Iowa City West High Class of 1973
Home of the Trojans
Dave,
Here it is!! Barbara Crandall Prosser ’73 and Brittani Prosser Koeppen (Mrs Adam Koeppen) ’04 West High School……I don’t know what to do with it, so you do what you do best!! Wedding was 9-18-10, at Danforth Chapel In Iowa CIty!!
Thanks, Dave!!
Barb
Dave,
I just wanted to pass along that my Mother died on October 1st from aplastic anemia. The memorial service for her was on October 10th.
Greg Leichty
Greg gave us permission to post his mother’s obituary on our site, as a tribute to her life.
Ruth (Earnest) Leichty, 75, passed away on Friday, October 1st with her loving husband by her side in their Coralville home.
Ruth was born January 7th, 1935 in Milford, NE. She married Lowell Leichty on October 10, 1954. They raised their family in Coralville.
For many years Ruth worked as the office manager for the family firm: L.J. Leichty Construction. Ruth was deeply involved in the life and work of the First Mennonite Church in Iowa City. She had a vibrant network of friends and she had a special place in her heart for her grandchildren.
She is survived by her husband of 55 years Lowell Leichty; their five children Greg (Kathleen) Leichty, Phil (Kim) Leichty, Kathy (Loren) Sands, Ruth (Brad) Giesking and Mark ( Kristen) Leichty; 13 grandchildren, Jana Leichty Meyer, Kari Leichty, Daniel Leichty, Paul Leichty, Joseph Leichty, Sarah Leichty, Amanda Kaefring, Jeremy Kaefring, Ian Sands, Suzanna Giesking, Desiree Giesking, Erica Giesking and Ella Ruth Leichty; and 3 great-grandchildren, Ivan Giesking, Matthew Giesking and Brayden Giesking; her siblings, Arlene (Bernie) Kremer, Ina (Firman) Rediger, Don (Karla) Earnest and Ron (Kelly) Earnest.
No rest here, Dave. Where I cut down all of my trees, I’m now tilling up all the ground and seeding it with grass seed. My neighbor loaned me his tiller – a little 20 lb. Mantis that you pull backwards. For an 80 x 14 ft. area, that’s tiny. It took me 6 solid hours to till and my hands got horrible charlie horses in them most of the night after dinner, but I survived. Today it’s laying the seed, working it in with a garden rake, covering with straw and then water, water, water as needed.
Since I seeded the front year in 2009 after Tom died and did a great job, I decided to widen my talents to a much bigger area. I’ve attached pics of the tree project. My 25 year old and I did it all – yes, even cut them down ourselves in pieces. Cut off the branches, gave away the big wood and all the mulch. It was going to cost me over $5,000 to have this all done – by the time the grass is growing and all is done, I will have spent about $400 total, and the exercise certainly did me good. What an accomplishment though! My neighbor thought I was crazy as it could have been done much quicker by someone else, but I couldn’t afford spending the money on this project.
Many ask, why the heck did you cut THOSE down? Well, they were dead a foot back, overgrown into one another, killing off the neighbor’s trees, and were horrible to mow around. I own land on both sides, and my shoulders just couldn’t take the mowing around them, in and out and in and out. I will be planting new more manageable trees that will be much easier to mow around, and a couple of bushes as well.
As you can see, we only had one mishap during the whole process. I think my parents thought I had gone out of my mind with the picture of my oldest in the shredder. Of course, it was turned off and not running at all. Our only regret is that he wished he had taken hold of both of my arms rather than one, and we should have had a shoe coming out the chute. Oh well – I thought the picture was hilarious – still have my sense of humor. 🙂
Hopefully we’ll have the seeding done today and I can have at least one day tomorrow to rest before heading back to work. 🙂 Take care, Feel free to share.
Ruth
Hi Dave,
Piece of news to share with the class. Granddaughter #2 was born this week on August 3. Her name is Audrey and she is a new cousin for Miranda (now age 4). LOVE being a grandma!!!
Hope all is well on your end.
Nancy
Dear Dave,
A brief update about the important people in my life:
Hey Dave,
Thanks again for all the news gathering/web-mastering, etc. that you do for the Class of 1973 Site. Somehow we always seem to miss each other when you’re over here on meetings, but maybe we will get it together sometime/somehow. You can certainly let our classmates know that if they’re remotely in the area (Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy or so), that they can feel free to give a call or mail. We can always at least provide good tips for restaurants, hotels, things to see and do, if not providing overnight accommodations for everyone! Now that things have started to pick up again economically there may be more classmates thinking about trips to Europe or coming over for business than during the last 18 months or so.
