Grady High School Classmates

"Here are most of the Class of 59 committee Members hard at
work at the home of Cary and Sherry King. We have been meeting monthly
since August and feel we have a great weekend planed for our reunion.
Look forward to seeing everyone! Can you figure who we are, have we
aged gracefully? Please consider adding your bio and photo to
Classmates. See you soon."

After seven years in business (MBA, Madison Avenue), I found my true gift and have been teaching little kids ever since. The last eighteen years were spent as the math/science enrichment teacher in the five Scarsdale, New York elementary schools. A little of me goes a long way.

I’ve been married twice and the second one took. Lucky me. We have two kids, Michael and Sharon Rose. Both a blessing.

I spend as much time as possible outdoors. If the ground is white, I X-country ski around eighteen holes. If the wind is blowing, I sail one small boat or another. If it’s calm, I paddle or fish. In between I garden vegetables and watch birds. It’s a beautiful world.

Hey, everybody.

Some of you may remember me as Rubberband or Worm. Thanks, Ronnie Goings.
Anyway, here's a short report on my life since 1959. I attended GSU for many years. During that time I got married, had a daughter, divorced, went a little crazy, went to work, got married again, continued to work, got divorced, worked some more. Along the way I had a lot of fun.

In 2003 I retired from the GA Dept of Family and Children Services and fulfilled a long-time dream of moving to Maine. Life there was wonderful; yes, even the harsh winters. In 2007 I moved to Austin to be nearer to my family - Stephanie; her wonderful husband David; and my grandson Noah, the light of my life. Stephanie is funny, smart and caring. This happened despite me, I think. Noah is also funny, smart and caring. And a hell of a cellist and cartoonist.

My life now is simple, by design. I spend as much time outdoors as I can; I hike with my dog, exploring areas around Austin and beyond. I study piano and in January begin sculling. I volunteer a couple days a week. And I read, read, read. I like to travel and take an international trip every couple years. I imagine this sounds boring to many of you, but I've never been so content and happy. And I manage to be happy even though I'm a political junkie and keep up with all I can that's going on in the world, most of which is not happy-making. November 4th was a happy day for me, though. I'll try to download a picture later so you can see how cruel the years have been to me.

I'd enjoy hearing from you. bandsonya@yahoo.co

I'm Bob but my biker friends here in Daytona call me Dutchman. I'm a four time loser. Married in 61 divorced in 69. Married in 71 and widowed in 99. Married in 2001 and divorced in 2002. Re-married to the same woman in 2003 and divorced again in 2005. Happily single ever since. What a loser! I retired from Bellsouth in 1991 to Lake arrowhead in Waleska Georgia. Move to Panama City FL 1997. Moved to Crystal River FL in 1998, and finally moved to Daytona Beach in 2005. Living happily on the 16th floor of the Ocean Ritz condo on the beach. Play golf and enjoy the biker lifestyle here in Daytona. My number one son Richard lives with his wife Trish and my two super grand kids Will and Eva. They come down to Daytona two or three times a year for a great visit.
Looking forward to seeing everyone, especially Sonja Band.
batelaan@peoplepc.com
Home 386-677-3577
Cell 386 366-1166

After graduating Grady High School, I went to Young Harris College with Kay Hataway, Jane Hall, Frank Pate. I then onto the University of Georgia where I graduated with a major in Chemistry. Worked a year for CDC as a chemist in the toxicology section and realized I must have a PhD in it to get some where. I decided to go to Emory University School of Dentistry and graduated from there in 1969. Met my wife, Ann, of 43 years just before going to dental school and we have two daughters Paige and Linda. On July 25,th 2007, the greatest thing in my life happened, we had our first and only grandchild. You cannot believe how much I love that little girl, Katie is her name. Grand children make your life complete and I am just thankful we have one before I depart this life.

Ann and I enjoy traveling. We have been to Germany, Austria, England, France, Italy, etc. One of my favorites was to Russia. We stayed in Moscow for 4-5 days, had my picture taken with a cosmonaut and saw where they trained. I have always wanted to see Red Square. The prettiest part of Russia is St. Petersburg, try to go before you leave. We took a cruise boat from Moscow to there and stopped along the way in many of the small towns. On another trip, we came back to London from France the day they had the bus bombings. I was very impressed how well the British handled the situation so orderly. Several years ago we went to the Smithsonian to visit. In the Indian Museum I read a quote and I cannot remember it exactly or who said it but it is the most interesting thought I have heard in a long time. “We are just a Spirit, on a journey through a human body”. Be grateful you were born in the USA. I am.

We have a farm just outside of Royston, Ga. On a clear day, we have a beautiful view of the whole Appachalain chain of mountains in Georgia. My favorite past time is riding my John Deere tractors. We raised beef cattle for many years but now we just lease it out for hunting and the raising cattle .

I am semi retired and practice dentistry three days a week which my wife enjoys because it keeps me out of her hair. This is my 40^th year of dental practice in the same location where I started. I still enjoy dentistry and seeing my patients.

My most memorable moment at Grady was graduation night party. It was after my 8^th or 9^th beer that God spoke to me and said, “Donald, I have two important things to tell you so listen carefully. 1. These next fifty years will go by fast, so use your time wisely. 2. One of your good friends will have FIVE wives.” Well, I thought God was nuts but I guess not, here we are at the fiftieth reunion and I am very proud to say that I have been in 20% of Bill Pettys’ weddings.

