1978

1978 Tom Earl ** tomearl2@comcast.net Man, 26 years to cover in a few short sentences. Well, just after graduation I went active duty in the US Navy Nuclear Power Program. I stayed on active duty for 9.5 years and my penultimate assignment was in Kingsville Texas where I met Penny. When I asked her to go sky diving with me and she agreed having never been on a plane, I knew she was the one. After having known each other only 6 months we got married.
Leaving Texas I was transferred to the USS Nimitz in Bremerton Washington and six months later I got off active duty. I did a 3 year stint in a welding supply company but left for a job at The Boeing Company. Soon after starting there I went to school starting at a local Community College and ended at Seattle University with a BS in Civil Engineering. I even managed to graduate Magna Cum Laude (3.78) despite a comment our old Trig teacher once said to me (what was his name - he was the track coach also). Anyway, he once said to me, "You know Mr. Earl, you're not really very smart. You just hang around dumb people." Must have made quite an impression since I still remember it :-)
I stayed working at Boeing till 2000 when I decided to become a stay at home Dad. Penny stayed home with our first son, Myles, but as a software program manager at Boeing she was making significantly more than this lowly engineer was so I stayed home to raise our second son, Zachary.
Currently, I am enrolled at Pacific Lutheran University getting a Masters in Education to become (the irony is amazing) a High School Math Teacher (or physics).
Spiritually, despite being raised a Christian, I was a wreck after 15 and I do mean a total wreck. As much of a Jesus freak as I was at 13 I was the exact opposite at 18. I pretty much stayed that way till about 27 which happened to coincide with my marriage to Penny. After that, it was a long slow climb to get myself out of the gutter and to a point where my faith is now stronger than it ever was. And yes Jon, I do recall the comment you made to me one day when I was wearing a pin to school that asked "What If Jesus Came Today". Don't worry. He won't take you to task for it :-)

1978 Shelley Bell (Hartman) ** ipwinc@csinet.net I graduated with an Associates of Arts from Southwestern Michigan College in 1980. I attended Western Michigan University my junior year, majoring in Industrial Education and minoring in Woodworking. I was married in 1981 and have been divorced since 1997. I have two children, Brienna (17) and Tristan (8). We live in Koontz Lake, Indiana. I will be getting my Associates in Science, Business Management in May 2002. I am continueing to work toward my Bachelors Degree in Human Resources at Indiana Institute of Technology, South Bend campus. I enjoy spending time with friends and family and learning new things....hate homework though....Some things never change. *grin*