Apropos business activity: I founded my own consulting firm in January here in Switzerland, and have also joined oprandi & partner as a partner in the management consulting, strategy and recruitment business. After almost half a year behind me I can only say how happy I am with the decision to go in this direction. The almost five years running the software company were good, but involved an incredible amount of travel out of the country‹was often ca. 6 months a year overseas. Am now enjoying the “smallness” of Switzerland and my network of contacts here and finding that the decreased amount of travel has improved our quality of live immensely.
This coming weekend is special in Zurich as well‹it’s the “Züri Fäscht” (Zurich Festival), which only happens every three years on the first weekend in July. Fireworks and classical music in the harbor on Lake Zurich both Friday and Saturday nights, many food and entertainment booths, lots of music. The city’s expecting around 2 million visitors!
Take care and have a good 4th of July weekend!
Yours,
Dan
I’m gearing up for a massive garage sale next week. It’s the second since Tom passed away. I keep going through the same closets and drawers and storage areas and each time have a new outlook on “stuff”. You spend half a life time collecting it and half a life time getting rid of it. LOL I’ve got everything from a trailer hitch ball, to an anchor mate never used, to a full bottle of chloroform (good heavens), to faucets, PVC pipe, wine making kit, old (1940’s) electronic equipment, and the latest I found on the storage unit – over 100 1950’s Hot Rod and like magazines. Those will be Ebayed as some sell for as much as $9 an issue.
As I’ve said many a times, I’ve had more surprises regarding Tom in his death, than in the 28 years I knew him, and all good surprises and memories thank goodness.
I sold my pick up truck. It was a sweet little red 1993 Toyota, one quarter sized piece of rust and only 37,000 miles. I had to cancel the ad 6 days early and stop the phone calls. A lot of guys hated the way I sold it, but I didn’t care. I sold it the way Tom would have. After letting a couple of dozen guys test drive it with me, I picked 5 that had interesting personalities who I know would take very good car of the truck like we did. Then I let them start bidding against each other. The truck sold for $800 over blue book value and for $300 more than what I paid for it back in 2007 from the original owner. Tom was beaming that night from above I’m sure and I could let go of his precious baby knowing I sold it the way he would have and for the price I got for it. Outside of gas costs, I basically had a truck for nothing for three years. Not bad at all.
My oldest has re-entered college which I’m very grateful for. He’s had a tough time since 2008 when Tom got so sick and eventually died in 2009. He’s slowly re-engaging in life and that’s good to see. Bit by bit. He’s majoring in network administration. Might not be all that bad that he took some time off with the economy that way it’s been. He’ll graduate in about a year at last at 26.
My youngest moved to Davenport and has been working for a large AT&T call center full time, saving up money to help finish his college education. He’s majoring in criminal justice and also had to take some time off. He’s breaking most of the service and sales records there and recently was taken to a restaurant of his choice by two managers for his excellence on the job. He chose a sushi house.
This weekend my folks and I and my oldest will go down and visit him. He’s in a new, beautiful loft apartment near the river, all nicely and modernly remodeled. We’ll also be taking his kitty, Raz, back to him. I’ve had Raz for 4 months now while he found a new place to live and got settled and was able to afford the downpayment to have him at the new place. We’ll miss Raz – he’s a young, very polite kitty. One of my two cats will miss him – one won’t. So it goes.
I got all of Tom’s firearms sold at an auction house here in Cedar Rapids not long ago. It was nice to have them out of the house and I got a good price for them overall. A couple of them sold high (M1 military rifle and Colt 45) and a couple low, so it all evened out. I bought a nice piece of furniture for my entry way with some of the money. I’ve attached a picture. It’s a beautiful antique walnut halltree. I’ve always wanted one but didn’t want oak, and walnut ones don’t appear very often. The rope is off of it now. It’s so tall and not that deep, that it was top heavy, so my father had to anchor it to the wall in the back to make sure it wouldn’t tip over.