After graduating from Grady, I went to Georgia Tech and actually finished in 5 years. After working for several years in the computer industry, one divorce, and five different jobs, I married Carol (the most fortunate thing that ever happened to me) – we’ve been married 38 years and have four grown children and two grandchildren. Along the way, I went back to college and received a PhD in Systems Analysis and Organizational Behavior at the University of Georgia. We enjoy the Athens area and decided to stay here and raise our children. I retired five years ago as interim CIO – and still teach part-time as an adjunct professor in the College of Business, MIS department at UGA. The past two years we took a study abroad student group to China – a truly wonderful experience.

Carol and I enjoy traveling – the picture above is from the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska. Travels include Europe, Greece, Spain, China, México, Costa Rica, Alaska, and Hawaii – so far. We try to keep active – several years ago I rafted down the Colorado (Grand Canyon). We ran in the Peachtree Road Race for many years, and other road races – a few half marathons (no marathons), one sprint triathlon, etc. Also, enjoy gardening (Master Gardner), photography, swimming, reading, computing and miscellaneous volunteering.

Married to Vicky Sorrentino (Grady High Class of 1969) for 35 years.
We are DINK's(Dual Incomes, No Kids).
I graduated from Georgia Tech.
I built a "Ramblin Wreck" for the parade.
Worked at Lockheed as an Industrial Engineer.
I owned and operated a service station.
I worked in the family business(Wholesale Womens Shoes). Exciting Huh!
I finally retired from the State of Georgia, Department of Corrections as a Probation Officer. I made a career of doing jobs that no one else wanted to do. I wrote and updated all Standard Operating Procedures each year. I wrote lesson plans for training.
I was a full time trainer. I taught many classes including Firearms, Mantracker, Drug I.D., Unlawful Harassment, and Interviewing Skills. For the last few years, I coordinated Basic Probation Officer Training and training and certifying new instructors.
Now we are getting to a little more fun and excitement.
Fun and games.
I collect performance and antique cars, boats and motorcycle among other things.
I still have my baseball cards from when I was a kid.
I was on a NASCAR pit crew for several years in the late 60's and early 70's. I crewed at the Daytona 500, Atlanta 500 and the first Talladega 500 as well as many others.
I drove my mother's Cadillac around the Charlotte Motor Speedway after the World 600. I did not get arrested or kicked out of NASCAR.
I won the statewide pistol match for probation officers at Jekyl Island.
I have won a few drag race, car and bike show trophies.
I ran the Washington, New York and Boston Marathons and finished. I never came close to winning.
I shook hands with four Georgia Governors.
I shook hands with Norm Grabowski and George Barris.
I coordinated a team of 50 officers to work with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation during "Freaknik". I worked plain clothes during Freaknik and was fairly conspicuous.
I coordinated, selected, trained, clothed, fed, outfitted, housed and placed a 250 person State Law enforcement security team during the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
I walked on the Great Wall of China.
I surfed in Hawaii.
I gambled in the casino at Monte Carlo.
I cruised through the Panama Canal.
I piloted my boat on a 200 mile trip on the Intercoastal Waterway.
I have never drank alcohol, or taken illegal drugs.
I have never been divorced or arrested.
I am not a member of any organization, club, gang or cult.
I rebuilt antique musical instruments (banjos). I play poorly.
I drive my '57 Chevrolet on a 1000 mile trip over the Thanksgiving holiday each year.
As you can see I have had many adventures and lots of fun and do not take myself too seriously.
Get in touch with me and we'll talk.
Email jabo57@earthlink.net OR jabo57@hotmail.com
Phone Home 770 394 6693
Cell 404 375 3620

It does not seem possible that it has been 50 years since we graduated. I was saddened to see the list of our classmates who are no longer with us, but the memories of times shared with each of them bring smiles.

My grammar school years were spent at Samuel Inman with many friends who went on to Grady. My friend Janice De Lozier (Brannon), who was my violin partner in Mr. Seitz's Orchestra, and I still keep in touch. When we were in the 10th grade, just babies, we went to a Georgia Tech Rush party. There, I met this wonderful boy named Ron, who I married in 1961. After a two year tour of duty in the Army (Germany). Ron joined the business world. We lived in St. Louis, Chicago, then Morristown, New Jersey, where our daughter, Cindy, was born. We moved back to Atlanta in 1970 and it was so good to be home. I started an Interior Design Business in 1978 and have worked steadily most of the last 30 years. In 2004, Ron developed cancer and died in November of that year. I am very fortunate to have my daughter, now 40, her husband, and my two wonderful grandchildren, 8 and 6, also living in Dunwoody. They are a major part of my life. I am also studying portrait drawing and oil painting, which I really enjoy.

I have always felt that the Grady class of '59, was filled with very bright and special people. I look forward to seeing you again in May.

HELEN J. (SMITH) COOLEY
115 Roddey Street
Hamilton AL 35570-6806
(205)921-4662 or (205)495-1911
bleedingcrimson@hotmail.com
Born: 3/24/41 - Atlanta Georgia
Anniversary: 5/59 # 1
# 2 04/11/71 (he passed away with cancer 2003)
Presently married 12/18/2004
Hobbies: we like to travel and we belong to a Christian Bike Club (we own 3 bikes and 2 trike)

