Iowa City West High Class of 1973
Home of the Trojans
OK…so I’m going to be a Grand Papa, what’s the big deal!
These are pictures of my oldest daughter KT with her longtime boyfriend Jay.
He returned home from Iraq on leave in May, and the two of them “connected”. Last Saturday he returned home to stay (yea)!
It is truly a special Christmas for our family.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS…to you and yours, and remember, you’re only as old as you feel!
KK
Kevin Kelly
Hey Dave,
The college basketball season is about to start, and my son will be playing for the Mountain Hawks, at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, which is in the Patriot League in Division 1. Do not look for Ionasescu as a last name – his name is Philip Anderson. At 6’10” he will be playing as a forward. Some of the games will be televised on DirecTV, some only on local channels. Please root for him. He’s a freshman in the School of Engineering.
Thanks,
Rodica
Hey Dave and All,
Just wanted to let everyone know that we survived Hurricane Wilma with only a few bumps and scratches. The storm was very fierce at our house and lasted a total of about 6 hours. The front or leading edge was about 4.5 hours and the trailing side the remainder of the time. The eye passed directly over us and only lasted about 15 minutes before the rear eye wall hit us. It was very eerie going out during the eye and seeing the storm all around us. The rear eye wall was much more severe and was some what scary to watch our windows breath as the intensity of the storm peaked.
We were lucky in that our house suffered only minor damage that I can fix myself. We did lose one tree and had one of our cars bashed by flying limbs. The biggest problem was lack of electricity for 10 days with it finally being restored this morning. The entire area here has been without service since the storm with about 80% restored as of today. We take our power for granted and when we do not have it, it surely changed our life for a few days. We have not been in school for two weeks but it looks like we will return on Monday. It was nice having the time off but it has not been a vacation and we will have to make up some of the time.
As we always do we learned a lot about preparation from this storm. We already had a generator and chain saw but we found the need to buy battery camping lanterns and more D Batteries. We will be more prepared next time and we may just head out of the area, it was a thrill ride I’m not sure I want to take again.
Well all for now and thanks for letting me blow off a little steam
Arnie and Julie from Hurricane Central
Dave-
Larry Weldon, via e-invite, pulled off the biggest surprise birthday party for Bonnie (Tappan) Weldon last night at La Casa in Iowa City. Karen and I met Bonnie in the parking lot at 6:30 just going to get a “carry out” only to be totally shocked five minutes later to be the guest at a party for approximatley 75 or so guests awaiting her arrival in their party room. This was GREAT!
Bonnie had numerous pictures being taken of her wearing a brightly colored sombrero (is there a solid black sombrero anywhere, maybe if you are Amish!) with this big placard on her back that said 50.
Good food and drink, and local celebrities such as Steve Riggan, Brenda Bradley, etc showed up for the event.
Talk to you later, Dave,
BA
Hi Dave,
My wife Susan and I will be going out to dinner with Bill Petrak and his wife, Cindy tomorrow night. I found out that you do not have their email address on the list, so Cindy gave it to me so they can start to get West High News updates.
Got to see my brother, Neil at the first week of October when he came up from Atlanta to the Iowa Homecoming game. I brought my saxophone along and went Beer Banding with Neil and the rest of the Alumni band. My two daughters were there, too, one still trying to graduate from Iowa, the other one goes to UNI, but is dating one of the Hawkeye defensive tackles. It was a great weekend getting to see everyone over at Mom’s house.
Next week, I get to do it all over again at Iowa State’s Homecoming, and will be participating in the over 250 strong member Iowa State University Alumni Marching Band, playing Bari Sax. For the first time, there will be more alumni than undergraduates in the combined bands on the field at half time. This year, even Susan will get to participate by holding onto the huge American flag that will be unfurled at half time.
Have a good week and we’ll keep in touch.
Mark Ferguson
Dave
As of Sept 9th, I became a dialysis patient again.
Don’t despair for me, actually, I feel alot better, as I was alot sicker than I realized. Along with the dialysis, I am still being treated for the blood infection I had until Oct 15th.
Since I missed 2/3 of the summer in many ways, I am going to try and make the best of it for the fall. My wife’s mother lived to the ripe age of 92 and we had a roaring memorial service for her.
Thank you to everyone who was pulling for me, I am grateful.
Gene
Hi Dave,
Thanks for all your work and posting to keep us alums in the know! Just wanted to pass along something from another West High Alum. I have a (much)younger brother, Jim Potter, who graduated in 1985 and now lives in the New Orleans area. Recently he had a article written in the Iowa City Press Citizen about the plight of the schoolchildren in Jefferson Parish where he and his wife Marykathryn are teachers. Marykathryn sent me this excerpt (below)
If anyone in the class of ’73 is interested in helping have them email to me scole55 AT cox.net and I can pass along information. Our family is truly thankful that Jim, Marykathryn and their son Jacob were able to evacuate safely and their home was spared.
