spent the summer of 2005 in Alaska and wintered again in south Texas. I just got back from a birding trip to Mexico and wrote an article for a birding magazine about Mexican birding festivals. Two weeks before the reunion I will travel to Lima, Peru to meet my son's new in-laws, see Machu Picchu and spend a week in the rainforest.

Left exploring Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in the background and above with the camper in which I am now living and seeing America. I have been hit twice in the camper once by a cement mixer and the windshield of the truck has been cracked twice by gravel thrown by trucks. I roll on enjoying cable radio.

Bobby Bryan Tampa, Florida bbtampa3@msn.com

I married Kitty in 1963. We have 3 children, 2 girls and 1 boy. Our youngest daughter had twin girls on May 15, 2004. We are retired and travel, play tennis, golf, bridge, and spend time with the family, mainly our twin granddaughters. I worked for one company my entire business career starting in Louisville with Porter Paints. 39 years later I ended my career as Senior Vice President responsible for Porter Paints' operations for the southeast from Kentucky to Florida. My career moved me from Louisville, Nashville, Atlanta, to Tampa, Florida. BB 2006

Raymond Ballman

Deanna Barnes Burg Leavenworth, Kansas

Frances Bewley Tucker Louisville, Ky

Barbara Bromley Smith New Orleans, La.

I entered U of L in the fall after graduation from Atherton and earned my “M R S” degree in July of 1958 when I married Kay Gibson Smith. After the birth of our son in 1959 we moved to Arkansas where we raised a few quarter horses as a hobby and I learned to fly. In 1969 business took us to Oklahoma where our daughter was born and I became a real estate broker. We moved to the Gulf coast in ’76 and have remained for 30 years in Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. Kay passed away in 1995 and since that time I have earned my EMT-I certification, and I worked as a police dispatcher and 911 operator while working for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Rosalyn Brown Distler Louisville, Ky Deceased June 2, 2010

Joan Burris Spomer Tucson, Arizona

Hello from Tucson, Arizona. Fifty years (wow). Just as soon as graduation was complete, I headed off to be with my new husband in Texas where he was a pro baseball player. We were together for about seven years and had two wonderful children. Dianne and Ric. Made our home in San Diego. Then along came Bob and we were married for seventeen years and had one beautiful daughter, Bobbie Jo. If I had my life to live over, I would pretty much do the same thing, just get out a little sooner. We moved to Tucson.

In 1980, I married the love of my life and soul mate Henry. We just celebrated our 26th together. We have no children but a very precious Yorkie shares our lives. My Henry is a Mason and we do a lot of work with the Masonic Family. Now we are both retired and are professional volunteers. You will like him also. Henry was a Federal Law Enforcement Agent, and I have had many jobs, but no career.

Worked many years for Ma Bell in the business office, school bus driver, and then drove city bus in downtown Tucson. Was in Law Enforcement for ten years, what fun. If I did not enjoy a position I got another one. Life is far to short. We have seven wonderful grand children, two girls and five boys. Ranging from 19 years to 2 years. I am the Vice Queen Mum of our Red Hat Chapter. Want to talk about fun?? JOANIE BURRIS SPOMER

Prissy Buckaway Benford Deceased May 1994 Miami