After graduating in 1959 and even before graduation, I was in the financial business up until 1971. I have always enjoyed working with money. Did not attend college until later in life. I married right out of high school to get out of a very unhealthy family of alcoholics and that of course is for the wrong reason. Stayed married until 1971 when I married a wonderful man by the name of Gaylon Harper, who happened to have been a boy I dated in high school.
In my first marriage we had two sons, Tony and Alan and I have three wonderful grandchildren; laken, age 22 who is studying to become a pharmacist, Kyle who is 20 and co-manager of of a restaurant, and Kayla who is 17. Being married to my second husband, I had my third son Steven who is a project manager who bids on government contracts for a large company in Huntsville Alabama. After my second husband passed away, I thought the world had come to an end before I met and married my current husband, John. John is retired Army man who was severely hurt in the Vietnam war. After he got out of the army on disability, he then went back to work for the government for 27 years. Now about myself. After leaving Georgia in 1971, I worked as a social worker and financial advisor for our local hospital up until 1982l. At that time I decided I needed more in my life so I went back to college and became a Special Education Teacher and stayed at our local high school for approximately 22 years until retiring.
John and I love to travel, both by car and our trike. We have a home in Cookeville Tennessee (that was his home when we married) and our present home in Hamilton Alabama. Oh, by the way, John has two grandchildren, a 9 year old Savannah and 5 year old Ambrilyn and they live in Tacoma Washington. We are truly looking forward to this reunion, as I have never been to any of the others. Had it not been for me locating Judy Littlejohn (Olson) I would not have know how to get in touch with anyone about this reunion. Thanks so much for the invitation. Looking forward to seeing each and everyone.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone, but am saddened that my best friend at Grady, Mae Mallory, will no longer join us. My life is finally slowing down, as is my body, but I can still ski and play tennis. I, like many, am less full of hair, and definitely wider. Going through life with a narrative was too long, so I am taking a short cut and attaching a CV that you can easily skip. After Grady, I went to Swarthmore College, actually played football ( we hold the NCAA record for consecutive losses), several years of wrestling, and a couple of years of lacrosse. After graduation, I did the straight medical gig. I did luck out and marry a Grady girl, Carol Zaban ’62, and managed to live through four children who are all now married and have given us nine wonderful grandchildren, ages 12 down 2 months. Except for college, I have always lived in Atlanta, but escape occasionally to a small condo in Aspen to clear the cobwebs. The rest is history (which I attached).

MARTHENA COWART

Marthena Speer (maiden name); Spouse, Joe Cowart; two sons, Patrick & Timothy Burn; three grandchildren, Pablo, 15, Calvin,12, Sommer, 3 ½; Currrent Job: Director of Communications, Project On Government Oversight. Prior to joining POGO, was head of congressional affairs @ Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Brief “stage” career with Grady skit club. My fellow players were Dana, Eddie Lee, & Joe Brooks. Still cringe when I remember my role in the shenanigans. Favorite memory is the huge collaborative effort by our class to produce “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Marthena Cowart

Director of Communications

Project On Government Oversight

666 11th Street, NW, Suite 900

Washington, DC 20001

T: 202-347-3958 F: 202-347-1116
www.pogo.org

Support POGO in the Combined Federal Campaign - CFC # 10785mcowart@pogo.org

Vote for POGO and join the thousands of individuals who are making a difference this year. If you are a member of CREDO, formerly Working Assets, simply go to www.workingassets.com/vote. One click will make a difference this year.

Married James H Hammond, Jr. in 1964. We had a daughter Lisa. Jim passed away in 1966. I married Thomas Cloys in 1969 and we had a son Tommy. Tom retired after 32 years as an Engineer with Dixie Pipeline Company. We enjoyed traveling, boating and some golf, until our knees gave out. After 34 wonderful years Tom passed away in 2003…I live in Jasper, Ga. and still enjoy traveling, reading, tending my flower garden and playing canasta with my friends each week. But most of all I love and enjoy my family and being Grandmama to Brett, Courtney, John Thomas, Caroline and Annalee. If there is a soccer game, recital or a school function, I’m there. Please e-mail me at eccloys@tds.net.

After Grady, I went to Davidson College, along with Bill Pettys, John Mitchell, and Sy Brown, and emerged four years later with an AB in Economics and a commission as a 2nd Lt in Army Intelligence. Following a couple of training schools, I was sent to Germany, where I was for three years in the Ludwigsberg/Stuttgart area. Not long after arriving I met Maureen Dorsey and we were married about a year and a half later in January 1966 - in the chapel of one of Mad King Ludwig's castles in Ludwigsberg I might add. Aside from our marriage, the most memorable event during my tour there was the birth of our son, Richard. We loved living there, but I wasn't real keen on the military life. As my time there was ending, I failed in an attempt to unjoin the Army and was sent for a 13 month tour in Seoul, Korea in 1967. I was scheduled to be the commanding officer of an interrogation company, but because of a shortage of officers, I was assigned as the Operations Officer of the United Nations war room . Now that was interesting!

I was released from the Army in July of 1968 and we moved to Arlington, MA. We were there for almost two years while I earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. After graduation I was hired by Pier 1 Imports as their corporate director of distribution at the headquarters in Ft. Worth, TX. We were there for three years, during which time our daughter, Jennifer, was born. Wanting to return to the East Coast, I wangled a job in Washington, D.C. as Senator Lloyd Bentsen's administrative manager. Great experience, but the time requirements got too much after a couple of years and I moved over to the Department of Commerce. I was there 26 years in various managerial positions, primarily as an official of the International Trade Administration. During the last 20 years or so, Maureen worked for the Fairfax County School System, initially as an elementary school clinic aide, then a high school secretary, and the final seven years as a high school principal's secretary.

Since the early 1970s we had been vacationing in Venice, FL, and during one such sojourn in 2000 we found a house for sale that we loved, and still do, We arranged the purchase and went back home to Virginia. I retired one month later and she followed suit one month after me. We love it here and only regret that we didn't move down sooner. Our daughter, with three children, lives outside Tampa, about an hour and a half from us so we see them frequently. Our son has two children and they live in the house we vacated in Fairfax, VA.. We don't see them as frequently, but they do love coming to the beach. We have a rental condo in a beachfront complex a few blocks from our house, where Maureen is also a co-manager. I keep busy as president of the condo corporation's board, and have been a board member of the neighborhood corporate association since 2002. And no, neither of us plays golf or tennis.

