Stay in Touch by Email: Sign up for class email news.
Kay and Molly have been maintaining a database of classmates that we know of. Please keep us up to date on contact information.
Stay in Touch by Email: Sign up for class email news.
Kay and Molly have been maintaining a database of classmates that we know of. Please keep us up to date on contact information.
BHBL '68 Weblog 
Just a short update…
It was terrific to see the photos from the reunion. I was even able to recognize a lot of you ! I have made a vow to try to make the 50th.
I am still here in England, working hard to start yet another financial services company. In the meantime my various aches and pains are being attended to by our National Health Service. I have to wait for appointments even to the GP, but everything is free – even prescriptions. Moving back to the US without health coverage is a non starter as things start to wear out.
While I enjoy my visits to America, living in England has been really enjoyable. The weather is a lot better than its reputation, over 29 years the food has improved out of recognition, and I now prefer our semi-warm beer. The English make good neighbors behind their 10 foot hedges, and there is a tolerance of eccentricity that means you can live your life with real freedom. And the grass never turns brown. I did have to shovel the driveway twice last winter, but that was a once in a decade event.
I live in the SW suburbs of London (24 miles out) but would be happy to meet up with any classmates who come on business or as tourists.
I am happy to provide recommendations on restaurants and places to visit, and would be good for a couple of pints of that bitter beer. My email is blundell.mark@gmail.com, and cell phone is +44 7968 183189.
I look forward to hearing from one and all.
Best personal regards,
Mark
I attended Burnt Hills – Ballston Lake High School through my junior year before moving to “paradise” in Napa, California with my family. My father worked for General Electric Nuclear most of his career. Our family move to California was due to his assignment refueling the USS Bainbridge at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, CA. I graduated in 1968 from Napa High School having made some wonderful life long friends and experiencing the California “American Graffiti” life style for over a year! My family then moved to Mount Vernon, IN when my father took an assignment for GE in the Navy shop at Babcock and Wilcox. I next attended UT Knoxville for 2 years which was again full of adventures and overall a great experience.
In 1970 I went to work for GE Plastics completing 10 years of company training and over time earning 2 Journeyman certificaties issued through the US Department of Labor (Maintenance Electrician and Digital Automation Controls Technician). I was married in 1972 to my current and only wife Lisa. After 36 years with GE Plastics in Mount Vernon, IN, I accepted an early retirement offer from GE in November 2005. I had just turned 55 at that time. My wife retired with me and was waiting for me as I came home from my last day at GE. I think the idea of me being unsupervised for even one day was more than she could stand. She was committed to saving me from myself. Lisa managed to retire successfully, I however failed “retirement” having gone stir crazy in less than 2 months! I couldn’t stay busy enough at home. Fortunately GE had trained me very well and I had my choice of 4 job offers upon retirement. I accepted my “dream job” as a Senior Project Manager and industrial Controls Engineer with a terrific EPC engineering company and went back to work in January 2006. I have completed several large projects including a global IT infrastructure build for one of our pharmaceutical customers in 2010. I was assigned the Asian region which took me to China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia on multiple occasions. The ASIA assignments convinced me we are quite spoiled in the US. I have also managed large control systems replacement projects for our power generation and chemical manufacturing customers. I love what I am doing, the people I work with, and am planning to work full time for 3 more years.
This update doesn’t cover all of my exploits or hobbies. It seems I have been a bit of a work-a-holic. While working at GE I also served as a reserve deputy sheriff in our county for 9 years until my daughter was born. When Stephanie came along, I judged the personal risks were too large for me to continue on the department – that was 29 years ago. I had new responsibilities and felt it was time to quit putting myself in harms way. Lisa was well pleased with that change.
Lisa and I live in South Western Indiana (Mount Vernon) and have been happily married now for 41 years, spending about 85% of our time laughing at each other. The other 15% of the time she is usually trying to “put the brakes on me”! Our daughter graduated college, is now married for almost 5 years, and she and her husband have given us a very active beautiful grand daughter. She just turned 3 and keeps Grandma quite busy when she is with us which thankfully is quite often. Fortunately our “kids” live only 12 miles away so we see them frequently.
I love tools, being creative with my hands, and have been building high performance cars since I was first licensed to drive. We built a large shop on the back of our property with lifts and all the tools I need to improve and maintain our collection. My wife and I enjoy attending car shows, showing as many as four of our own high performance collectible cars when we can find trusted drivers to help us get them to the local shows. We especially enjoy meeting new people and making new friends. I don’t think I would change much about my life, I’ve done just about everything I ever wanted to, and my friends and especially my family have been my greatest blessing. My E-Mail is dloyler@gmail.com – I’d enjoy hearing from any of my old classmates.