Well, had better get at this garage sale sorting and pricing. With all I’ve stacked in the family room, it will likely take 3 days alone to sort it into categories and get it all priced. The neighborhood wouldn’t have the sale unless I was in on it. I’m rather known around here for my organized, huge sales. It was a bit early after finishing up the school year, but I said yes, so now I’m busy 7am-9pm with it all. My dear Tom was such a pack rat and I have no need for so many things and don’t want to leave it all for my sons to deal with in decades to come.
I hope this finds everyone well.
Always,
Ruth
Hey Dave
Wow, I just got done catchn’ up on our 73 website.
I guess, I better say something interesting, to keep your attention, I see the many stories, of families, kids, jobs, travels, and I can feel the excitement, and accomplishments.
Since 08, I have been living the life of a kidney transplant patient, (got the new transplant Feb 09) had to say good bye to my fathers life, and just finished helping my mom transition into her new life in the Washington Iowa Presbyterian Home. She had a small house, but the room at the care home is even quite smaller than that house. Lots of things to sell, give away, claim for me, etc. It was a long Mother’s Day weekend! I got some help from another self employed fella from church to drive me down so I could drive her car back to Minnesota!.(93 Deville!) Only driven to church and doctor appointments!(?)
Seeing Jackie’s Post about singing w/some guy is nice… My wife was in a Christian folk gospel trio before we got marrried 35 years ago. (May 31st!)… I still play the piano for her solos at church, and I also still play the Hammond Organ for our church.
My oldest Son, Rob now has 2 Girls! His oldest is 3 and youngest is 1! His wife is still a social worker for the autism field. They work opposite times of the day, but we still get to baby sit Serenna and Lillian. Rob is still the camera man for FoxSports which televises the local Pro Sports teams in the Twin Cities, *Twins, Vikings, U of M sports, Wild, Timberwolves, Links, Fox games of the week, etc plus the many freelance gigs.
My Youngest son Andrew has still to get the job he wants. He also went to school for Journalism but due to the economy, has been laid off a couple of times. Lately, besides the job he kept at SuperValu (Cub) he has been a school tutor, recently for the kids in the 3-5 grades, many of them English second language students, that need help catching up with reading, and writing. He has thought to become a teacher, if he keeps liking this gig.
I still am the “ole” shoemaker on the corner. I have outlasted many shops here in the twin cities…only about 20 left in the entire Metro Area.! I am a member of the national shoe repair association, and participate in their “ask the expert” bulletin board, and get lots of referrals that way. I still have hobbies in photography, and music.
Sometimes, looking back, I know I got married too young, but I am now still young enough to enjoy my grandkids lives, Son’s lives, and my life with my wife Anne.
My wife is from a smaller town in Minnesota, and loves visiting Iowa City Area, and wouldn’t mind moving there! ( Do they need another shoe repair shop in Iowa City?)
Good Luck, and God Bless,
Gene Hartsock.
Dave,
I am retiring from teaching high school Social Sciences and head football, wrestling and asst. track after 31 years at the same school. I was inducted into the South Dakota Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009 . My teams have won 185 wins in football with 2 State Championships and 6 semi-finals. I loved every moment of work. Even when I graduated with our class I have been in school all this time.
Tracy
Hi Dave,
Great to hear from you. I truly enjoy the Class of ’73 updates and appreciate the effort you put in to the newsletter. A lot of memories are sparked hearing from – and seeing – past (I refuse to use the word “old”) classmates.
My wife Nancy and I relocated from Cedar Falls to North Carolina in 2004, where there is plenty of sunshine on the beaches and moonshine in the mountains. We live just outside Greensboro. Our children are grown, with the oldest daughter working for Google in San Francisco, our son working as a hardware/software designer living in Minneapolis, and the youngest daughter finishing up school. Time has flown by pretty fast.
I work for Syngenta as National Account Manager for our golf business. A bit of a stretch from my row crop agriculture days, but as long as I am helping clients grow something-in this case turf-I stay satisfied. Not every course can be Augusta National, but well maintained golf courses do attract golfers and are a pleasure to play. Nancy works at a dog daycare business and also does agility training (not for her, the dogs). We have 3 black labs as part of our family.
My parents are doing well and still live in Coralville. I get back occasionally and still feel like Iowa is home. I must confess I don’t miss -20 degree weather however.
Feel free to use this as a post, and re-engagement with classmates.
Keep up the good work.
Walt