Then & Now

This section of our website allows you to tell us what the heck you've been doing the past 50 years and add any other comments you would like.  Please enter your profile and you can come back to the site at anytime to change it.  You will need a current digital or scanned photo of yourself to upload to our site.  If you are computer-challenged in this respect, perhaps you can seek help from someone who is more informed on this, or call your local Kinko's or office supply store for help.  If none of that works, just contact us at >>blackshirts1961@yahoo.com<< and we are pleased to help.  You will also need some narrative on what has happened in your life since graduation.  So please ADD YOUR PROFILE below!  It will probably take at least one day before your information is posted and once it is, you may edit it at any time.

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MAKE SURE TO WRITE DOWN YOUR USER NAME AND PASSWORD WHEN YOU ENTER YOUR PROFILE SO YOU CAN COME BACK TO CHANGE IT AT ANY TIME AND USE FEATURES ON OUR WEBSITE.  ENTERING YOUR EMAIL INTO YOUR PROFILE IS IMPORTANT.  (Your email address is not visible to those viewing your profile.  When they send you a message with "Send This Person A Message", their message is automatically forwarded to the private email address you used when you entered your profile.)
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You do NOT have to enter a picture from your high school years (the "then" picture).  We have it and will add it to your profile once you have entered your information and "now" photo, and saved it.

Karen May (Neumann)

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Married
Children: 4
Occupation: library/media/research center
Comment:

Nice website Jack!! 





After high school attended UW Madison for 3 1/2 years, then went back to Waukesha and worked in the medical field and did some modeling on the side. 





Met my husband while on vacation 42 years ago and we have been together ever since.  I was a stay-at-home mom while our four daughters were little, then I went back to work at the Crandon School District and am still there just about to start my 26th year.  Still feel good and love what I do.  While at Crandon HS, I had the privilege of being the Varsity Dance coach for 8 years.





My husband Bill owns May's Bar outside of Crandon on Hy 8 west.  It has been in the family for 73 years.  We live on a small lake just north of Hy. 8.  We have four daughters (the middle two are twins) who are all college grads and are married.  Marla is a nurse in Madison, Toni is a teacher in Bloomington, IL, Tiffany is Exectuve Project Manager for a vitamin co. in Stevens Point and Shelley is a litigation examiner for an insurance co. in Green Bay.  Marla has a stepson at UW Milw., Tiffany has a son and a daughter and Shelley has a daughter.  Bill and I really enjoy spending as much time with the grandchildren as possible.





I love to travel, work in the yard and do home improvement.  Also golf when I can, kayak often and snowshoe in the winter.  I come to Waukesha often on the weekends to visit my mom (she is 93yrs).  My dad passed away last summer at 94!! Hope I live that long and be as healthy and happy as they.

janice Milbrath (hingiss)

Then Then
Marital status: Widowed
Children: 3
Occupation: retired teacher
Comment:
Graduate of UW Whitewater, taught science and communication skills at Riverside Middle School the last 20 of the 42 years in education. Married Gordy Milbrath and have 3 children and 13 grandchildren. Gordy passed away this past December.I am a whittler and volunteer for an environmental group here in Watertown involving the Rock River.52 years since graduating has quickly by and I still love our music.

Tad & Sandy Oelstrom

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Married
Children: 3
Occupation: educator
Comment:
Tad and Sandy (Illing) have been dating for 52 years.  We left Waukesha for Colorado where we attended nearby schools-- Air Force Academy and Denver University, respectively.  We spent 35 years in the AF, most of which was flying jets, with one diversion- the final assignment- as Superintendent of the Air Force Academy.  We raised three pretty special daughters (a doctor, a lawyer and a business woman..) amid 30 moves,living and working in 6 countries and 3 continents. Currently we are in our tenth year in Boston with Tad teaching at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and Sandy dividing her time between Boston area volunteer jobs and five grandchildren in the DC area.  It's been a GREAT 50 years!  Note from your Website Administrator: Sandy passed away January, 2022 and is listed in our “In Memoriam” section. We are leaving the picture/profile she and Tad listed with us as a tribute to her.

Jean Oettinger

Then Then
Now Now
Comment: After high school I attended LaCrosse State University.  My major was Physical Education with minors in math and health.


After teaching health, P.E. and being the GAA advisor at Sheboygan North High School for 5 years, I was hired to teach and coach at


Menomonee Falls North High School.  My Mother had 3 operations for cancer and I wanted to be closer to home.  In those days


we could get teaching jobs easier than now...LaCrosse was nationally known for P.E. which was a great help also.





Title 9 which was adopted in 1972 gave high school and college females the opportunity to participate and compete in sports.


At Waukesha High School we were most fortunate to have wonderful and competent GAA advisors who ran a superb program.





While teaching at Sheboygan North H.S. I had the opportunity to participate on an adult basketball team and softball team which


traveled statewide.  It was an honor to be named to the All State team in both sports.





My coaching experience at Menomonee Falls North and Menomonee Falls H.S. included swimming, badminton, track, volleyball


and basketball.  While coaching at Menomonee Falls H.S. I was honored with two national coaching awards in VB and track.





My Masters degrees are in education and in health, with all concentration in Emotional Health.  They are from Cardinal Stritch


University.





At Menomonee Falls H.S. I had a wonderful experience coaching the boys track team in the long jump, high jump and triple jump.


Looking back that was one of the neatest experiences I had in my entire life.





After retirement in 1998, I worked many State and National disasters with the Red Cross as a volunteer.  The National Disasters were


in Wisconsin, Puerta Rico, New Jersey, North Carolina, and New Jersey/New York after 9-11.  I spent 5 weeks in New Jersey working with the spouces who lost their loved ones on 9-11, helping them apply for additional financial assistance and writing their rational statements.  60% who perished at the World Trade Center lived in New Jersey.  We were stationed at Liberty State Park which is across from the Statue of Liberty and was the train station many years ago where the immigrants boarded the trains to travel to various states.





We worked 7 days on with one day off when we went to New York to see plays, eat in restaurants and shop.  By showing our Red Cross ID we were given half price tickets to Radio City Music Hall and the plays.  Some restaurants even gave us half price meals.  I ate at the restaurant in the Seinfeld TV show and at the Frankie and Johnny restaurant from the movie.





Going back to 9-11, I was sitting at the LaGuardia Airport on that day reading a paper and sipping a cup of coffee, after a fun-filled


6 day vacation staying with Merrily Butler in Harlem.  The airport was evacuated.  I quickly hooked up with a buddy system, a couple


from Mequon, WI who had been visiting their son and daughter in New York.  We sat on a grass area at the airport for an hour with many others.  Then we were walked with supervision for an hour to a place where busses picked us up to take us to a YMCA shelter.  After


5 days at the shelter, we were bussed back to the airport to wait for our flight home.  While there we were evacuated again.





However, we were able to get our luggage this time.  A rental car van took the elderly couple and myself back to the YMCA where we


changed clothes and took a taxi to the home of the couples' son.  4 days later we flew home and gave the pilots a standing ovation when  the plane landed safely in Milwaukee.  That month my Mom was moved from assisted living to a nursing home so I went inactive with


the Red Cross.





It was a memorable experience going to Linden Grove 3-4 days a week to take Mom to activities, outside and to visit other residents.


My purpose was to keep her stimulated which it did.  Mom spent 4 years at Linden Grove before passing on.  After that I trained to be a volunteer on staff at the Ruth Hospice on Mill Rd in Milwaukee, near Menomonee Falls.  It was a residential hospice so some were there


for a year or two.  Some of my duties were gardening, visiting with residents, taking them outside and to visit others, and  was on call to


sit with people who had no one else while they passed on.





For 25 years I have volunteered with the Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association and the All State Selection Committee from August until November.





Have been happily single all my life and dated often.  Never had the feeling I needed to marry but still may someday?





Since retirement my favorite travel experience was 3 weeks in Alaska.  We spent 2.5 weeks on land with trains, busses and


boats...taking a small cruise ship for 4 days and nights to Vancouver...where we were bussed to Seattle for the flight home.  The


highlight of this trip was flying in a 6 passenger plane to the top of Mt Mc Kinley.





Recently I have been involved with the Make A Wish Foundation to grant wishes.  The last one we granted was for a 12 year old boy who has a malignant brain tumor...the doctpr just approved the wish which is in the process of being granted.





My most unexpected and overwhelming experience since retirement was my induction onto the Wall of Fame at Waukesha High School/


Waukesha South H.S.  in September of 2006...love to read, walk, bike, fish...

Jeff Olson

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Married
Children: 3
Occupation: Retired Educator
Comment:
I retired  to Woodway, TX, on Jan. 31, 2011, after a 38-year career as a community college educator serving colleges in 5 states, with the last 16 years as a president. The “now” photo was taken at the TX coast in July 2011.





The twelve years after high school were an interesting mix of full- and part-time employment and education.  I worked in aerospace contract admin, employed at Cutler-Hammer and Astronautics Corporation in Milwaukee, before deciding to teach.  I earned an Associate Degree from what is now MATC, a BBA from UW-Milwaukee, and a MS-BusEd from UW-Madison.





In 1968 my first wife and I married and began raising and breeding Arabian horses in Sussex, where I served a 2-year term on the Village Board of Trustees.  We moved to Wausau in 1973 when I accepted my first teaching job at North Central Technical Institute.  We built a small ranch on 80 acres North of Wausau and our herd eventually grew to 16 purebred Arabians.




 




In 1981, following a divorce, and with no remaining immediate family in Wisconsin (my folks had moved to Sarasota, FL in 1966), I moved to Texas to accept a position at the community college in Waco.




 




On January 1, 1988, Sandy and I were married, and I gained three beautiful adult daughters. Three days later, on January 4, 1988, we bought a 40 foot sailboat on the west coast of FL and began outfitting it for a year-long sail. I earned my Ph.D. (Community College Leadership Program) at the University of Texas in Austin, graduating in May 1988, and we set sail for the Bahamas.




 




We returned to the working world in 1989, eventually serving colleges in coastal North Carolina, South Carolina, and then in the heart of the Arkansas Ozarks.




 




Our years together have been very rewarding, especially because of family and our 6 grandchildren, currently aged 6 to 26, all living nearby in Texas.




 




Life is good, and retirement is great.  Golf is okay, but improving.





I really enjoyed seeing you all at the 50th.  I thank the committee and the BBG for a great reunion.

Thomas Osten

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Married
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired
Comment:

I was Army mad in high school and enlisted for 3 years.  I trained as a Nike Hercules Fire Control System (NHFCS) Maintenance Technician for the first year of my enlistment and was assigned as an instructor at the school for the remaining two years.  While serving as an instructor I met a fellow member of my Battery who was from the Milwaukee area and had gotten an Associate in electronics from the Milwaukee Institute of Technology.






I’d had enough of the Army after three years and got out.  The Analog computer in the NHFCS was the most interesting part so I attended MIT (now Milwaukee Area Technical College) to get an Associate Degree in computer electronics.  The most interesting part of the MIT course was the class that taught us how to program an early IBM computer in Fortran using punched paper tape.





Upon graduation, I managed to get a job at Digital Equipment Corporation here in Massachusetts maintaining the assembler and Fortran compiler for their PDP-6 timesharing computer.  A year or so after starting at DEC I worked with a gal named Patricia Mahoney (my future wife) on the PDP-10.  She used to bring me the Fortran benchmarks she was having trouble with on a DECtape.  This series of coincidences, one leading to the next, determined what I would do for the rest of my working life.





I spent 5 years at DEC and 22 years at Honeywell Information Systems/Honeywell Bull/Bull HN where I was Honeywell’s representative on the C standard committee, helping to standardize the C programming language (C89).  I worked on the C compiler for the DEC VAX and Alpha computers in a former DEC facility owned by Compaq while Compaq was purchased by HP.  I’ve worked on compilers and translators for Fortran, PL/I, COBOL, C and C++ written in assembler, C, and Java.



Along the way I acquired a Bachelors Degree in Management Information Systems.  I've kept up my interest in choir from my Freshman and Sophmore years of high school.  I sang tenor in my church choir for over 35 years and cantored for more than 10 years until I retired.





I retired in July 2009 after spending over 40 years as a software development engineer, specializing in compilers for most of my career.  The last 5 years were spent in Radar Software development.





My wife Pat and I have been happily married for 40 years.  She was a former missile scientist who later transitioned into finance and taxation.





Our son, Tim, is a software architect at GE Medical Systems and lives 1.4 miles from our old Senior High School.  Our daughter, Rachel, is a PhD. Astrophysicist and has responsibility for two of the instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope.  We have one grandson, Pierce, who will be 3 in 2011 and is the joy of our life.

Jean Paszkiet (Eldredge)

Then Then
Marital status: Married
Children: 6
Occupation: Massage Therapist
Comment: I am living in a lovely rual area north of Delavan.Our kids are grown and spread from one side of the States to the other.  Our oldest grandson has entered Beloit College.  The second oldest goes to college in 2 years, the youngest two are in a STEM school in Waukesha.  I am partially retired, my husband is retired from a printing company.  We enjoy working on the landscaping of our house.  I have recently taken up quilting.

Mary Patz (Loden)

Then Then
Marital status: Single
Children: 1
Occupation: Retired
Comment: I live in Mukwonago,WI.  I retired  two years ago,after 38 years of service with a local bank. I worked in all of the bank's departments and served as a Branch Manager for my last 18 years with the Citizens Bank of Mukwonago.





Retirement has freed up my time to golf, bowl, or just to do whatever.





I have one son and two grandchildren who live nearby. 





I hope to see alot of my fellow "Class of 6l" classmates at the re-union in August. The committee  has planned alot of activiities.  

Dean Peterson

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Married
Children: 3
Occupation: semi-retired
Comment:

Note from your Website Administrator: Dean passed away December, 2014, and is listed in our “In Memoriam” section. We are leaving the picture/profile he listed with us as a tribute to him.

Kathleen Pladies (Bird)

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Married
Children: 5
Comment:

Note from your Website Administrator: Kathy passed away January 23, 2015, and is listed in our “In Memoriam” section. We are leaving the picture/profile she listed with us as a tribute to her.