A.J. Murphy writes:
While in the San Diego area end SEP, I was fortunate enough on timing to be able to have dinner with Dan Baerman as well as Del Lewis. They didn’t know that they are almost neighbors! It was great to catch up with Dan as he has had a lot of exciting adventures in his career and Del always has interesting endeavors under way. We all agreed that our ’83 class section of news is moving way too far to the back of the Kings Pointer!

Skip McAloon writes:
Roger Foster, who is still employed with Bath Iron Works in Maine, was in New Orleans recently. He was temporarily consulting on the construction of a Navy vessel in Mobile, AL and came over to New Orleans to spend a night. I went to dinner with Roger and Jim Quern and after dinner Roger and I went to Rock-N-Bowl. It was a fun evening. We tried to get Frank Liantonio to join us, but as usual, he dug deep into the bag of lame excuses and declined. Maybe some day.
You should contact Scott Brueggeman, I bet that he has some news!
P.S. Captain Rudy Lupton is about to move to Japan to take command of a giant Navy ship, the name of which escapes me. He will be there about 15 months.

Frank Liantonio writes:
I’ve been living in the New Orleans area for 26 years now. Kim and I will be married 20 years next February. Our daughter Marissa will graduate from high school next May, and our daughter Gianna is in her freshman year of high school. They keep us busy, but we’re blessed with children much better behaved than their parents were (are). Just don’t tell them. Both do very well in school and are on the same school dance team. We’re very proud of them, but I’m very sure I’m not wired for having two teenage daughters. Thankfully, it’s only temporary. I’ve been practicing law at the same firm for the last 21 years since I graduated from Loyola Law School in New Orleans. It’s been an interesting ride most of the time.

I see Anne and Jim Quern regularly. Our daughters all go to the same school, so Jim and I have an annual date at the Father/Daughter Banquet each December. Their daughter Maureen and our daughter Marissa have already been accepted to LSU next year and will be rooming together. Until this past season, I had been coaching their daughter Kelly in soccer since she was about 6 (she’s now 15), even after my daughter retired. Their boys, Kevin and Tommy, are in 11th and 8th grades, respectively, and we hear rumors that Kevin might consider Kings Point. Not sure KP is ready for a third generation of Querns, but we’ll see.

Jim and I had dinner with Rick Boudiette recently while he was in New Orleans for a meeting with ABS. Rick and his wife Lisa are living in the San Francisco area and he’s still working for Chevron Shipping. He’s still hoping to return to playing hockey, but work keeps getting in the way. As usual though, we had plenty of laughs. I guess we’re maturing a bit though, since we all knew it was time to leave the pub when they started auctioning off the waitresses for some charity. After a couple of them pranced onto a pool table converted to a stage — it was pretty tacky, even for us; perhaps if they somehow installed a dance pole we might have stayed (OK, we would have stayed) — we knew it was time to go. Rick said he sees John Diegoli occasionally and that Dan Baerman, who is still in San Diego, has threatened to get together for a golf weekend. Rick also said he saw George Toma recently and he was doing well and still living in Phoenix.

I run into Skip McAloon occasionally since we work just a few floors apart in the same building. He’s also doing well and “loving the law.” He’s tried several times to plan a get together with my family and the Querns, but coordinating schedules has been impossible. Plus Jim doesn’t return email, which is a bit of a logistical problem. Skip, Jim and Keith Jarrett (’80) played in the Blue and Gray golf classic in October, but I didn’t hear much other than rain precluded a full round.

I talk with Joe Burton pretty regularly. Joe and Cindy are still on Long Island. Their oldest daughter (and my God daughter) Sarah graduated from high school in 2009 and started at C.W. Post in the fall. Son Patrick and daughter Laura are also doing fine. We weren’t able to get together while my family did a quick trip to Long Island over the summer, but all is well.

Maureen McKeever writes:
I am still at Dish Network, training customer service agents. I got to go to Denver in January, which meant I missed the worst of the winter weather in Pittsburgh and had warm days. I found a Steelers bar to enjoy the AFC Conference and the Super Bowl games with all sorts of Steelers fans. The summer was spent with visits with family and going to Pirates games. In October I traveled to Massachusetts to visit my brother and go to Provincetown to see the ocean. My oldest nephew is a senior in high school in Lancaster and he and his siblings are in lots of theater productions at school. The younger two were extras in Spiderman 3 a few years back! My parents are doing well and are currently on a cruise to the Caribbean.

Duncan Leach writes:
as a “no longer official KP-83 -er” I may not rate for the “Pointer”, but if I do, I’m living in the Albany, NY area, have 15 year old twins and teach special education at a local school district. Thinking about many of my old KP friends these days and want to say hi to all!

