Just when I think the search for alumni is running out of
steam, more people suddenly appear! The word is spreading, alumni are locating other
alumni and the effort continues to gain momentum. Mini-reunions are connecting people
face to face. Be sure to check out the latest reunion pictures and stories at http://www.gutech.com/asm. March reunited Vikki
Mortensen Regier '65 and Sergio (Dennis) Cerda '64 in San Diego. San Francisco may be the
site of a 60s reunion in April, reuniting among others, four from 1969. Henry Sanz and
Ricardo Daugherty are busy planning a 60s Reunion for Miami in August.
From Carlos Lara '69 (San Francisco, CA):
Well yours truly went off to St. Bonaventure for 4 mad cap years. I had the best of
times there. I switched majors 5 times (school record) and still made graduation in 4
years! I liked living in a small upstate town so much that I stayed there for 1 1/2 years
and truly became a "townie". Life was simple back then, and all there was was a
simple job, meeting with friends over beers and playing guitars into the night. As much as
I like the life, I felt the yearning to DO something with myself, so I went to grad school
and got an MBA in International Finance. That was intense studying to say the least but I
managed a near 4.0 and still managed to party away the 2 1/2 years living on campus.
I subsequently got a job at RCA in Manhatten as a finance analyst and then moved to
another position as petroleum export manager for a petro chemical firm. After nearly eight
years of dealing with the subways and the then nastiness of living in the City, a friend
and I pack up our things and drove cross-country to San Francisco. I had vacationed in
California a year earlier and one weekend here was enough to make me want to move out
here.
I became a beach bum for one year, got a motorcycle (of course) and after my parents
visited a few times they suggested we invest in an ongoing business that I would run, and
my Dad help with the accounting. They moved here two years later and live 20 miles south
of me. My sister also lives here in nearby San Jose. We came upon a small company that
made slides for presentations. We bought the company and I learned the business from
scratch. I hated computers at first but have learned to work with them. We started with
only one and now have over 20! Ten years later we are still successfully in business, and
the only game in town as I bought out another firm and another one is closing up. I have 7
employees (7 headaches) and we all scurry around meeting deadlines for jobs and dealing
with the never-ending hassles with computers and printers and film processors. Every day
is different and challenging. The hours are long, but I really enjoy the work, my
employees and being my own boss. We are introducing a new and unique 3D stereoscopic
printing process that we will launch at two or three conventions this year and we expect
it to take off and, maybe, just maybe, I can buy myself a sailboat to enjoy here on the
Bay.
I finally moved from being a renter to a house owner, a few years back and find myself
strapped to endless house chores, but it is nice and no more dealing with neighbors on the
other side of the wall.
I have two very sweet little girls, a 5 year old Boxer and a 4 year old Airedale who
chain me, and my heart, to their every need.
So here I am, rather nicely settled and astounded how fast time flies by.... I will
email you a photo. I've changed just a little, well maybe a lot. Anyway I am glad we are
back in touch. If you do make it up to San Francisco, let me know!
Carlos can be reached at: carlos_94133@yahoo.com
From Al Schlundt '69 (Montgomery, Alabama):
Just a quick note to thank you once again for all of the hours you put in to keep us
informed. I am encouraged to see continued expansion of the list of '69ers. I keep
wracking my brain to find a clue as to where some of the others may be. Maybe if I keep
hitting my head against a brick wall ...
As soon as classes are out in May I'll be heading to Honduras to visit some critical
sites where Mitch hit very hard. Our school has a summer program to develop the skills of
college kids in the area of international relief. This is the first opportunity there has
been for me to be involved with a Latin American project. I am really looking forward to
be back there again.
I'll be at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) again this summer on the beach at Cocoa. This
time I'll be in charge of college kids doing Space Biology and Flight projects which will
link me much closer than last summer to the future programs of the shuttles and the
International Space Station. I'll be there from early June until late July but not long
enough to be able to make the Miami reunion. Maybe I'll send a video. Take care everyone.
