DOOR PRIZES
Classmates that may have items to donate for door prizes are asked to notify Bill LaMeres (WJLmontana@aol.com). In the past, many individuals have been very generous with gifts, many of which they have made themselves. We have a lot of talent in our class!
BIO UPDATES
Bill Roscoe
Still practicing law in Sacramento and will continue to do so until I can see the end of need to contribute to college funds to various grandchildren and step grandchildren. Have one Bachelor's degree, three in process and two more to come after that. I obtained an Associate of Science degree in Funeral Service Education from American River College in May 2011, and took the examination and obtained a California Funeral Directors License. That's what I'll be doing after I finish practicing law. Any questions?
Claudia Lewis Brayton
Graduated from: Oglala Community High School, Pine Ridge, S.D.; University of S.D. at
Vermillion, BA in elementary education; Arizona State University, Masters in
Elementary Education
Spouse, Gary; 6 children;14 grandchildren; 5 great grandchildren
Retired 2009 as Executive Director for Assisted Living and Memory Care
Gary and I have enjoyed a very exciting marriage. We both worked at our respective occupations during the eight hour day, Monday through Friday and six evenings a week we were either teaching dance or taking dance classes. Most Friday afternoons would see us making a dash to the airport to fly to different dance competitions around the US where we would either compete or judge and then on Sundays catch a red eye flight home to be able to get to work on Monday. We have judged and taught on three cruise ships, Scotland and England as well as various parts of Canda, Alaska and most of the 48 states (including the Drifter's Lounge in Billings two years in a row as guest instructors.) We retired from the dancing, juding and deejaying in 1999 when our daughter, Annette, passed away and we were again raising children. Sara and Michael needed us to attend PTA, basketball games, do homework, Little League, etc and that left no room for dancing.
In 2004, we sold our small farm where we were raising pygmy goats and went into partnership on a 1,400 acre ranch, raising Scottish Highland cattle and living in a historical log home built in 1910. This was hard work for Gary but he totally enjoyed it. I would travel down the mountain road to drive 14 miles to work but when I came home he had dinner ready and my toddy waiting for me.
Then his health took a downward turn and it was necessary for us to move back to the city for him to be closer to the Veteran's hospital. Although we still have our partnership in the ranch, we now live in a Senior Estates on the 16th green in a cozy little cottage. The greatest thing about the move, is now we are closer to the kids and grandkids as well as my mom who is 91 and, although she is very independent, it is nice for me to be able to help her and visit her more often.
We have a beautiful motor home and try to be on the road for at least four months out of the year. By doing this, we have reconnected with several of my Billings Central, Holy Rosary and Fratt classmates, as well as classmates from my class of Palm Springs and Pine Ridge.
Our kids have made us proud and are all very successful. The grandchildren are following suit. This little cottage bursts at the seams on holidays because even though each of the kids has a home larger than ours, they all want to come home to Mom's cooking.
I am looking forward to this 50th class reunion. We will see you all there.
Ron Kloster
Hard to believe, but we have now lived in Texas for nearly 25 years. Three of our four daughters live in Texas, and one lives in Louisiana, so with them and nine grandchildren quite close, we'll never move. We live about 60 miles north of Houston, near Montgomery, Texas. I'm now retired, and like other bios I have read, I wonder how I ever had time to work. Mary's also retired and is playing golf as I write this (January 30) so that tells you we cannot complain about winters in the South. My hobbies are golfing, fishing and following Montana State in football and basketball.
We remain very active in our small country church, St. Mary's in Plantersville, TX. I'm active in the Men's Club and Mary's active in the Altar Society; she's a Eucharistic minister and I'm a sacristan, we're both members of the SVdP Society. This will shock some, but at times I have conducted the Communion service after SVdP meeting, including the homily! To be brutally honest, I'm not very good at it, but the homilies are very short so the members are happy. On a sad note, Fr. Steve Tokarski, BCCHS Class of '61 and who I'm sure many of you in Billings knew since he was the pastor at St. Pius X, died last fall. We were blessed to have him stay with us on two occasions last summer when he came to Houston for his cancer treatments. It was great to be of some help to him and we'll never forget him.