Happy Autumn,
Sheila Cole
Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
Monday, October 3, 2005
Schools Helping Former Student
Iowa City Press-CitizenA former Iowa City student who is a teacher in Louisiana is looking to his former schools to help hurricane victims in his new home.
Jim Potter, a 1985 West High graduate and a former student at Wood Elementary and South East Junior High, is looking for help for John Clancy Elementary in Kenner, La., and the surrounding schools of Jefferson Parish outside of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina devastated the area on Aug. 29, and the Jefferson Parish Public Schools have been closed since then. They are due to reopen today, with about 600 students, plus an unknown number of students surrounding parishes whose schools have been closed for the year because of the hurricane, Potter said.
“We’re hoping to get an influx of their students,” he said. “They’ve discontinued the school district for the most part. Right now, we’re at a loss of what our enrollment is going to be.”
Potter’s home sustained little damage from the storm, as did Clancy Elementary. However, many of the students and the new students lost everything, including the clothes they are required to wear as part of the school’s uniform policy.
“Of course, the kids may not have anything,” Potter said. “But the school district is not going to make them buy new uniforms.”
To help them, Potter said he wanted to gather as many white T-shirts as possible from the schools he attended in Iowa City.
“It’s a sense of belonging and being uniform through the system,” Potter said about the uniforms. “We’re hoping to get as many as we can get. Whatever we get, we’re going to be doling it out everything.”
Potter said he hoped to use a print shop at a high school in Jefferson Parish to print Clancy Elementary’s logo on the donated T-shirts.
South East Junior High Principal Deb Wretman said her school has raised more than $6,000 in hurricane relief funds, donating the money to the American Red Cross. She said she did not know how much more students could give, but she was willing to use South East as a drop off point.
“I think it’s a terrific idea,” she said. “I said when we fill up a box, we’ll let Jim know. The sooner the better.”
Potter said two of his brothers who still live in the Iowa City area, Roger Litton and Jerry Litton, have persuaded their companies — Plumbers Supply and Contractors Tool and Supply — to donate the shipping of the shirts.
By Rob Daniel
Just to let everyone know:
My mother passed away a week ago on Tuesday September 27th. She had fallen and broken her hip a couple of weeks ago, and developed complications, which she wasn’t able to recover from. She decided to stop her dialysis and go back to her apartment at Melrose Meadows in Iowa City and pass away peacefully. I took her back to Melrose on Friday the 23rd and cared for her until she passed away. All of my brothers and sister were able to come and help during the hospitalization and then her last few days Richard and I were with her. So she was able to see all of her five children, say goodbye to numerous friends, eat some of her favorite meals and have the comfort of being in her own bed, with her familiar things around her and her loving cat at her side. Melrose Meadows was helping me care for her instead of Hospice which gave her the additional comfort of having nurses that she knew and loved versus interjecting new people at the end.
When it became evident that she was going to pass away, we phoned our siblings that weren’t there that day so that she could say her last goodbyes. She had communion an hour before she died and several good friends said their goodbyes just 15-30 min before she died. My brother and I held her hands and tearfully told her that we loved her and would miss her dearly. She had a very full and happy life and died with dignity in the manner that she chose. I’m grateful that I was able to be there when she passed on. Her life long friend, Kay Fischer, helped me give her a bath after she died and dress her in her favorite outfit that she would later be cremated in. Her funeral was on Friday Sept 30th. We hope that she felt honored in everything that was said and done for her.
I cannot imagine my life without my mother.
Patty
Hi Dave
Thanks for all the updates and news, etc. from our classmates. I have managed to have sporadic e-mail contact with Chris Wilhite and Sam Maihack, but I live very far away from most everyone, which makes getting together pretty tough. Although folks are welcome to come for a visit if they’re in or around beautiful Switzerland.
I thought I’d write back as I saw Sue Hansen’s comment on taking her students to Europe, and thought there must be other former classmates that come over as well from time to time…
It is only about 4 miles from where we live now, also has a view of Lake Zurich, but also of the alps : ) The new place is about 9 miles from downtown Zurich.
If I get over to our international headquarters (in Bedford, MA) I’ll definitely look you up!
I’m still 49 for a couple more months, but it’s sneaking up on me too….
All the best
Dan
Dear Dave,
Turning fifty this year was okay for the mind but hard on the body. Thanks for keeping up the board I enjoy hearing about every one. This month I have spoken to Mike Reed in Connecticut, David Asprey in Westpalm, Mark Kozik in Denver and Armond Pagliai. Brings back fond memories of IC. Hope the fall finds all of you well.
Paul