Write.
Al can be reached at alschlun@faulkner.edu
From Jamie Kevlin '69 (Pottsville, PA):
John Cabrera and wife, Philippa, visited last weekend [Feb 27/28]. He had brought her
to the states (New York) for the first time to celebrate her 40th birthday. Good time.
John and I realized we'd been friends for 33 years -- hard to believe -- since ASM was at
Doctor Fleming. John has been in banking in the Middle East and England; he is now with
Gulf International Bank of Bahrain, working in London. He may get the chance to go back to
Bahrain, (the family had to leave in a hurry during Operation Desert Storm), but is a bit
reluctant to uproot sons (ages 14 and 11) right now. We hiked on the Appalachian Trail,
took a spin through Amish country, but the main agenda of the weekend was talk and laughs.
Highpoint for John was having breakfast in an actual American country diner, just like on
TV! Even scrapple ("the remains of the pig, ground up and fried") didn't dim the
luster. -- Best to you and all, Jamie
Jamie can be reached at kevlin@pottsville.infi.net
From Jim Karna '68 (Houston, TX)
I talked with former ASM English instructor, Larry Hawkins, today [March 26],
by telephone. He is doing well. He is married, has three daughters and works for a
training/management consultant company. He lives in Rockport, MA.
He told me that Robert Stocker (another former ASM English teacher) died in an accident
several years ago. I was sorry to hear that.
I mentioned that the Sixties people were planning a reunion in Miami in August. He said
that he would love to attend. Please put him on the mailing list for any future reunion
information. [Larry does not have email yet, but Jim or Michelle can forward his snail
mail address and phone number.]
Jim can be contacted at: jkarna@aramco.com or
owlntex@aol.com
From Bruce Henry Leitman '67 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
I don't usually wade around in the past, this is so strange, but I'm going to try
and play along with it for a while for the mental exercise, let's see what happens. I'm
wary because I am of the firm conviction that we will evolve and live many different lives
here on Earth, as long as one is willing to bury the past, no matter how good the memories
or even wonderful as far as I'm concerned. It's just so easy to indulge in reminiscences
and lose out on something, which is better still: the present. Plus the fact that I'm
still busy making and recognizing mistakes, which makes any bio a constant anachronism. So
first of all, after reading the messages of several classmates on three random editions of
Voice of the Sixties over the Net, I have come to the conclusion that I messed up my
graduation year. Since I vividly remember Peggy Danos, Conchita, Robert Zimmerman (to name
a few), and Coke Caram (sigh!!), as my classmates, I must have been class of '67.
That was easy to forget because I never actually graduated from high school, but
managed to go straight on to university and complete three years of economics before they
found out and asked me to go back and get a diploma, at which point I just quit. I was
bored anyway and already had a solid career going. I'm still a musician, I have a few
records out of my own under the name Bruce Henry, my own production company and record
label, all extremely independent and jazz and all that non lucrative stuff. Lately I've
been leaning more into classical performance and my next release will be piano and bass
duo, specializing in Brazilian composers, highly prestigious and self-indulging and
probably even less lucrative. Let's face it, the fastest way to success is tight leather
trousers and an electric guitar suggestively strung somewhere down near the pelvic
area......
Hell this bio is all backwards, back up: I play double bass, not electric bass like I
did back in Vallecas and those sleazy little dance clubs around Madrid when I was 14,
before MTV and colour TV when stage lights were a couple of 60W light bulbs painted over,
and there was a dirt dance floor where the maids and the cab drivers mooched, smooched,
and shuffled to our cool groove and simple harmonies. Things are much more complicated now
and I even pay taxes, tuitions, and stuff like that. After living in Madrid since 1958
(1959?), I left Spain in '65 or '66 and came to live in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), where I
still reside. Spent some time in London early 70s, California for a few years late 70s,
and I've been back here ever since 1979. I've worked as a carpenter, a roadie, as a
sailor, a barman, built my own house, written songs, published a few newspaper articles,
etc.. I've hummed, strummed and plucked my way thru a myriad of different musical
adventures, big bands, combos, trios, orchestras, Rock and Roll, Jazz, Bossa Nova, and
I've played with everybody from Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, and Harvie Mason, thru
Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, etc.. (This is getting boring but now I have to finish
this).