I have thought of my BHBL friends quite often over the years! I hope this finds all of you well and happy. Dave
Sitting in the hotel the morning of the 2013 get-together at the Pig ‘N Whistle so I thought I would give a short update. Living in Delaware, still working, married (Maria Aristigueta), three kids (Laura who is joining us at the get-together, Claudia and Robert [twins]). Have a wonderful daughter-in-law and our two daughters are planning their 2014 weddings two months apart. Our first grandchild (Anthony) is now four months old.
Some may remember my mother who was the playground lady at Ballston Lake Elementary (now Stevens). She had a good long life, lived near us in her later years and died in 2005. My father died in 1981. My older brother, Frank (Bud), BHBL class of 1965, sadly died in 1998 at age 51.
Everything is going well and I have had a fabulous life since BHBL. Have lived near Boston, New York, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando and now live in Delaware. Happily married for 32 years to a wonderful lady. Need only two more states to have been to all 50 (Montana and Idaho): one of the only things on my bucket list is to visit the last two. Have been able to travel a bit internationally both for work and for fun.
In summary, life is good and I hope it is good for all of my classmates from BHBL as well.
Don Coons
I’d love to be at the reunion next weekend, but can’t get there, so here’s a note to say hi to all of you. I haven’t seen many of you (my schoolmates from K through 9) since my family moved downstate in 1965, but what’s three years of high school missed, out of the forty-eight since we moved away? My folks moved back to Clifton Park in 1968 and later lived in a retirement community in Saratoga, until my Mom passed away this Spring, so I’ve stayed connected to the area, and I’ve loved coming back and spending time in Saratoga County.
School and jobs took me to various stops along the East Coast until I moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1981, and I lived in Michigan until this year, when I moved to Southern California. I’m an environmental engineer, working on water pollution issues (things like GE’s Upper Hudson PCBs). I have moved out here to try to expand business on the West Coast for the little consulting firm I work for, and then already be where we want to be when we cut back on work. I’m widowed and remarried, and life is at a high point. A bonus – I didn’t have kids but now have grown-up stepchildren (they are great, and I got to skip diapers and worrying about college tuition!)
To those who attend, hoping you have a great time !
Since 2002, I have been living in Troy with my partner Kevin who is an RN and artist/designer. We have a 135 year old house that takes lots of time, money and love from us. It is our laboratory, refuge and crazy garden of beaver salad bar on the banks of the Poestenkill. At this point I am calling myself semi retired. After 22 years at GE and then another 4 years of running a spin off company of my GE department, I started a small interior design business doing hands on custom painted finishes and all aspects of home design and renovation. That was in 1998. In the last 8 years or so, I have returned to making art. For me that means painting, virtually all abstracts. Not sure where this phase is going to go next, but the paintings are piling up in all the corners of our house. Maybe someday, I will have an exhibit, but for now, I just love the process of making it. Life is good.
Looking forward to this year’s reunion.
Please check out my new tumblr page mt-ida-moon.tumblr.com
I was very shocked and deeply saddened to hear of Kris Moline’s recent passing on April 17.
Pat Sullivan Smith passed along that Kris Moline Spitzinger’s funeral is being held April 26th in Gray,Maine. Her obit can be found in the Portland Press Herald and the Schenectady Gazette. Just wanted people to know if they wanted to attend.
Hi Patsy
I just read about Mo on this blog from that class reunion that Molly had. Please contact me asap. My email is
tropical1@myself.com
Thanks
steve
I recently heard that Carla Plummer (she was in my Physics class senior year) passed away in 1985 after becoming a Psychologist. Does anyone know about the circumstances that took her life at such a young age? It seems like such a tragedy.
Greetings from England. During most of my 24 years here I have had no regrets about living as a long term expatriate, but seeing the pics from your mini-reunion made me wish that I lived a little closer…especially with the nice weather!
There is every likelihood that I will retire to Northern California if I make it that long, but in the interim if any of you come over to England or Germany please let me know. I am always good for a pint or two of semi-warm beer and lots of tips on shopping, restaurants museums and theatres. Golfers are especially welcome; my local club in suburban Surrey is owned by the Guiness family, so the 19th hole is always well stocked.
my email is bhbl68@yahoo.co.uk (!) or blundell.mark@gmail.com; best telephone from the USA is my mobile 011-44- 7968 183189.
My office is in central London, but my solar power company Eurovoltaic is owned by a German private equity firm and I am over to Frankfurt and Duesseldorf just about every week. On the website you can see me wandering around a big solar power farm that we own and operate in Griesheim in central Germany. All those tortuous lessons from Mr.Enzien actually were good for something…
Cheers, Mark Blundell