Really looking forward to seeing everyone and reviving old memories. We were scheduled to attend the 45th, but Hurricane Charlie intervened. Looking for better luck this time.

After highschool, I received a BS degree in education and a masters degree in Education. I was a Reading Specialist for 6 years in Elementary and Middle Schools. I finally decided I had enough of that and went back to school to obtain another degree in Counseling. That was one of the best decisions I have ever made (besides marrying my husband Bernie). Presently, I am in private practice and happy to be the largest Contractor with the Federal Government for outpatient Alcohol and Drug Counseling Services. I have 21 Federal contracts throughout the U.S. I feel like the "Energizer Bunny" as I keep going and going and going.

I have 2 married children; a son Jon and a daughter Debra and 3 wonderful grandchildren ages 15 months to 10 years. They are all the lights of my life.

In 2003, I was first runner up in the Ms. Senior Ga. pageant. In these golden years of my life, I've become a singer and tap dancer. Could you believe it? I sing and tap dance with a group called "The Dazzlin Dames". We are all over 60 and perform for nursing homes, assisted living facilities, etc. through out Georgia. In fact, we do over 100 shows a year.

Following graduation from Grady, I attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later received a Master of Professional Accountancy from Georgina State. I went on to become a partner in Touche Ross & Co., one of the Big 8 accounting firms. I was transferred to Birmingham in 1977 to manage their office and did so until a merger with another large firm. Subsequently, I joined a firm in Birmingham where I remained until 2001 when I opened my own firm. I am now retired except for this year’s three month job with a Destin accounting firm.

I married Barbara Erdreich from Birmingham forty one years ago. We have two daughters and two granddaughters. Our older daughter lives in a tiny village outside of Montpellier, France with her husband and two girls. Our younger daughter teaches high school English in Silver Spring, Maryland.

We bought a condo in Destin, Florida in 1986 and spent more and more time there until we made the decision to build a home there. We moved permanently in 2004, although we also kept a small condo in Birmingham.

We have traveled fairly extensively over the years. Naturally, we visit France often and have been to many European countries. More recently, we have been to Australia, New Zealand, China and Thailand.

And yes, I am a Carolina basketball nut. I have rarely missed a game on TV in the last forty years, sometimes “having” to go to some sleazy bar to catch the game on a satellite dish. My younger daughter was a manager on the 1993 UNC national championship team and we still speak immediately following each game.

It has been gratifying to see from your pictures that I am not the only one who has managed to put on a few extra pounds, and eating more junk from the V is not going to help matters. But I am looking forward to seeing you all in May.

After Grady graduation I tried my luck as a walk-on football Gator. No college football career has ever been more brief than mine. After an early injury I was reduced to the miserable life of a normal University of Florida student. I did the best I could in a very unpleasant environment.

There were many distractions such as fraternities, girls, student government, coeds, intramural sports and girls. As I placed primary importance upon academics, I soon realized the need to avoid these campus distractions when I could. So I arranged my classes to provide for periods of concentrated study at Daytona, Cedar Key, Miami and similar venues.

Apparently many colleges were not as cooperative as the UF in arranging class schedules. I remember once calling Charles Windham (at Georgia Tech) late one Thursday to report that all was calm at Daytona Beach --he had just completed some four hour lab and had several more the next day.

I almost made it through Florida, but I left to in the fall of ‘62 to enter Emory Law School. I finished in 1964. In the same year I made the best decision I ever made when I asked Peggy Hearn (Grady ’58) to marry me. I was admitted to the bar and married on the same date, June 26, 1964.

As a lawyer for 16 years my activities centered primarily on trial work. In 1980 I was elected a DeKalb County Superior Court judge. I served for 24 years. Since my retirement in 2005 I have served as a senior judge which gives me the authority to sit as a trial judge anywhere in Georgia, when asked to do so.

Peggy and I have three children who are the joys of our lives. We are expecting our first grandchild in August. We have lived in our home city for all but the few years we were off at college. We have obtained a North Carolina mountain home near Highlands. We enjoy travel, and over the years have enjoyed some wonderful domestic and foreign trips.

For several years Peggy has been involved in community and church theater. This spring she is serving as associate director of a production of the Highlands-Cashiers Players; I have a part, but there is no connection between that and Peggy’s directorship.

As we look back we are grateful for the wonderful experiences we had at Grady (educational and otherwise) and for the friendships we made. What a wonderful mix of personalities and socio-economic groups we had, the best one could hope for in pre-integration days!

As we celebrate our 50^th, we must pause to remember our deceased classmates and their families, and to renew friendships with those who are still here.

Hello Grady Classmates: It has been great to read the bio's of my fellow classmates. I am so impressed by the achievements of you all. I think Grady was one of the 10 best high school in the US at the time we were in school. It seems like yesterday when you start thinking of those days. I don't have any great things that I've done but I'm happy healthy and enjoying life.