In a nutshell, I've been busy. I go back to Madrid and the south of Spain quite a bit
(twice last year). In January '99, I performed at St. Martin in the Fields in London and
then proceeded to take a two week trip around Madrid, Almeria and Andalucia with my son
who met me in London. This takes us to children, family.....Was married for around 20
years before we both moved on after bringing up two kids, son of 21 living in California,
daughter of 16 living here in Rio. We have a small hotel and a bar outside Rio (town
called Búzios), which I haven't personally run for several years but which kept me very
busy for well over a decade, and was featured in all of the guides books on South America
in the 80s as "the cool place in town with live jazz".
Anyway, this has been fun but I just looked at my watch and must run. If you're still
at all curious and want to see something cool that I do NOW, which is all that really
matters, go to
http://www.domain.com.br/clientes/steven/projects.html
Gotta run, always in a hurry when in Rio. Hope to hear from you all.
[Ed. note: If you want to read Bruce's entry with the pacing of one from Rio, just
make the above one long paragraph, as Bruce submitted it to me. I inserted the breaks
because it was bit too faced paced me! Even I take a breath every once in awhile! ]
Bruce can be contacted at: bruce@domain.com.br
From Kris Anderson '66 (Anchorage, AK):
I've just got off the "Voice of the Sixties" pages you've written about the
ASM. My stomach is in a knot, it has brought back so many memories, some good, others
...well, not so good. Those were turbulent times in my personal home life. Had I graduated
from the ASM I would have been in the class of '66, although I did not graduate from the
ASM, I attended in 1962 and 1963. Of course it was at the Dr. Fleming address, I believe
it was number 37, a few steps up and you were in our then very small school. Although
those were hard times in my life, I loved those days with a passion, they were the best of
my life.
I don't know if anyone will remember me, or want to for that matter. I was sort of a
loner and I was not a very good student at that time, nor did I have many social graces.
If anyone does remember me it would be because I was the kid from "Alaska", sort
of a novelty in those days. And, at that time I spoke fluent Spanish (still do ..) and
acted more like a Spaniard than an American. I arrived in Spain in 1960.
I am thrilled to have found your pages, I hope that maybe, just maybe, someone might
remember me ... I have difficulty remembering many of my classmates, but I remember a few.
And, I remember only one teacher, I believe she taught Spanish, an American woman who had
lived in Cuba - can't remember her name. I am so glad to know that you guys are out there,
and reading about how successful you all are! I am thrilled!
For the record, my name is: Kristian N. Anderson. I've always gone by Kris. I am
originally from Kodiak, Alaska and now live in Anchorage, Alaska. I was married in
Barcelona to a lovely lady from Alicante, in 1969. We have three adult children. We visit
Spain every so often.
I am the executive director of a non-profit company and live comfortably. Our company
is called: Alaska's People, Inc. (our website is under construction). We are a Native
American employment referral agency a part of the Cook Inlet region, Inc. Tribe. I am the
executive director of this tribal non-profit. I am 1/4 Alaska Native (Aleut) sufficient to
be considered a Tribal Member. We assist people in getting employed, we average about 100
placements per month. Our corporation has holdings all over the country, Calif., Nevada
(we're building a hotel/casino with Hyatt International). Anyway, it's interesting.
I would love to hear from you and anyone else who would care to correspond. I don't
know if I was ever in a yearbook, or for that matter if in '62 & '63 we even had
yearbooks! I used to spend all of my extra time around the corner from the school in that
bar - Remember that place?