I still have my folks' house in Red Lodge, with the thought that we might get there summers, but have yet to do that so the house remains rented.
Bill McCleary
Since I now know a lot about your lives, I'll tell you a little about mine. After BCCHS, I attended the University of Portland along with what seemed like half of our class at Central. It was a great 4 years and I even learned a few things. I graduated with a degree in accounting and have never spent one day doing accounting work.
One week after graduation, I got married in Denver to Janet also a student at Portland. We were happily married for 20 years, I think. That marriage ended in divorce, my fault, and I was single for about 7 years. I had a great time. I was raising my 2 daughters, both living with me and found single life much to my liking.
Yes, during all this time I was working or at least playing at work. When I left college my wife and I joined the Peace Corp. We spent 3-1/2 years in Salvador Central America, organizing savings and loan coops. We also participated in many development projects like building bridges and schools. Please don't think I actually built these. My function was to make them happen.
After the years in the Peace Corp, we returned to Portland and imported products from Guatemala for about a year. During that year, Peace Corp contacted me and I went to work for the federal government. In the next 3 years, we lived in Portland, moved to Denver and ended up in San Francisco as Western Regional Director for Action, all the federal volunteer programs.
When one is a Regional Director, you have to resign when there is a new administration so after about a year and a half, I was gone. Not having a clue what I wanted to do, I decided that real estate development sounded like a good idea. I did that for 19 years in the Bay Area and sometimes even made money. I bit off one project too many and ended up owing the bank far more than I could pay. Banks don't like that and thus ended my development career.
Again I didn't have a clue what to do. I saw that Mexico devalued the peso in 1995, so I thought maybe there would be some great bargains in Mexico. I spoke Spanish and knew the cuture so what the hell, it was either that or a bordello and my wife didn't go for the bordello idea. We started buying furniture in Mexico and opened a 5,000 sq. ft. store in Oakland in September 1995. In January 1996, we expanded to 49,000 sq. ft. Along with a partner, we opened 7 stores, all large. It required a full time presence in Mexico so my new wife, Glenda and I moved to Guadalajara, Mexico.
In 2000, we sold the business to my partner and moved to Vancouver Island British Columbia. We spent three glorious years there. We made some really bad investments and had to return to the U.S. and go back to work.
We ended up in Las Vegas with three other furniture stores but hated Vegas. We closed those stores after three years and decided that Sedona would be a nice place to live, so we opened a store selling furniture and art. I didn't know much about art but neither did most of the people who purchased from us.
In 2009, I saw the perfect business opportunity. It may not sound like much but it has been incredible. Since October 2009, we have owned a store in Prescott, Arizona selling olive oil and balsamic vinegars. In 2011, we opened a second store selling spices. They both do well.
Oh yes. My two daughters went to UVA, graduated and are gainfully employed, one in San Francisco and the other in Park City, UT. The youngest one, 36, is marrried with two dogs, a new home and a three year old and one on the way. The oldest is 40, owns two olive oil stores in Park City and Salt Lake and spends all her extra time traveling around the world. I never know where she is.
OK, I'm finished. I realize that this was far too much information. Sorry about that. I hope you all have better things to do than to read this.
See you at the reunion.
A REMINDER: PLEASE SEND YOUR UPDATED BIOGRAPHY TO ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I think we can all agree, they are really fun and interesting to read. We want to be sure everyone is included.
PHOTOS
I have been gathering present-day photographs of classmates to post. Please email me current photgraphs of you, your spouse/children/grandchildren or whomever and I will post them on the blog.
I have been gathering present-day photographs of classmates to post. Please email me current photgraphs of you, your spouse/children/grandchildren or whomever and I will post them on the blog.
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| LaFawn (Lewis) and Jerry Kleinsasser |
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| Ron and Mary Kloster |
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| Jack & Hsiu Sturdivant |