In 1959 I took off to Tift college with Jackie Burns and Marthena. The short time I was there all I thought about was getting married and having babies. My brain was not where it was supposed to be and I can't tell you how much I wish I could go back. But I did get 4 wonderful children and I was so fortunate to be able to stay at home until the last one was 14. From Atlanta we moved to Roswell in 1962 and it was so different than the city at that time. There was one grocery store and one drug store so the city girl had to make some adjustments to her life style. We lived at the top of Dogwood Hill which is supposedly the highest point in Roswell and Alpharetta. My in-laws had 20 acres of land and we built our house on 3 acres adjoining theirs. Ronnie's sister and her family came a few years later so our children and her 3 had a fun time growing up together. They had all that land to play on. From time to time Ronnie had some short lived hobbies like having chickens and rabbits and he and Thom Hill had bee hives. I remember the first time they harvested the honey from the hives and remember having that sweet honey on everything in my kitchen. What a mess!! After a while he kept the bees but let another bee keeper work the hives. He didn't mention in his bio that we had a Health Food Store in the 70's. When his business was very slow and he was into running and health foods he came to me one day and said "What do you think about me opening a Health Food Store" I said NO!!! He said "why not"? I told him that people in our area would think we were "hippies" and didn't think it was a good Idea. But he did it anyway and within 6 weeks it was open. We had the first frozen yogurt machine in Roswell and we sold Mathis Dairy products, vitamins, etc. It was a novelty in Roswell and did okay but his business picked up and he had to find someone to run it and about that time the large grocery chains were carrying all those products and he sold it. It is still in business today.

I moved to Alpharetta in 1993 and all of my children live very close. Allyson is 48, Alan, 46, Drew, 41 and Lauri 38 and I have 4 Grandchildren. Zack is 21 and is a survivor of childhood Cancer, Nicholas is 20, Callie is 16 and Luke is 15.

I went to work in 1984 and worked for an Oil Company for a couple of years and then worked for a decorating company for about ten years and that was a great job working with fabrics and wallpaper etc. Then I finally got serious about working and got my Insurance license in 1996 and became an agent and have been with Allstate for 13 years and hope to work a few more years and then I hope to work part time for my daughter Allyson, She has a children's boutique in Historic Crabapple which is in the city of Milton which was Alpharetta. The name of the shop is Allypop. I know some of you live close by and have grandchildren. The web site is www.allypop.com. Ya'll come!!!!

PS Judy Drake Jones had a heart attack on Christmas Eve. She is going to be fine and Anne Portman and Sonya Band are going to see her in a few weeks. She lives in Anderson, SC

Married to Judy for 12 years. Judy and I married on New Year's Eve. Great way to bring in the new year. Formally married (twice) to Jane Rash Goings. Jane is still a big part of the Goings family and is a valued friend to both Judy and me. Judy and I share 6 children: ages 48, 46, 41, 38, 36 & 31 and six grandchildren ages 21, 19, 16, 15, 3, & 1 1/2. My birthday is August 20 / once a powerful Leo, now sinking to a meek "kitty cat." No growls, just a soft purring. Judy and I moved to Florida in 2006 and purchased a cozy townhouse in Tampa and just in case we became homesick, we still had our home in Roswell. We are not homesick as of this date. I retired from the Douglas County School system in 2003 and could not tolerate the retired life so I went back to work. I am loving every minute of my professional life. I am the On-Site Construction Representative on a $37 million dollar project for the Department of Labor. We are building a beautiful Jobs Corps Center in St. Petersburg, Fl. This project is located on an eighteen acre site with nine buildings. At this time we are approximately 50 percent complete and the project should be complete in September 2009. This is probably my last job unless the Department of Labor desires to assign me to another project; possibly in Atlanta, Gulfport, MS, or Manchester, NH. This is a Great Job and I am working with Great People. Just having fun working and enjoying everyday out in the beautiful Florida weather.

Grammar school days were spent at Samuel Inman and then on to Grady. This reunion brings together many of my friends and classmates who emerged from Inman to Grady. At the reunion I plan to bring class photos from Inman for all to share. This should be a treat to see how far we have come. Judy and I love to travel and just be lazy. Our two youngest grandchildren live in Las Vegas and Judy visits several times a year. Due to my work, I only get to visit Vegas 'now and then'. It has been a wonderful pleasure to watch the older grandchildren grow. Each grandchild is blessed with a different personality, a different sense of values, and just to put it plain: sometimes they are just a 'pain in the rump'. But we love them dearly and while enjoying them it brings back many memories of my childhood with my grandparents. Our children are all grown. Some have prospered and some are still trying to reach the summit. Watching my children grow makes me wonder how in the heck I ever made it this far. Would not change a thing!

Life has been good and I am truly a happy man with a wonderful family. I am thankful everyday for ALL of my good blessings and the happiness in my life. My many daydreams and thoughts always include my grammar and high school years. My friends and teachers were all so diverse: it just made for happy and growing years. Thanks to my teachers and friends, I feel that my relationships during these years brought to me a love of people that I have carried with me all of these years.

By the way, did they ever find out who put Robert Strickland and Harvey Fitterman in the 1st floor lockers? Are they out yet? My thanks to the Reunion Committee for their work and time in scheduling and arranging for the 50th Grady High School Reunion. I know this will be a great event.

Sorry I’m unable to attend the big 50th Reunion, but I did enjoy seeing many of you for our 45th when I flew up from N. Palm Beach, Florida where my husband and I have been living for almost 10 years. As a few of you may know, I moved to New York City immediately after high school and began my life as a single woman, going to school and working in a variety of industries. Ultimately, I became an executive in a publishing company where I met my future husband, Bob, and married when I was almost 29. We’ll be together 39 years in April and consider ourselves fortunate to have shared our lives from the exuberance of our twenties in NY through to our mid fifties, Bob’s retirement, moving from Weston, Ct. where we raised his son, Chris, and our son, Jonathan, and into our sixties, which as it turns out is not being spent in half as leisurely a fashion as I anticipated. We are both so involved in our various activities; we can’t believe we ever had time to work! Bob is busy writing, reading, photographing, strategizing our finances and playing the piano; I’m off to the Opera, Theatre and Ballet. In my spare time, I love to cook and entertain, read & travel.

