.png)
2.png)
| |
|
Hi!
Just read on msn.com that 60 is the “new middle age”. So smile, and ignore the AARP junk mail that is more persistent than your college’s alumni association. I start every reunion year with good intentions of making it to the party “this year”. But like most of you, life with all its joy and trials seems to get in the way. I am now making my annual resolution to make the 2008 one. Hope to see you there! I attended Berkeley in the fall of 1973 with the goal of being a lawyer. After all, I was part of the debate team for 4 years and if you remember me, I was the one person that always seemed to have an opinion -- still do ;-) ! But unlike my debate partner, Richie Korb (see his profile here, he did become a lawyer and seems happy with his choice), I figured out that I would be better off chasing some other career goal.
For some reason, the field of computers attracted me and I first graduated with a bachelor’s degree, and then went on for my MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Then I made a fateful decision… During college I worked for some guys in San Francisco from the east coast and they convinced me to reverse the westward migration of our society and move to Boston, where I have been ever since (except for 6 great years in Colorado, but that is another story…). In Boston, I got married, fathered 3 wonderful children, and unfortunately like many of our class, got divorced. My oldest, Megan (24 years), is going back to Berkeley this year and is starting a program that I think will likely lead her to law. My oldest son, Jonathan (20 years), decided to join the army after high school and is now serving as a Medic with the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq. (Those that remember me for my faded McGovern bumper stickers on my VW bug will enjoy the irony of this.) My youngest son, Timothy (15 years), is in ninth grade and struggling with geometry -- just like I used to. (He knows better than ask my help!) During this summer (2007), Tim and I are going to spend three weeks with the Boy Scouts backpacking 70 miles in New Mexico. This will be my third time for this adventure and I look forward to it!
If you let it, divorce is one of those sad life experiences that actually can open new doors. I am now engaged to my honey of some 6 years, Sue. Sue grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution, and whenever I get depressed with life’s trials, I have a personal reminder of how we really had it good in our years at ECHS. Sue’s smart and lovely daughter will even up the boy/girl ratio in the family and give me a fighting chance to live to a ripe old age. I have long since given up pretending to be an engineer. I have exchanged my slide rule (remember, we had to learn how to use those in Chemistry!) to be a pointy haired manager. Today, I am the COO of a small software company in the Boston area (see www.ics.com). One of the best parts of this job is talking with all our customers and finding out how they are using our software to solve real problems.
In reviewing the classmate section, it saddens me to come across all those people that we will never get to see again. Life is short and times seems to accelerate as you get older. If you want to reconnect, you can reach me at mark2382 at the hot place for email ;-)
Mark
BTW: When you send an email, you should give a silent thanks (or if you just received yet another piece of junk mail, a loud curse) to another one of our classmates, Eric Allman. According to his company’s website, www.sendmail.com, some 65% of the email use sendmail, the mail transfer agent that he invented while at Berkeley!
email: mark2382@hotmail.com
snail mail: