Retirements, Graduations, Golf… We’ve got it all for you!

Group photo shows John O’Brian, Kevin Fauvell, Bumper Kunkle, Tom Bodman, Dave Ferchau, Bill Higgins, Dan Hicks, and John Ayres ’88 at Tom Bodman‘s retirement luncheon.

Art Burns shares that “effective 1 May 2017 I’m retired from American Maritime Officers after 27 years! I’ve got a few projects around my home to keep me busy for a while. If I get bored I’ll turn to volunteer work, travel and community college classes.”

Bob Bennett‘s daughter Meghan graduated from Annapolis.

A.J. Murphy was doing some work in FL again and with a little coordination, was able to arrange a fun meeting with Yvette Smith Piggott and Jim Goulden on 2 APR. Spent a lot of time catching up and talking about KP friends as well.

Brian Foy shared some photos from the May D.C. Outing where he ran into Susan Pawlukiewicz and Bob Ross. Brian also heard from Joe Ertolacci who told him he’s on the West Coast and has become part of the Columbia River Chapter. Great bunch of guys and always a pleasure to visit with.

Steve Keating contributes:
It has been great to read about the exploits and achievements of our USMMA classmates over the years. On the personal side, I’ve been married to Cynthia for the past 34 years. We have one daughter, Kate, who is a rising sophomore at the University of Mary Washington (UWM) in Fredericksburg, VA. Kate plays violin in the UMW Philharmonic and has performed with both Tony Bennett and Kristin Chenoweth. On the professional side, I have been working as an attorney for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for the past 14 years doing mostly international law, Safety of
Navigation-related maritime law, and intelligence oversight. There is a great bunch of Kings Pointers at NGA:
Keith Alexander ’81, Keith Dominic ’99, plus others who have retired: Ed Besecky ’82 and Karen Besecky ’80, Walt Holtgren ’78 and Steve Debrecht ’78. I have been on a year-long National Security Law Fellowship at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy doing guest lecturing and working on research regarding maritime territorial disputes (South China Sea) and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Overall, it has been an awesome experience. I do miss going to sea, but I can always go sailing in the Potomac or the Chesapeake!

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending a celebration for Dr. Kara Garrott, who had just received her PhD in Bio-Medical Engineering, based upon her work in cardio-electropsyiology (Wow) from George Washington University. Kara is the daughter of Bruce Garrott and his lovely wife, Debbie. I shared a cold one with Bruce and family on the way to a class at the Georgetown Law Center. Bruce is the Director of Safety and Facilities at Coastal Construction Products in Florida. Bruce is also an avid cyclist and world traveler. Bruce and Debbie make an awesome team and are blessed with one daughter a PhD and another daughter, Mikaela, a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy! I am attaching photos of Bruce and family.

I have also recently heard from Rudy Lupton, who retired from the Navy after a long and distinguished career and is going to serve in senior management at Military Sealift Command. Thanks for your service, Rudy!

Steve recently heard from Rod Knecht. Rod is happily married with two daughters, Amy, a student at Grove City College, and Kelly, preparing to head off to college. As you can see, Rod remains active in maritime issues!

Ronda (Whitaker) Cobb gives my web design business a plug:
Re-connected with Del Lewis at a convention in Las Vegas. That led her to re-connect with Ray Christensen and he is building her new web site. Your feedback is welcome on www.RCMoneyCoach.com
I hope this finds everyone doing well.
Ray makes a good web site and is branching out to mobile apps as well, in case you want to know and he’s too shy to tell you. I’m doing OK, my kids are grown, and there aren’t any grands yet. What about you guys?

Keep the hits coming! Post at our Facebook Group if you have something to share. Stay healthy!
—– Ray Christensen

John O’Brian, Kevin Fauvell, Bumper Kunkle, Tom Bodman, Dave Ferchau, Bill Higgins, Dan Hicks, and John Ayres (’88)

Bob Bennett with daughter Meghan

Jim Goulden, Yvette Smith Piggott, A.J. Murphy

Brian Foy, Susan Pawlukiewicz, Bob Ross in DC

Bruce Garrott & Steve Keating

Rod Knecht

A.J. Murphy interrupted partying:
A quick update from the Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans. Was able to connect with Yvette Smith Piggott and a bunch of her krew at Iris parade on 25 FEB, including her daughter Carolyn and Rita Keenan Arndt ’80. They were just getting ready to roll and were looking forward to a good time!