Carrie Rohde writes:
Dan, myself and the kids are all doing well. We had some fun a couple of weeks ago at a High School Sailing Regatta at the US Coast Guard Academy. As many of you may be aware we have 4 children from ages 20 to 13. Our oldest Krysta now attends the US Coast Guard Academy. Our two younger daughters Devon age 16 and Dana age 13 recently sailed in a regatta at the Coast Guard Academy. Dan being always prepared, a trait he aquired at KP traveled to the event with a KP burgee tucked in his duffle bag. You know you never want to leave home without one. Anyway after the event was competed he proceeded to run the KP burgee up the
flag pole at Jacobs Rock (Coast Guard Sailing Center). He of course had lined up an army of photographers to capture the moment. It’s a good thing Krysta now a 2/c cadet, was not too embarrassed by her Dad’s antics. Attached is a picture of Dan, Myself , our two younger daughters and two friends with the KP burgee proudly flying.

Update your profile!
—– Ray Christensen

Dan Baerman, AJ Murphy, Del Lewis

Carrie & Dan with daughters & friends at USGCA

Rex Gundle writes, “Here are a couple shots from my road trip featuring a few Kings Pointers last month. I can say Carrie and Dan Rohde are doing great, as are Tom and Marti Collipi, Stan Cutler, Yvette Smith Pigott, and Willie Barerre. I missed out on seeing Scott O’Connor as he was piloting a ship into JAX, but did get a chance to talk a short time to Brian Foy on the phone. Lastly I saw Al Gebhardt in the Maersk Charlotte office long enough to shake hands. So although I missed the reunion, I saw plenty of classmates this year. Kim, 2/3’s of the kids and I are still in Holland, amazed at the great weather this summer.
The photos are: (1) Dan and his pig Dominic, and (2) Willie and me on his balcony overlooking Cape Canaveral.

Here are some personal updates from our profiles page:

Art Burns: Married Grace Kortlucke in 2001, 20 years after we met at KP. Worked shoreside a couple of years, 5 years USN, sailing with AMO since 1990. Live in a log home on some farmland in the Wisconsin county where I grew up.

Leo Carling: My wife (Andrea) and I recently purchased 11 acres of land South-West of Front Royal VA. We’re designing our retirement home and look forward to a bit of peace and quiet.

Michael Curtiss: I’m living in Southern California and commuting to Houston, Texas every couple of weeks for work. I’ve been married for 21 years to Katina and we have 3 kids. Ariana who’s 20 and is a sophomore at the University of San Diego. My son Jason is 16 and a sophomore in high school. Jason plays baseball on the high school team as well as travel ball all year round. My youngest is Julia, she is 15 years old.

Al Gebhardt: Happily married to my high school sweetheart Tina for 25 years. Have 2 boys, Mike(17),and Andrew (15). Mike will be going to Tulane next year. Moved with Maersk to Charlotte (NASCAR land) 3 years ago. Sorry I missed the reunion. There are a lot of KP’ers in my office back to ’65.

Robert Seif: I have been married for 21+ years to Jan and we have a daughter Mary (21) and a Step son David (27). I spent the first 11+ years after the Academy flying jets for the Navy. I flew A-6s out of Whidbey Is., WA and was an Advanced jet flight instructor in Beeville, TX. After working for Trane (Seattle Office) for 14 years – Designing and installing HVAC and lighting control systems for Costco, Nordstrom and other large retailers, I made a change and took a position with Alerton (Div. of Honeywell) in Feb 2009. I am working as a Factory level Tech Support Engineer. We support Alerton dealers worldwide and also provide Alpha and Beta test support for our design team.

Read more comments at our site (and update yours at the same time!) Be safe.

—– Ray Christensen

Dan Rohde and his pig

Willie Barerre & Rex Gundle

Scott O’Connor submitted 2 photos from 3/31. He writes, “Coincidence found Sean Connaughton in Jax to attend a Maritime Highways Initiative conference in his new position of Vice President of Government Affairs with American Bureau of Shipping. Bruce Garrott drove up to work at the corporate offices of Coastal Construction Products for a couple of the same days. Brian Foy was between medical society conference calls, maintaining the bachelor lifestyle, his family still back in Oklahoma. We took the opportunity to raise a couple glasses at the local Seven Bridges Brewery and Grille in Jacksonville. Lots of talk about kids and colleges.”

Bruce submitted the final photo from earlier… “It was taken during my final wetting down (CAPTAIN)! The big event occurred on the 31st of January, 2009.”

On May 7, Capt. Scott Douglass held his retirement ceremony after 26 years with the Coast Guard Res.