Thanks!! I am very emotional at this moment. This has brought back so many, many
memories. Thank you. I needed this! Please get back to me. - Kris (Anchorage, Alaska )
Kris can be contacted at: kanderson@citci.com
From Barry Miller '64 (Chandler, Arizona):
I'm sorry it has taken me so long to respond to your welcoming post. March was a very
busy month for me! My younger brother Ron was instrumental in getting me in touch with ASM
on line and I thank him for that. He forwarded email to me from the group and when I saw
Dennis and Omer's names (as well as others) I knew it was time, after some 37 years, to
renew ties that were very special to me. As you can imagine, we were a small but pretty
close-knit group during those first two years of ASM's existence. We were in a new school
in a strange country not knowing quite what to expect. The facilities were spartan on Dr.
Fleming, but the teachers and staff were dedicated to providing the charter students with
the best education possible and, I believe, succeeded admirably in that endeavor. Well,
whatever "trauma" there was in our situation soon disappeared as we settled into
and got comfortable with the great journey that was about to unfold.
I attended ASM from 1961 to 1963 (Sophomore and Junior years) and was active in sports.
Omer Pirinccioglu, et al, taught me the finer points of soccer on the empty dirt field
across the street from the school. I was outclassed from the beginning, to say the least!
Just as we had become accustomed to and indeed enjoying the Spanish way of life, our
family was relocated to Geneva where I graduated from The International School Of Geneva
in 1964. Oddly enough, my first day at school there had a Madrid/ASM connection...in the
hallway I ran into David Rowe who had taught at ASM (Geometry & Chemistry, I believe)
those first years. Unbeknownst to me, he had accepted a teaching position in Geneva.
Upon graduation, I returned to the States and attended Colorado College and the
University Of Findlay (Ohio). I entered the business world in 1969 working for Cooper Tire
and Rubber Co. for the next eight years. On weekends I played guitar in a rock band and in
1977 I had an opportunity to do this as a full-time profession. For the next six years I
played in a group and travelled around the Mid-West, South and parts of the Southwest
doing club dates and stage shows. It was sometimes grueling, sometimes frustrating, but
almost always it was fun and rewarding (not necessarily in the financial sense) seeing new
places and meeting new faces. In 1987 I decided it was time to retire my guitar pick and
think more of the future.
I have three grown sons and in 1987 married Michelle. We moved to the Phoenix area in
1988 where I joined the Revlon Corp. as Manager of Order Processing Systems (Revlon's
largest manufacturing and Distribution/
Customer Logistics groups are located here). Michelle and I have two wonderful
daughters (ages 10 and 8) and enjoy our life in the Sonoran Desert very much.
Michelle, thanks again for your welcoming message and I look forward to hearing from
you and the ASM "old-timers"...and yes, I'm hoping I can attend some of the
upcoming functions that may be planned for the SoCal group.
Barry can be reached at Milbeem@aol.com
From Lynne (Leitman) Benckendorff '63 (London, England):
ASM was the fourth American high school I attended in Spain. The first was called the
North American School and it was there I skipped 8th grade, from the five pupil junior
high to the nine pupil high school. After I graduated from ASM I did a one year course in
Hispanic Studies at the University of Madrid and also took some drawing classes. We moved
to Brazil. I then went to the University of Michigan for a math degree but didn't finish.
After that I sailed from Rio de Janeiro to England in a 36' gaff-rigged cutter (no motor,
no radio). I began to work in antiques, then hitchhiked around South America and sailed
from Tahiti to New Caledonia where I lived for awhile. I returned to England then Rio and
imported English clothes and antiques. I went to Great Britain. to establish a small
business importing gemstones from Brazil. I got married, went to Brazil and taught
English. Had a son. Started a bicycle rental business in the beach resort town of Buzios.
Separated from husband and went to Great Britain via New York for a short visit on my way
to settle in the United States, but still in London after 17 years: reunited with husband.
Second child a daughter. Helped establish first (parent-run, non-profit) Montessori
Elementary school in London. Currently painting a series based on an Almodovar film.