Bob Bennett posted a photo at our class Facebook page of himself with Mike Logan in Nashville.
I had to swipe it since it’s so good.

Brian Foy reports from D.C. in December:
John Rhatigan and I took this photo at the Capitol Hill Club in DC after a long day of delivering Kings Pointer magazines to Congress and trying to get the Midshipmen back to sea!

Brian Foy reports from Las Vegas in March:
Just returned from Las Vegas and my first KP Blue-Gray Golf Outing at Revere Golf Club in Sin City. Must say it was better than I expected! Over 170 golfers and 200 attendees. The weather was sensational – even a bit chilly, but great for golf. So good to see two fellow classmates (and deckies to boot): Bob Ross and Joe Walsh. Bob is an IT Manager with the Fairfax County Public School System and living in Chantilly, VA. Joe is a law partner with the firm Clyde & Co., and based in Newport Beach, CA. The three of us had a blast and with the help of the son of a KP ’59 grad we managed to scrape our way to -11 score, which unfortunately was only good for about 5th or 6th place. Oh well, needless to say…the smack, brews and laughs were flowing as we fondly recalled our days at “the zoo” in between very questionable golf shots.
Pics: That was at the ’86 Dinner at Ri Ra Irish Pub at Mandalay Bay. Please edit out the photo bomber).

I would like to make a pitch to ALL members of the Class of ’83: come to the Las Vegas Outing. Let’s increase our representation. The Class of ’86 had over 60 attendees and they have made this event an annual reunion. Very impressive. While 60 would be a huge stretch, let’s shoot for 3-4 foursomes next year! You will not regret it. Remember…”what happens in Vegas…”

By the way, it is official. After nearly 29 years in the world of healthcare, I now work full-time as an independent contractor for the USMMA-AAF. My responsibilities as Legislative Outreach Coordinator encompass representation of the USMMA Alumni Association & Foundation, the alumni and all legislative and policy issues affecting Kings Point and the Midshipmen that flow though Congress, DOT and MARAD. It is an exciting opportunity and I am looking forward to reconnecting with classmates and fellow alumni across the country. I will be in Washington, DC on a regular basis. Classmates can reach me anytime on my cell: 304-871-0888 or at . Please reach out to me with any close relationships (personal or professional) you have with members of Congress as I am assembling a Key Contact list to enhance our advocacy both in DC and back home.

Looking forward to the next ’83 golf gathering at Myrtle Beach!

Thank you, Brian! Parties and politics are fine, but I’d like to see a few more grandkid pics. If you don’t receive my quarterly emails begging for stories, please send me your email address along with a couple of lines of news. Take care!
—– Ray Christensen

A.J. & Gretchen Murpy with Yvette Smith Piggott and Rita Keenan Arndt ’80

Bob Bennett & Mike Logan

Brian Foy & John Rhatigan in D.C.

Joe Walsh, Bob Ross, Brian Foy + son of KP’59 grad

Brian Foy & Bob Ross in Vegas

Foy, Ross & Walsh

If I didn’t already mention, Class of ’83 rocks! Thanks for sharing so much news (and verifying it with photos)…

Bumper Kunkle is quite the social director:
Attached is a picture from Friday. Pete Brennan, Steve Dear, Tom Aufiero, Tom Bodman and I got met at PJ Whelihans in Washington Township, NJ. Sue Bodman, Donna Aufiero, Maria, my wife and my son Jimmy were also there.
Jimmy was home from East Carolina University, where he is a senior.
Tom Bodman is getting ready to retire this March with 34 years of service to NAVSSES. Pete is still at Cardinal Health. I think he’s going to work a couple more years. Tom Aufiero works for Bosch Rexroth and I think he will be they’re for a while too.

Steve Dear is still sailing! he is closing on a house in Arizona this week to be closer to his daughters. Steve still has deep roots in Jersey so he comes back here frequently. I am still at NAVSSES along with a handful of our classmates, Bill Higgins, Dave Ferchau, Kevin Farrell, Dan Hicks, Bill Kraynik, Dave heinbockel, and John O’Brian.

The Alumni Foundation first alerted me about Jim Quern‘s first grandchild, so then he selected just the right photo for this column, beaming: “Baby is Jacquelyn Rose Quern, born November 5, 2016 courtesy of my son Kevin and his wife Emily.” (more pics at KP83.org)

Mickey C proudly shares:
A week after Jim and Anne Quern became first time grand parents Mary Kay and I joined the club. Our oldest daughter and her husband, Amanda and Jason Sweedler, welcomed a beautiful baby girl in to the world. Emma Rose Sweedler was born exactly at sunrise on Veterans Day with a view of Franklin field from her room at the University of Pennsylvania hospital. All are well and grandparents are on cloud nine. Note- it has been brought to my attention baby Emma has more hair than me!