Nate Reybold recently sailed into Philadelphia but I was unable to get together with him. He writes:
“I’m living in Virginia Beach Ray, working on tow/salvage vessels for Military Sealift Command.The work stays interesting, towing de-commissioned ships, working with Navy ROV’s and side scan sonars, supporting Navy Dive Operations and picking up downed aircraft from the bottom of the ocean are just some of the missions we do. It’s always something different. Right now we’re doing the pre-tow inspection on an ex-navy vessel that we’ll be towing out of Philly on Saturday. I have a Pearson 323 Sailboat back in Va Beach that I get out sailing on as much as the job lets me.”

Matt Bucherati continues to try to get me to visit his weekend house in the mountains of NC. He writes:
“My Daughter Ellen, 22, just graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (you know, the national NCAA champs). She received a BSBA from their prestigious Kenan-Flagler School of Business. Ellen also accepted a position as a Marketing Analyst working for PepsiCo in Purchase, NY beginning this summer. My youngest daughter Rosie, 20, is also a rising junior at Kenan-Flagler as well. She will be working this summer in Kitty Hawk, NC as a hang gliding instructor. She got the daredevil blood from her dad. My son, Adam, 26, is temporarily stationed at Fort Hood, TX as his unit, the 1-130th Aviation Recon and Attack Battalion, completes final work-ups before their deployment to Basra, Iraq where they will be stationed for one year. My son and his wife, Shannon, already have one son, named Matthew, who just turned one. They also found out on the day of his deployment that they are pregnant with their second child whose due date is November 17th. Adam will miss the birth, but his wife lives only a couple of miles from us in Winston-Salem and plenty of other family that will take good care of the family. Everything is well with Sara and me. We have adjusted well to the empty nest.”

Besides Boston Marathon, in May I ran the Broad Street Run 10 miler in Philly (23,000 finishers in each race). But the speedster in our class is Pete LaFontaine. In a recent 4K race, his son Trevor (16) and Pete finished 1-2! Pete’s 5K times, “usually in the low 18:00’s” are still impressive enough to often win his division. Trevor recently ran a 9:55 two-mile and his high school team won the CT State Championship last fall. Pete adds, “My 13 year-old son Connor just won his first one-mile race at his middle school meet with a time of 5:25, and he is posting times faster than his older brother at that age. My wife Judi is still running 5K races – usually winning her age division. Judi is also the girl’s Cross Country coach at our local high school.”

Doug Ullman writes:
”I’ve been with Atlantic Marine since June 2008 as a Project Coordinator for the 240-ft OSV’s we’re building for Hornbeck Offshore. 4 of 6 boats have been delivered to-date with the remaining two due later this year. As you know, there are several Kings Pointers here, although I am the only one involved with New Construction. Prior to coming to Atlantic, I was a Senior Project Manager for a
store package maunfacturer that built and installed casework. I handled projects for Starbucks, Smoothie King, Target, and Einstein Bros. Bagels. I am much happier now that I have returned to my maritime roots! Attached is a shot of my youngest son, Drew, and I at the launching of the HOS North Star (Boat 3) last August.”

Bob Ross writes:
“I had the unique distinction of being the first deckie to join Mickey C, Jimmy Quern, John Rhatigan, Del Lewis, Jim Goulden, Mike Keane, and Guy Wilson down at Myrtle Beach (The Legends) for their annual golf outing. I had a great time and haven’t laughed so hard since I don’t know when… and that was just on the golf course. Mike’s son, Mickey Jr., joined us as well. He couldn’t get into KP so he had to settle for some rinkey dink college in Maryland called Johns Hopkins or something
like that. One of the golfers there thanked Mr. Rhatigan for his service to our country (check out John’s boonie hat) so that was nice. Guy brought his sky caddie which helped everyone get down to a 2-3 handicap (if Mike is keeping score).

Jimmy Goulden didn’t join us for golf; something about being gun shy after being hit by a stray ball in years past but did join us for cigars and beer. Jimmy Quern was on his best behavior and could easily start a new career as a golf instructor. I have a great video of Mickey hitting out of the sand to within a few feet of the hole. Unfortunately, it was his second shot out of the sand.
I was really hoping that Jeff Coons would have been there to keep everybody under control and well-behaved. I understand that Jeff is a stickler for the rules and etiquette of golf. I plan to attend next year as well and hope that others take Mickey up on the invitation he extended to all at homecoming last year. I also want to offer John & Del at chance to win back their pride
from Jimmy Q & I.”

Jim Goulden adds, “I’m not a golfer, but I try to get up there yearly for the fellowship, beer consumption and cigar smoking. My brethren and I are all well. You’ll notice that Mike Keane is still wearing his Corframs from KP. They make great golf shoes. Had lunch recently with Bruce Garrott. Bruce and I work near each other in Orlando and get together every so often to plan the
conservative take back of the U.S.!”

—– Ray Christensen

Sean, Brian, Scott, Bruce

Stan Cutler, Bruce Garrott, Jim Goulden

Doug Ullman and son

Myrtle Beach golf crew