Our hearts go out to the family of Kerry O’Neill, who passed away 12/26/19. Bumper Kunkle and Tom Aufiero shared some memories with me and I’ve copied his obituary to KP83.org. Kerry’s career kept him overseas for a number of years before returning to his home town in upstate New York in late 2018. All are welcome to submit photos or remembrances for his page on our site.

John Carbone shares some happier news (adding to photo in Fall issue):
The usual KP ’83 suspects traveled to Philly to celebrate with Mickey & Mary Kay Cunningham at their daughter Sarah’s wedding- the company of good friends and the drinks were flowing which made for a most successful evening!

Here’s a recent photo of Bob & John Grimaldi, taken on John’s front porch in NJ.

John Prien writes:
No recent classmate sightings for me in Atlanta. I do; however, have some great news – our second oldest child Ben was just accepted to Georgia Tech (where his sister Madison is a Junior and CEO of her sorority). The two oldest have followed me to GT (she is business and he will study engineering). 2 more to get through the college admissions process – hopefully I can sway one of my other two boys to give Kings Point and/or the military a try.

Class of ‘83 at KP-Philly Chapter Tailgate at Army-Navy game. Dave Ferchau; John Rhatigan; Dan Hicks; and Brian Foy. Many thanks to Dave Wickersham ‘93 and John Brennan ‘93 for hosting and coordinating. Brian happens to be wearing jacket featuring the ship he and Ray Christensen did a tour of duty aboard starting in 1983.

Speaking of college football, Frank Liantonio submits:

Here is a photo of Jim Quern, Rick Boudiette, and my wife Kim tailgating at LSU in November of 2019 before the beat down of Texas A&M on the road to a perfect season and the national championship. While none of us attended LSU, the Quern and Liantonio children have earned at least 8 degrees from the school, so we’re definitely donors. It has been great to have great friends like Jim and Anne nearby and having our kids grow up together. And having Rick around now when he’s not in Angola (the country, not the Louisiana State Penitentiary) is a nice bonus.

Stan Cutler “had a great time with my long-time KP roommate Joe Chaput at his son’s wedding in Tavares!”

By the time this column is in print, a new book by Del Lewis will be published and available at Amazon.com. With a title of “Get Your Ship Together”, you know you’ll want to grab a copy!

Have a pleasant Spring.

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Mark Suter shares:
I was lucky enough to catch up with Craig Ellixson last week in Miami for dinner during “Spice week”. We had a fabulous dinner at Il Mulino and a great view of the beach. Craig filled me in on his trip to South Africa earlier in the summer and we caught up on families, work, etc.

Mathew Bucherati sent a photo displaying how his family continues to grow:
We held our family reunion at our mountain house this past fourth of July including Sara, myself, our four kids, their spouses and our seven grandchildren. There were actually 17.25 of us there since my youngest daughter, Rosie, is pregnant with her first and due in January. We have been so blessed as a family. I am still enjoying my career at Pepsi-Cola, now in its 34th year. I have been doing a tremendous amount of international business travel in recent years, so it almost feels like my sailing days again except much nicer ports of call. Sara tags along on many of these trips as well. Retirement is probably not too far off and Sara and I look forward to living full time in the Blue Ridge mountains of NC.

A.J. Murphy writes:
We have been trying locally to get some folks from the class together here in Houston for a catch up outing. Earlier Mike Curtiss was playing a big part in pulling some of us together and I was able to have a great visit with both Scott Hart and Mike Curtiss at a coffee shop in town.

With schedules being what they are, we were finally able to pull one together and four of us got underway on the lake just north of Houston – Kurt Larsen, Mike Booth, George Toma and myself. Sent along a selfie of the crew that day that included puttering around, some swimming and lunch up at the lake. We later adjourned to my house for a grilled dinner and more K.P. stories. But we were able to add one more to the group as Mike Curtiss was able to join us as well for the evening as the vessel traffic in Houston allowed him a bit of a break. We are hoping to rope in a few more classmates in Houston as we go further down the road, since Al Reeves, Mark Salinas and Tom Lightsey are also here.