Mark Smith joins the party:
Still working at NAVSEA, 32+ years and counting. I am the Senior Ship Design Manager for NAVSEA for the new class of Fleet Replenishment Oilers being built for MSC. The contract was award to NASSCO in San Diego in June 2016. The first ship will be the USNS John Lewis (T-AO 205) and should deliver about 4 years from now. I work with a bunch of KPer’s from through the years, somehow I am now one of the oldest ones around.
I also became a grandfather for the first time on 26 October 2016. I have attached a picture of Grayson and me from this evening.

A.J. Murphy writes:
Things are going well here in Houston. Have not run into many classmates lately, but it was nice to have a brief visit by my roommate Chris D’Angelo and his lovely wife Lynn, who were on a Texas swing for business and added a run to our place before heading back to CT. We had a really nice day, so headed out to the lake and on the boat for a relaxing cruise and lunch. It was good for us to get a chance to catch up and the ladies got a good opportunity to visit as well. Enclosed a selfie of the 4 of us having a good time.

On the personal front, just started a new job doing business development with a consulting company on 1 SEP. Looking forward to that and it’s always interesting to tell them that you need that week off for a vacation that was already on the books. Gretchen and I joined my sister and brother in-law on a cruise in early OCT. It always seems a bit odd to be on a ship with no job! Spending money is the alternative, so we focused on that part.
I was able to connect with Jim and Anne Quern on FRI after Thanksgiving in New Orleans for a nice dinner.

Bill Rupy has returned:
After our brief life Under the Venetian Sun, LeAnn and I are back in the States. We’re in Illinois, but are so close to Wisconsin we could actually walk there! Not sure why we might, other than ‘cheese’, or to see if we could max out the Fitbit, I suppose. Speaking of that little gadget, would you believe the other night at bedtime LeAnn took a look at hers and, upon noticing that she hadn’t reached her daily stairs goal, she actually tried to get me to run from our basement to the second floor a few times while wearing her Fitbit?! I suggested she strap it to the paws of one of the cats and check it in the morning, since we usually hear them running around like crazed furry elephants during the night anyway. But she brought up a good point that, if it fell off a paw while the cat was in the litterbox then they might bury it, and assuming that she could even find it the next day, she wouldn’t be too keen to attach it back to herself after that.

Anyway, speaking of steps, I must paws to tell you that I’ll be starting a new job in downtown Chicago soon, so I’m sure I’ll be doing plenty of walking myself from now on, especially since my sense of direction isn’t quite ready for the Big City. The job is cool, I think. Well, what happened is, I interviewed with four different people from the company, and each person with whom I spoke had a different idea of what exactly I would be doing, but they all seemed to agree I’d be good at it, so here I am. I’m sure I’ll find out once I start doing it, and will afterward be able to announce it in these pages, either proudly or sheepishly, depending on the impressiveness of the title. That’s all for now! Happy Holidays to all my classmates!!!

Scott O’Connor shared these photos of El Faro Memorial, “under Dames Point Bridge quarter mile from her tie-ups at Jaxport.” Steve Schultz and each crewmember name is imprinted on it.

Erin Gantt shares:
A KP grad from the 1990s forwarded an article from 2015 that ranks USMMA as the top small school where you can get a cheap education as well as have a high earning potential after graduation. The article from The Street.com, may be viewed here:
https://www.thestreet.com/story/13289612/9/11-small-colleges-that-cost-the-least-but-reap-the-most-earnings.html

Again, thanks for sending enough content that I didn’t have to fill space with post-election Trump/Hillary stuff or the continuing Academy mess. Ray Christensen still doesn’t have his own family, but is again in the midst of switching out roommates. Instead of costing money, the people in my house pay to live with me 😉
—– Ray Christensen

Pete Brennan, Steve Dear, Tom Bodman, AJ Kunkle, Tom Aufiero (l to r)

 
Jim Quern & granddaughter Jacquelyn Rose

   
Mickey C with granddaughter Emma Rose || Mark Smith with grandson Grayson

Gretchen & A.J. Murphy with Lynn & Chris D’Angelo

A.J. Murphy & Jim Quern with their ladies

El Faro Memorial in Jacksonville

 
El Faro Memorial in Jacksonville