Class of 1965

Class of 1965 Reunion Notes Robert (Bob) Keith Alspach ’65 After 35 years of teaching Junior High/Middle School science, I happily retired in 2001. Since then, I have been doing as much traveling, particularly cruising, as possible. Two highlights of my travels have been the maiden Asia/Pacific cruise aboard Holland America’s Volendam in 2002 and my 2008 Grand World Voyage aboard the Amsterdam. New Zealand, Australia, China, India, and Italy are countries that I hope to make a return visit. *Update taken from 2010 Alumni Today Directory William (Bill) Edward Artz ’65 I owe a large debt of gratitude to Ohio Wesleyan for allowing me the opportunity to receive a college education when most other colleges told me no. Since graduating OWU, I attended law school in Washington, DC, and have been engaged in the practice of law for the last forty years. My practice is devoted to trial work focusing exclusively on representing the interests of patients and/or their families who have sustained brain damage or death as a result of medical negligence. In 2005 I was privileged to be invited to join the Inner Circle of Advocates, a national organization limited to the top 100 plaintiff’s attorneys in the country. On another note, I have continued to pursue my tennis interests since OWU days, competing in 1995 in Buenos Aires in the Pan Am Maccabi Games (silver metal winner in singles) and in 2001 in Tel Aviv in the Maccabi World Games (bronze metal singles and silver in doubles). I’ve been married for thirty-three years to my patient and tolerant wife, Cherie, and we have one daughter, Rachel, age twenty-seven. Cherie is an attorney and has been retired for a few years, focusing her life on volunteer charity work, golf, bridge and our daughter Rachel. Rachel received her college degree in Anthropology/Archaeology from the University of Arizona. She is now residing in the Washington metropolitan area (thankfully) and is pursuing an education in nursing. *Update taken from 2010 Alumni Today Directory Donna (Mycock) Bigger ’65 I lived, worked, and traveled for three years in Japan, then seven in Germany before settling in the Rochester, NY, area. My son Christopher was born in my hometown of Niagara Falls, NY, during our approximately three months visit there, between Japan and Germany. For many years I worked for the Livingston County Office of Workforce Development in Geneseo, NY, as a career counselor. I am working almost as much as before doing almost the same job for another Workforce Investment Act service provider in the same area. I do enjoy the work, but I find I am quite tired when I get home. I still keep my hand in music a bit by singing in the SUNY Geneseo Festival Chorus, a group of college students and local citizens. We usually do two concerts of a major work or choruses a year, Spring and Fall semesters. My son now lives with me and is a full-time student at St. John-Fisher College majoring in journalism/communications. He is a senior this year, but I think he is in for the long haul. He will probably teach at the college level in media literacy. He has already assisted a mentor in editing a textbook on the subject. I do manage to keep in touch with Ohio Wesleyan a bit too, being an Alumni Admissions volunteer. *Update taken from 2010 Alumni Today Directory Sara Driesbach Brannen ’65 We (Sally Driesbach Brannen and Herb Brannen, Class ’65) have been retired from teaching and dentistry for a number of years. We spend summers and winters at our home in the mountains of northern California. We live on the Sea of Cortez in Baja Mexico in the spring and fall. Both locations offer outstanding outdoor activities which we enjoy immensely. We also travel a good deal. The most recent trip was to Africa with OWU friends, Jim and Sue Petri Locke. Our remaining time is devoted to enjoying our family, especially the three grandchildren. Frederick Styles Breimyer ’65 Ohio Wesleyan was a surprise. It wasn’t even on the schedule of colleges to visit when my father and I set out on this quest. Education, though, involves serendipity as well as planning, and my father’s sister lived just outside Columbus. So it began with an unscheduled stop on a Saturday morning in light rain. Now, almost fifty years later, it appears to have been particularly fortuitous. More than an education, it supplied grounding—a perspective on the life to come and appreciation of the possibilities. I, as many others, followed a path to a professional career. A Ph.D. from Northwestern University followed, and with that in hand I was able to shape a career I could both enjoy