Throughout Bob’s 30-year career as President & Publisher of Greenwood Publishing Group in Westport, CT, we were always a team. We traveled together to many of the major cities in the world for business, including London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Tokyo & Sydney and many others for pleasure. I was lucky to have a dear friend living in Hong Kong, whom I visited twice, each time flying into Mainland China for extended visits. Bob & I are still traveling, but recently via small cruise ships. Many of our cruises were transatlantic, beginning with the QEII to Paris back in 1977. We particularly loved our trip to South America through the Straits of Magellan up to Chile a few years back and are looking forward to one in September to Turkey, Croatia and Greece.

We fell in love with boating when we rented our first one on Lake George in the early 70’s and have subsequently owned quite a few. We currently enjoy running to Peanut Island or local restaurants on our 19’ runabout from our backyard dock in Florida. During the summer months, we live on a 40’ boat in Norwalk, Ct.

For most of the years we lived in Connecticut, boating was our life, living on one during the weekends, taking our summer vacations on our boat, traveling the Long Island Sound and beyond to Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Newport RI, Sag Harbor, Montauk Point, and our favorite destination, Block Island. We are still part of a small group that own one of the tiniest of the Norwalk Islands, Crow Island. It was here that we dropped moorings so we could “raft up” during weekends and share meals and good times with our friends & children. I was probably the only girl from Georgia who had her hands in lobster pots that we regularly maintained, enjoying lobster dinners virtually every weekend, along with clams dug up by hand from our Island.

My best friend in the world, Maria, lives in Palermo, Sicily and I have visited her almost every year since 1972 where she and I have quality “girl time” and sometimes even include her husband, Beny, who has put up with me for almost as long as my husband has. Thanks to him and his excellent driving over the years, Maria & I have visited almost every town in Sicily! When she left America to live in Italy, we made a bargain that we would stay devoted friends and now thanks to Skype, we see and talk to one another at least once a week, as well as visiting each other twice a year.

Although not yet a Grandparent, I have high hopes that my son, Jonathan who is 32, will settle down once he returns from his many travels. He is currently on safari in Nairobi. He has a Masters Degree in Economics and one in International Business as well as a CFA, speaks Mandarin and Japanese, and loves to travel the world as much as his mother. Chris is a software engineer, living and working in Massachusetts. He is also a creative writer of short stories and poems.

Bill Hedgepeth

Thinking back, I’d have to say that probably the most exciting time over the past 50 years since graduating from Grady, and from Emory after that, were the months I spent as part of a band of English pirates operating in the Caribbean, from the Florida Keys to the Cayman Islands with frequent layovers in Nassau. The looting, the pillaging, the swashing and buckling—those were the days, my friends. In fact, it was during my rum-drenched initiation as Pirate First Class that I was given the traditional choice of getting a peg leg or an eye patch. They told me it was a sure-fire way to meet girls. So, since I had recently snagged some Spanish boots of Spanish leather, I chose the eye patch. And even after all this time I can say I haven’t regretted it for a minute. On top of that, I can authoritatively declare that all over this world, no matter what the language or the culture or the level of civilization may be, if you’re wearing an eye patch, little kids are always going to point you out to their friends or their parents and always exclaim, “pirate!”

After I forsook piracy, jolly as it was (in a dispute concerning the payment of monthly dues), I realized the next closest thing was journalism. I joined The Atlanta Journal as a reporter and feature writer in 1963, until being hired the following year as speechwriter for Georgia Gov. Carl Sanders, until I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse to move to Eastman, Georgia, to manage Bill Stuckey’s successful 1966 congressional campaign. One perk that resulted from this was a Stuckey’s store you’re welcome to visit the next time you have a hankering for a Pecan Log Roll and happen to be near the intersection of I-35 and Route 66, outside Edmund, Oklahoma.

Instead of going to Washington with Stuckey, I spent the next five years as a senior editor and writer for LOOK magazine, first in New York and later in Atlanta as Southeastern Bureau Chief. I started with LOOK right at the outset all the cultural upheavals that color what we now think of as “The Sixties,” and due to being the youngest on the staff, I was assigned to cover almost everything that upset everyone else. This included the first major national magazine story about the Hippies in Haight-Ashbury (“Inside the Hippie Revolution” LOOK, 8/20/67).

This particular story led to my being asked by MacMillan publishers to produce a book about rural hippie and other kinds of communes with Magnum photographer Dennis Stock: THE ALTERNATIVE: Communal Life in New America (MacMillan, 1970). (Dennis, incidentally, is especially well known as the principal photographer of his friend, James Dean. Among other famous images, if you’ve seen that photo of Dean in a black overcoat, cigarette dangling, hands in pockets, walking along a wet New York street, that’s Dennis Stock’s work.)

I wrote for LOOK until it folded in the fall of ‘71 -- the result of a huge postage rate increase imposed by the Nixon administration — and then as an editor for LIFE until it folded a year later for the same reason.

In the general course of writing for scores of magazines and other publications, I have remained active politically in terms of managing maybe 20 campaigns and writing speeches for officeholders and candidates on the city, county, state and national level, including presidential campaign oratory for Carter, LBJ and RFK.

If the highest calling of journalism is (and it is) to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” I’m actually rather proud of both the comforts and the afflictions I’ve wrought in the course of covering stories on revolutions, wars, social upheavals and the plight of passionate militant groups as well as of downtrodden, forgotten people. I’m proud, too, of the many changes in laws as well as attitudes that came about as a result of shining light on these subjects.

It seems entirely logical and natural that I would have gone from this to supporting the righteous cause of one of the most misunderstood and downtrodden creatures on earth—the hog. The common hog is second only to higher primates in terms of intelligence, and yet almost everywhere he is vilified—or else he is actually worshiped by various cultures. There's definitely more to the hog than meets the eye.