Lynne can be contacted at: bencks@aol.com
From Aurelio Cancio '63 (Miami, FL):
[Ref. March 1999 Voice of the Sixties -- Web Page loading]
There is a program that I use called Netsonic Pro, which will help you with this
situation. This program will load the pages from the cache, but at the same time in the
background it will check to see if the page has been modified since your last visit. If it
has, it will refresh it automatically. It will also preload links in the pages you visit
and store them in the cache, so it will load real fast if you decide to go to that link.
It will speed up your navigation through the Net. I use it with Netscape 4.5 and Opera
3.51 and it works perfect.
A.J. Cancio (Wolfie) can be reached at: ajcancio@bellsouth.net
From Steve Shepard '72 Decade Liaison Seventies:
[Ref. Voice of the Sixties, March 1999 -- Lost Mail]
First of all, in almost all cases, one of you (sender or receiver) will receive an
error message in the event of a failure to deliver an e-mail message. That's just the way
the Net works. It's extremely rare -- almost never, in fact -- that messages fail to be
delivered without some kind of notification. My guess is that the mail server on the
recipient's end is either set to discard mail after some number of tries (although even
that usually generates an error message), or the person is not checking their e-mail
frequently and their ISP is dumping mail after some number of days/weeks.
[Ref. March 1999 Voice of the Sixties -- Web Page loading]
As far as the "old pages" loading problem goes, one way around that is to go
up to the top of the screen and push the "refresh" button. That will cause the
most current page to be downloaded from the site.
Steve can be contacted at s.shepard@hill.com
From Agustín Gonzalez '83 Decade Liaison Eighties:
[Ref. Voice of the Sixties -- Lost Mail and Web Page loading]
I agree with Steve's comments about returned mail - depending on the ISP and how they
report their errors - some may be more detailed than others. AOL does a good job in
explaining why messages have failed.
The "cache" - usually get's resolved by "refreshing" the page with
the "new" web page currently being downloaded replacing the previous page in the
cache. But, at times you may need to kill the files manually. On some browsers such as
Netscape and Explorer you can specify an "auto-cache" flush.
Gus can be reached at: asm@gutech.com
From Michelle Mock '69 Decade Liaison Sixties:
[Ref. Voice of the Sixties, March 1999 -- Lost Mail]
I am still having difficulties with emails sent to Jim Karna. I recently received two
which had floated around somewhere in cyberspace for nearly a month before being returned
to me. No comprendo.
[Ref. Voice of the Sixties, March 1999 -- Web Page Loading]
The reload button in AOL (4.0 with MSIE) does not always load the "new" page.
In order to delete the temporary cache files I needed to exit AOL, delete the folders and
then reload AOL and sign on again. This presented a real problem when Gus was updating
pages and asking me to check them out (in real time during an IM session). I launched
Netscape and found that I could reload the pages in Netscape and that would allow me to go
back to AOL and reload the proper page without exiting the program.
[Ref. Voice of the Sixties, March 1999 -- Hotmail problems]
For AOL users: As I mentioned before, Hotmail is not the only email provider that
delivers heartburn. AOL 4.0 recently gave me some email problems. I was online and had
several open incoming messages when I decided to log off and free up my phone line. When I
tried to find the emails in my "Personal Files", they had disappeared. I have no
idea where they went. Fortunately, I was able to go to "Old Mail" and locate
copies of the messages. I was able to duplicate this "problem", and now I make
sure I close the files before signing off. I suspect the problem will also occur if AOL
times out and logs me off (it also occurs if I switch screen names).
For those of you not on AOL: I just found out how easy it is for you to get AOL Instant
Messenger and send IMs to others using AOL. Go to http://www.aol.com
to download Instant Messenger or get more information on it. The service is free.
Michelle can be contacted at: MFeareyASM@aol.com
From Jasmine Baggins to all ASMers:
[This is from an email that was sent to all Class Agents.]
I am pleased to announce that the ASM GoLancers Home Pages (previously know as the
"Unofficial Web Pages of the American School of Madrid") now have their own
Domain Name.