Brian Foy continues to meet up with classmates regularly:
Hey Ray…I made it back to Homecoming this year and hung out with Chris Cioni, who was in town from the left coast visiting family. We walked the campus on a picture-perfect day, visited the Memorial Arbors (thinking about our deceased classmates) and even toured the Kings Pointer. Chris got to spend some time with his Dad, who was ill and has since passed away as of this writing.

While I was recently in San Diego, I reached out to Del Lewis and we met for breakfast. Del is doing great and says he occasionally sees Dan Baerman, who also lives in the San Diego area. Del and I reminisced about our years at KP, including plebe year in 5th Company, where the fun all started. After San Diego, I headed back to Washington, DC – my home away from home. I have been in touch with Sean Connaughton and Lee Forsgren and we are planning to get-together once our three schedules properly align.

I plan to spend the holidays at home in St. Augustine. If any classmates are passing by on their way to points south, give me a shout!

Mickey C spent lots of quality time with his daughter Sarah:
September 7th our youngest was married in Philadelphia with a strong showing from KP grads. From right to left are Barb and my cousin John Coleman ‘78, John and Donna Carbone, Mike and Jeannie Keane, Jim and Anne Quern, me and my wife Mary Kay, my sister Cathy Kirby and her son Aidan (Kevin Kirby ‘94), Kent and Julie Morton, Jim Goulden. In spirit and missed by all was John and Elaine Rhatigan who were unable to join us.

Erin Gantt was the first to alert me that Rich Colonna appeared in the CBS Sunday Morning show on 11/10. Link is on our website for “We, the People: Mary Whyte’s portraits of 50 veterans from 50 states” Rich appears at about 5 mins 18 seconds into the story and he is one of the 50 veterans whose portraits are in the exhibition.

May our whole class have a super holiday season and great start to 2020!

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AJ Murphy shares:
Here was a quick picture of classmate George Toma and myself at the ADM Buono luncheon for the Port of Houston Chapter end June.

Mark Hoyle’s note in previous column included incorrect Navy retirement year. It was actually 2012 when he retired after 28 years! Here is his photo to go with it.

Rex Gundle writes:
Just a quick note, I have landed back in North Carolina from Republic of Georgia to try my hand in the forwarding world, which allows me to be in the same time zone as 75% of my family (which is a record high over the last couple of decades).  I hope to be here, hanging out at the lake on weekends and working down in Charlotte during the week. As far as classmate sightings, I ran into Al Gebhardt in the office lobby this week, but no other sightings since the reunion. Keep on smiling!

Jon Kjaerulff shares:
I recently caught up with George Toma, Mike Curtiss and Chris Hart while visiting Houston.  They all look great and didn’t turn out old and fat like me!  Here’s a picture of the four of us.

John Carbone contributes:
Another month another KP ‘83 offspring wedding- here are the usual suspects celebrating at Michael Keane’s son Mickey’s wedding.

Mark Suter reports:
Jeanann and I were at the Academy Aug 27 to see NYU v KP soccer scrimmage.  We had time to take a walk through the water front before the game. These two teams have been playing each other for a number of years and every game is so close.  Last night was no exception as KP scored in the last 2 minutes to tie the scrimmage 2-2.

Our youngest, Nicholas is a freshman at NYU and like his two older brothers loved playing at KP.  Now all four male New York Suters have played on the USMMA field. Nicholas played in the last period and gave NYU its first goal, and his first college goal.  We were thrilled! Another fund connection is that Nicholas’ club coach’s daughter is dating a senior at KP, Nick Roros, who we met in the spring at a soccer club game, and we sat in the stands last night with his parents and brother, Greg who’s a plebe.

Also, we got to speak with Superintendent  RADM Jack Buono about the academy and all the wonderful improvements to the infrastructure.

Mickey C was on the road in Ohio and snapped a photo of shares a football team memory: “40 years ago we opened with the University of Dayton st Welcome Stadium.  I just drove by as I’m here for business.  I don’t remember them ‘welcoming’ us!”

Gary ’82 and Lisa Fields and I have been busy with their grandsons this summer.  Here is a picture of the three of them.  Finnlee, 8, Elliott, 1 week, and Bennett, 5.

From Ray: Notify me when you get together with classmates or if you’ve got news or email address of Jeff Fout, David Garnett, Steve Myers or Chris Shirley, or any of the names listed on home page of KP83.org. Take care.