and be proud of. I am still at it. Personal life, as is most often the case, has had ups and downs. Divorce was the big down; children prior to the divorce, the big up. Three children, Elizabeth, Lauren and Paul, each now married, and three grandchildren (and counting) provide much pleasure, as does my wife, Adele Langevin. Retirement will come, but that is a term, not a condition. What I will do with/in retirement is unknown. Then, again, I didn’t know I would stop by and find my way to Ohio Wesleyan. Life provides both the questions and, if one listens softly, often the answers. *Update taken from 2010 Alumni Today Directory Russell V. Brown ’65 In 2007 I retired after 32 years teaching Spanish at Muskingum University. I keep busy with part-time teaching and editing, singing in several choruses, volunteering at a local food pantry, and as a docent at the John and Annie Glenn Historic Site in New Concord, Ohio. My wife Karen (Colby ’65) retired from her Spanish teaching position at Ohio University Zanesville in 2006. We make time for travel to Spain, the American West, and to visit family in New York, Virginia and Wisconsin. Nancy Bates Busse ’65 I haven’t been to a reunion since my 15th in 1980. The short version of those 30 years; I worked in association publishing until I retired in 2008. My husband Jim and I have five grandchildren, ranging in age from 5 to 13. We will move to South Carolina within the next two years to get away form the traffic and snow of the D.C. area, although we love it here for many other reasons. I’m learning to oil paint, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. For those of you not yet retired, I recommend it! Bruce Lawrence Cook ’65 After a career teaching with Columbia College, DeVry, and Keller, plus working in marketing for Chicago Sun-Times, I now work with emerging authors on my websites: Author-Me.com, Reserve-Books.com, InnisfreePoetry.org, and Enskyment.org. Also, I’m continuing my family’s traditional role in religious publishing by maintaining my website WorldSundaySchool.com with free weekly graded lessons for underprivileged churches, internationally. I have a wonderful family with my wife, Eileen, who just endured two knee-replacement surgeries. My son Calico is webmaster at Bastyr College, Seattle; Downers Grove, IL, Helen teaching 7th grade in a local school; and Bruce an accountant at Ahlbeck in Des Plaines, IL. Our beagle doggie, Pumpkin, is always eager to make new friends. *Update taken from 2010 Alumni Today Directory Sandra Decker ’65 I just returned from Portland, Oregon, where I attended my daughter’s graduation from Oregon College of Oriental Medicine. This was a three-year Master’s program. My son and his girlfriend were there from Seattle, and a few other friends and relatives flew in for the occasion. It was a very enjoyable reunion. *Update taken from 2010 Alumni Today Directory Jeffrey Peter Dippel ’65 There are currently two prominent passages in my life: my son Zephyr just started college at Philadelphia University; and sadly, my wife Ellen has just died from pancreatic cancer at age 52. I am proud and hopeful for my son, and shocked and devastated by the passing of my wife. Zephyr and I are forging ahead, assuming that Ellen is at peace, while we continue to do what would have pleased her with our lives. In spite of arthritis and heart condition, I plan to be as creative and supportive as is possible as an artist and parent. And Everet Haycock is still my favorite teacher. *Update taken from 2010 Alumni Today Directory Carol Drury ’65 I can’t imagine giving up private practice so am currently doing it part time. The remainder of the time I travel with my husband and grandchildren, having just returned from taking the grandkids to Brazil and the Amazon, and my husband and I just got back from an extended trip to Turkey, Greece, and Italy. While at home I spend some time doing wildlife and parrot rescue. Life is good! *Update taken from 2010 Alumni Today Directory Andres Duarte ’65 I have taken a beating in business, as Hugo Chavez doesn’t like me—so I decided to go back to Grad School and in March `09 finished M.A. degree in international relations at Fletcher School of Diplomacy, Tufts University. This surely compliments my past M.S. in Geology, and I turned out to be the oldest alum in Fletcher. Now back in Caracas working and hoping the bubble will burst and drown Chavez. In 2006 I was honored to be named a life trustee at OWU, and I also was named Director of Transparency International NGO chapter in Venezuela.

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