Years of research—including actually living in a pen with 200 hogs in Tennessee—led to the publication of The Hog Book (Doubleday, 1978), which was not only a national bestseller but led to a genuine revolution in general hog consciousness and fresh appreciation of the porcine potential.

The Hog Book, in fact, has just recently come out in an updated third edition, published last fall by the University of Georgia Press, which you are certainly welcome to check out on its amazon.com site:

http://www.amazon.com/Hog-Book-William-Hedgepeth/dp/0820332739/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239814702&sr=1-1

(I cannot fail to mention here that in the chapter on Pig Poetry there appear several excellent and eloquent hog poems by an outstanding member of Grady’s class of 1958—Dr. John Hatcher.)

Following publication of The Hog Book, I married an actress in Atlanta and we almost immediately set forth for Hollywood, where I worked first with Alex Haley on a TV series for Fox, and then wrote sit-coms and
film scripts for Universal Studios.

To cut to the present, I have been happily ensconced for the past decade in a log house in the forested mountains of northernmost North Georgia with Carol Carter (see photo), whom I married up here in the woods, plus a house load of beasts. Carol is a grad of the University of Missouri’s top-rated J-school, a founding editor of The Atlanta Business Chronicle, former reporter for WXIA-TV, and currently a freelance journalist and editor.

I have one son and two grandchildren. My son, Jon Hedgepeth, was chosen earlier this year by Worth Magazine, a national publication, as among the “Top 100 Attorneys in America.” His law firm, Hedgepeth & Heredia, is located in Buckhead and specializes in family law. If, God forbid, you should be contemplating divorce or know anyone who is, give Jon a call and ask for the special “Grady Class of ’59 Discount.” I haven’t actually told him about this yet, but I’m sure he’ll go along.

My current activities involve ongoing work on an animal-related novel as well as another book, on which I am working with a photographer and food stylist, called DINING BEHIND BARS: America’s Top Prison Chefs Share Their Culinary Secrets. In addition, I am collaborating on a media project with my most recently previous wife, Grace Zabriskie, a film, stage and TV actress (currently appearing as a central character in HBO’s hit series, “Big Love”).

Such is the peripatetic life of your more or less typical freelance writer and journalist today. I must say, it’s been lots of fun, almost as much fun as piracy. But if one values stability and a dependable paycheck, I’d recommend that such people keep their regular day jobs. As my friend Dennis Stock says, “This whole business is about hustlin’ and hangin’ in there.”

I’m still hustlin’ and hangin’ in.

After graduating from Grady I attended the University of North Carolina and then transferred to the University of Georgia where I received a Master’s Degree in Accounting.

In 1964 we moved to Atlanta and lived there for a couple of years, and then I “joined” the Air Force as a First Lieutenant. Gail and I were stationed at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, and in 1968 I was sent to Viet Nam.

While I was in Viet Nam, Gail and I had twin sons, Michael and Mark. Now our sons live in Atlanta.

After returning from Viet Nam our family moved to Birmingham, AL where we have lived for forty years.

I was an accountant for 10 years, and then thirty years ago I opened my own lighting showroom, Lamps Fantastic.

After Grady, I attended Georgia State Univ. forever, finally graduating with a degree in accounting. I went to work for GE instead of entering accounting. I was married in 1964, had a daughter, and became divorced in 1965. I married Dale Pierson four years late and we have two grown daughters, and three grandchildren. My daughter from the first marriage has two daughters.

I also worked for Singer Co., First National Bank of Atlanta, and International Paper. We lived in Atlanta twice and Dallas, Texas twice. We then opted for small town life and moved to Jackson, Georgia where we have lived for 31 years. I worked as a cleaning contractor for 17 years. In 1990, Dale and I opened a “store” selling antique furniture, home accessories, and doing picture framing. We are still working, but talk of retiring.

I am Judy (Gudel) Introligator. I wasn't sure my husband and I could come to the reunion but it looks like we'll be there. I look forward to seeing everybody. I have been living in Houston for 45 years, almost 44 married. We have 4 children and 5 grandchildren. We have traveled to many countries but are now more content to stay home. My husband loves to fish, play gin, and go to Las Vegas. I love to play ma jong, bridge and to needlepoint. I travel to differrent cities with friends where we take classes. I have kept up with several old friends from Grady and can't wail to see you all.

I've had career in the theatre, which is what I always wanted. Plus, I've been able to do some films, and that has really helped to pay the rent (theatre doesn't pay well at all). My proudest moment was being inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in January of 2008. And I've had 5 Tony nominations, won 3 Obies, a DramaDesk Award, and a couple of other awards. I've enjoyed traveling, and have had in-depth visits to Egypt (three times), Sicily, Sri Lanka, Iran, Turkey, the prehistoric caves of France and Spain, the Black Sea, several cruises in the Mediterranean, one in the Pacific, and a lot of other trips to England and Europe. I've had 2 cats and am considering getting another. I'm working with a designer on a DanaIvey.com web site, but don't know when it will be up and running. I lived 8 years in Canada, as a Canadian immigrant, doing theatre. And I've lived in New York for 32 years.

PHIL JACKSON (HONDO)

Born: 10/18/1941

Married to Carol Jackson (We will be married 25 years in June, 2009)

Children: 5 children all from previous marriages--Carole, Amy, Kevin,
Jenny, & P.J.

Grandchildren: 5--Cole, Hill, Morgan, Will, & Luke and another one due in
May, 2009 They call us GiGi and Papaw

Phone: 704 896-4970

Email: may3199@mi-connection.com

A few things about me:

I retired from Principal Financial Group at age 57. I was the group and
pension manager for North and South Carolina.

