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(Editor's note. The following was received from Jim on 08/13/07)
Three days before our 40th HGHS Reunion Brenda received a positive diagnosis of Parkinsons’s disease. Drugs got the disease under control and we were able to continue our traveling. Russia from St. Petersburg to Moscow via the inland waterway was an amazing experience. The next year Greece and Turkey were also spectacular.
In ’98 we downsized from our 12-room 3-floor farmhouse to a new 6-room ranch with no stairs and a very small yard. Life has settled into a much slower pace, full of doctors and constantly changing medications. We had a nice time in Maine a week ago, with Brenda making her usual dent in the lobster population. We’ve stopped traveling long distances but still rent that cottage in Maine every summer. Our time there through the years has been spent hiking through Acadia National Park, canoeing on the waters of Mt. Desert Island, and picking wild blueberries.
While Brenda has retired, I am still a practicing engineer, now back at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft as a contractor. I lasted 8 years at Handy & Harman, South Windsor plant, as the Engineering Manager, and had that plant running really smoothly. Brenda had just noticed my longevity and had said “Keep your head down; this is the longest you’ve lasted at any job” when our CEO got indicted for financial crimes against Argentina, and the company was thrown out of the money markets, causing bankruptcy. Four plants were shut down and 250 people were let go in just two weeks. Anyone who works in manufacturing knows the inevitable lay-offs and plant closings which exemplify the plight of manufacturing in this country. But I don’t like to stay unemployed so I have been picking up full-time contracting jobs here at Pratt. I like to think that full time work keeps one young.
I’m still singing. I’ve even done some solo work at my church and with the Southington Festival Chorale. Singing is the one activity I’ve managed to do consistently and it brings me great pleasure. In fact, our first trip to Europe was to participate in an international Advent choral festival in Vienna.
I am also an avid gardener. Once you have tasted your own home-grown tomatoes you will never eat store-bought ones again. Since I am a trained chemical engineer, I realize the problems with pesticides and use them as little as possible. While raising our sons, we ate out of my garden all year, as Brenda, good sport that she is, put up as many as 200 quarts of veggies and fruits a year. For quite a few years, we even tapped our 26 maple trees to make our own delicious maple syrup.
Our kids have been doing their own thing. Davis (my oldest) now has a son Galen, born with some serious medical problems. Open heart surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital at one week of age repaired a hole between his ventricles. Galen also had a cleft palate (now repaired), 3 unfused vertebrae in his lower spine, a nonperforming thyroid gland (now OK) and eczema. You never realize how lucky you are until something like this happens. While Galen, now 1½, has overcome his immediate medical problems, Davis’ marriage is suffering. Wife Julie seemingly can’t take the stress and wants out. We just have to watch as this unfolds. We cannot live our children’s lives for them.
Dan has been having his marital problems too. He and his wife Jenn had a son Jesse, and after two years of motherhood, his wife bailed out. She got a lawyer who took him to the cleaners, then remarried and took our grandson to the Marshall Islands (!!) where her new husband works for the Navy. Dan remarried on the rebound and that gal turned out to be a druggy. Tim, our youngest, lives in Endicott, NY, with his wife Angela and two adorable daughters. He is making a name for himself at IBM and even has VPs asking his advice.
Can’t wait to see how my HGHS classmates have fared on their journeys through life.

1997 recap. BS Chem Eng U of Rochester (63), MS Materials Science U of Conn ('66). Married Brenda Fleet ('60), 3 children Davis, Daniel, & Timothy. Worked for a number of companies including the Connecticut Advanced Nuclear Engineering Labs, Ohio Rubber, Anaconda Metals, and most recently Handy & Harman Refining Group as Chief Engineer. Is active in Boy Scouts and has traveled to Vienna, Belgium, Italy, Barbados and Russia.