Harry Minniear

So far Adam and his wife, Chin Chin, have blesses me with two beautiful grandchildren, a grandson Jedidiah and a grandaughter Joelle.

Well, Tim finally got with the program. He and his wife, Gaby, just had a little boy, Peter, the end of September.

I retired in July 2007, and have enjoyed my retirement quite a bit. It is a wonderful feeling to walk away from the stress of work. During the Market slump in 2008, I started a retirement gig teaching for AT&T. That lasted until 2016. I really enjoyed the job because it kept me in touch with current technology, and I enjoyed helping new hires get started in their careers.

By now I am well settled into retirement, and can't believe that it has been nearly eleven since retiring in July 2017.

Hopefully, the future holds many years of sailing and traveling.

It is now 2018, and where has the time gone? I'm still enjoying my retirement and wondering how I ever found time to work.

Post

Southeastern

Prescott Junior High, Prescott, AZ 1964

Davenport University

I just remember the many friends that I had, and wish that I had done a better job reconnecting with them after returning to Michigan after four years in the Air Force. I have come to realize what a gift good friends were and are. I'm so happy that we have this web site that enables us to renew old friendships and find new friends that shared an important part of our lives.

Unfortunately, I spent the majority of my free time flipping hamburgers, at the East Gate Drive-in, while I was in high school. I did make time to play guitar in two Follies productions and a rock band, the Royal Coachmen, with Dyke Eutsey (class of 66), Gordy Buckner (class of 66), Dave Lance (Pennfield HS), and Gary Linke (Lakeview HS)

Ms. Hale, Battle Creek Central Art Class.

East Gate Drive-in. I was there every night after school and most of the weekends. Unfortunately, I was the one inside inside flipping hamburgers.

Sorry, I didn't pay much attention to fads.

I don't remember having any particular favorite singer or group when I was young. I really liked Abba, the Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles, the Doors and the Rolling Stones. Back then, as now, I enjoyed listening to and playing a broad range of music.

After spending ten weeks teaching in Miami listening to the car radio during my 8 mile, 2 hour drive back to the hotel, I actually discovered that I liked SOME Country music. I'd switch between Country and Latin since that was pretty much all I could find on the radio.

The aroma from Post and Kelloggs. I attended Post school which is directly across the street from Post Cereal and South Eastern which is very close to Kelloggs. Every day the air was filled with the aroma from these cereal plants.

There are many people that I would like to reconnect with. Here are a few names that come to mind; Judy Lapham Martin, Tom Miller, Ron Schuetter, and Andy Kavalhuna. If you know how to contact them, please encourage them to join the web site. Out of my many friends, I have only managed to reconnect with Ruth Music, Ray Eadler, Judy Latham Martin and briefly Don Wilbur. Ray Eadler and I have managed to get together several times since reconnecting. Unfortunately, Ray shared some sad news that Andy Kavalhuna had passed away. I thought I was getting close to connecting with Andy. I had stopped at McDonalds, in Galesburg, one day on my back from Detroit. As I was getting out of the car a van pulled through the drive way on its way to the Drive-thru window. OMG, I saw a young man that looked just like I remember Andy looking in 1968. He had to be related. Later on, I was on Facebook looking for old friends and I searched for Andy. To my surprise one of the profiles that popped up had a profile picture of the very young man and his wife.that I had seen at McDonalds It turned out to be Andy's son. I tried to contact Andy through them, but had no luck. It saddens me to know that I will never be able to reconnect with him.

I had a similar experience with a dear friend from the Air Force. Fred and I had spent a year together in South Dakota, and then, another eighteen months in the Philippines. After discharge we had lost contact with each other. Life sometimes gets in the way. After many attempts to find him on Facebook, bingo, I got a hit only to find out that he had passed away the previous year.

Flipping hamburgers at the East Gate Drive-in.

Many miles have passed under my feet since 1968. I entered the Air Force immediately after graduating. The next four years, of my life, was divided between Shepard AFB, Wichita Falls, TX. (1968-69); Ellsworth AFB, Rapid City, South Dakota (1969-70); Clark Field, Republic of the Philippines (1970-71) and Kirkland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico (1971-72).

When I returned home, I worked at Kellogg's, for a very short time, while I pursued a job related to my military experience. I remember running into several former classmates while at Kellogg's.

In December 1972, I accepted a position with Michigan Bell Telephone Company, and remained there until retirement July 2007. I watched the name change, from Michigan Bell, to Ameritech, to SBC and finally to AT&T. I worked as a Network Operations Manager, supervising the operations and maintenance of the computer systems and data networks that make the telephone network work. I spent my last eight years as a 2nd and 3rd level Technical Data Consultant.

After my retirement in July 2007, I caught up on my home projects, and work part time as a contract technical instructor, in the five state mid-west region, for AT&T from 2008 to 2016.

It's now 2018, and we're discussing our 50th reunion. For some reason, I've not attended any of our past reunions, but I don't want to miss this one for sure. Where has the time gone?

My hobbies include sailing, rollerblading, traveling, playing guitar, drawing, water color painting, photography and scuba diving.

For those of you that really knew me, you knew my last year of school was difficult. Mostly, because I spent so much time working after school. By my senior year, it had caught up with me. If I had missed one more day of school, I don't think I would have graduated. I felt like I was the most unlikely to succeed.

Something happened to me three months after graduating. Thanks to the Air Force, I found myself and my potential. My first year in the Air Force was spent in school, and I managed to graduate at the top of my class (was I ever surprised). After leaving the Air Force, I went to work for Michigan Bell, and after a couple years, I was promoted to a first level management position. I was told that, if I wanted to advance any farther, I would have to have my degree. So, I went back to school and got my degree in Computer Science graduating with honors (darn B+ in Accounting II spoiled a perfect score). This opened the door for the remainder of my career.

It's too bad that it took so long for me to realize my potential and focus. If I had realized it earlier, my high school experience would have been completely different.

I've had a great life filled with some terrific adventures. I started diving, in 1970, when I was in the Philippines, and spent much of my free time swimming with the fish in the South China Sea.

In 1983, I met Rick Sass, of Sub Aquatic Sports, and he talked me into a dive trip, to Micronesia's Truk Lagoon, where we dove on numerous WWII Japanese ships sunk by the US Navy, in 1945's Operation Hailstorm. This was Japan's Pearl Harbor. I found it interesting that one of the ships that we dove, the Shinkoku Maru, actually participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

http://www.thunderstruckobservatory.com/shinkoku.html

I continued diving for many years traveling to some pretty exciting locations. On one of my dive trips, I was on a 65 foot sloop, traveling from island to island, in the Bahamas. This was my first exposure to sailing, and I fell in love with it. I knew then that I had to have a sail boat.

It wasn't long after that that I bought my first sail boat. Now, I have been sailing the Great Lakes for 30 years.

So far, the milestones of my sailing have been bare boat chartering in the Caribbean and completing a Chicago to Mackinaw race. The pinnacle of my sailing was an Atlantic crossing from December 11, 2011 to January 28, 2012. I helped good friends, who have been cruising for five yeas, bring their boat back, from Spain, to the Caribbean.

Besides the Chicago to Mac race and a couple Trip Cup/Queens Cup races between Grand Haven and Milwaukee, I have spent most of my cruising time harbor hoping along the Michigan coast line. In 2013, Barbara and I took a six week trip up to the top of Lake Huron to Canada's North Channel. I have to say that that trip was the frosting on the cake. This was a totally awesome place to visit. There are hundreds of remote island anchorages to explore. More on this in "My favorite vacations".

Sailing, Photography, rollerblading, skiing, playing my guitar and learning to play my fiddle. Some time soon, I would like to get back into watercolor painting and perhaps pottery.

So far I haven't picked up a paint brush, but the desire is still there. I have recently found photo post processing software that will turn my photos into faux paintings, and have been having a lot of fun with that. It provides immediate gratification. You can check out the results on the Facebook page "Painted with Light Photography".

I enjoy all types of music. My iPod is full with music ranging from the Black Eyed Peas to Enya. I'm especially fond of Eric Clapton. If you had to pin me down to a few favorite songs, they would be; River of Tears - Eric Clapton, Where is the Love - Black Eyed Peas, Hotel California - the Eagles, and For What it's Worth - Buffalo Springfield. I discovered that I like some Country while spending ten weeks teaching in Miami. Favorite Country artist are Casey Musgraves, Little Big Town, and Zac Brown.

I have to say that my favorite vacation was my 2013 600 plus mile trip to the North Channel; however, I don't know if you can actually call it vacation when you are retired. We spent six weeks anchoring at several remote islands across the North Channel. The islands are all huge rocks popping up out of the water with pine trees clinging to every crack and crevice. We watched the Bald Eagles soaring and listened to the Loons every night. I had heard about the wild Blue Berries, but thought that we'd be way too early for them. Well, I was wrong, and I ate my fill. Also, when someone mentioned swimming, I thought they were crazy. After all we were going North. Again, I was wrong. The water was wonderful, 68 to 70 degrees. The sun must warm the rocks and in turn the rocks heat the water. I was sorry to see the trip end, but what great memories.

Time moves way too fast, so make the most of every day. Good friends are treasures that should be cherished.