Since retirement I do a lot of volunteer work. I go one day a week to the
Children's Hospital in Charlotte where I work in the nursery rocking
babies, and then visit older kids in the Child Life Center. One afternoon
a week I work with handicap children at a Handicap Riding Ranch called Wings
of Eagles. One morning a week I am a reading tutor for kindergarten and
1st grade students. I also am a facilitator for a Disciple Bible study
one night a week. Two times a month I go to the jail and teach a prison
ministry class.

I live on beautiful Lake Norman just North of Charlotte, NC. I like to
fish, play tennis and garden (veggies). Carol and I are very active and
love our church, Mt. Zion UMC.

If you need any other information, please let me know.

Thanks, Phil

After Grady, I attended Georgia Tech for one year, then enrolled in the University of Georgia where I graduated in 1963 with a BBA Major in Accounting. Currently, an Insurance Broker, representing and selling multiple companies winning several industry awards.

In September of 1960 at the University of Georgia, I met a beautiful South Georgia girl, Martha Jo Felson, who would become my lifetime partner. We married in 1961 and this year marks our 48^th anniversary. We have two married children, Steven and Roben and four grandchildren. Our oldest grandson turned 21 in 2008. My son Steven, grandson, Andrew and I celebrated this milestone birthday with a trip to Las Vegas.

Although Martha Jo works full time as Director of Social Events at InterContinental Buckhead, we have enjoyed traveling in the U.S and Europe and spending time with our children and grandchildren as we near retirement.

jhkatz1@bellsouth.net

Home: 770-952-1460

Work: 770-850-0415

CARY KING

404-888-0500 (WORK)

404-886-1953 (CELL)

I graduated from Georgia State College (Now Georgia State University) in 1963 with a B.S. in Industrial Psychology, and was Commissioned as a 2d Lieutenant from ROTC. Little did I know I would have 3 very different and divergent career paths after that but as we all know by now, life is unpredictable.

After Ga State, I was accepted at and slated to go to Emory Law School but was bored with school so I dropped my school deferment and entered the Army. I ended up in the Army from 1963 until 1970 and was released from active duty as a Captain on the Major’s promotion list. Among other places over that almost 7 year span, I served two plus years in Germany and a very long tour in Vietnam. In Vietnam I was awarded 5 Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart (one I would like to have missed) 3 Army Commendation Medals with “V” device, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, other miscellaneous service ribbons and earned my Combat Infantryman’s Badge and Aircrew man’s wings. That was career number 1. ( I actually retired from the Army Reserves also in 1987). During my time in the Army I married a girl named Linda Cohen from Lewistown , Pa and we had a daughter Kimberly born in 1967 and a son, Scotty born in 1969. Kim is a nurse at Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital and lives in Woodstock and Scotty is a lawyer and lives in Norcross. Both are married with kids .

Career #2 began when I got out of the Army and I went to work for my father in the Institutional Food business which later morphed into a minority partnership in my own distributorship after my father died I didn’t like that much and started to wonder if I shouldn’t have finished law school which was what I started out to do in the first place. I got divorced in 1980, at age 39, and decided that was a good time to go back to my roots, so I enrolled in John Marshall Law School at night, worked all day and studied weekends and on off nights from law school.

Career #3. It as about this time that I started to date Sherry Adelman, one of my closest and best friends from high school and a looker if I may say so myself and I got my train back on the track. I graduated law school at age 42 and Sherry and I got married the next year. I hung out a shingle in 1983 and was sworn in as new lawyer by our classmate and friend, Hilton Fuller that year. I’ve been in practice for the last 25 plus years and my son, Scotty has been in practice with me for the past 14 years of that. Scotty graduated from the University of Florida undergrad and attended Georgia Law School graduating Summa Cum Laude. Our firm is called Slater & King and our offices are in what is now called Midtown at 14^th and Peachtree which is about 8 blocks from where we all went to school at Grady everyday and a few blocks more than that from my old house on Elkmont Drive . I can see Piedmont Park from our window. Which just goes to show that no matter how far you think you’ve gone, you keep coming back home again.

Sherry has three daughters, Lisa, age 45, Jennifer, age 41 and Kimberly, age 38. So we are like the Brady Bunch with 5 kids and I am very happy to say, six grandchildren: Twins, Debbie and Zachary, age 10, Alex, age 10, Arthur, age 7, Zoe, age 6 and Little Noah, age 2. I guess I should have called grand-parenting career #4 and it’s the one I enjoy most of all.

We can’t wait to se everybody and hope we’ll all be around for our 75^th reunion. Stay Well!!!

For all practical purposes I have not lived in Atlanta since 1959. During the years at Auburn I was home for the summer a couple of years, but that was it.

I met and married Tom Lawrence at Auburn and we lived there for two years while we completed masters’ degrees, his in chemical engineering and mine in education.

Our next stop was Port Arthur, Texas where he worked for Texaco and we reunited with Patsy Coursey Long and her husband, Alex, who worked for Gulf. I taught math for several years and then improved the teacher pupil ratio by having our first daughter.

Tom joined Monsanto and thanks to them we lived in Anniston and Decatur, Alabama and were finally transferred to St. Louis where we now live. There was a daughter born in each of those places. Yes, that is four daughters. Mothering has occupied a large portion of my life, but I did finally go back to school and get a second masters’ degree and teach again for several years.

My life has been filled with the blessings of a wonderful husband, four lovely daughters, seven adorable grandchildren. We travel a lot to see them as they live all over the country: Atlanta, Albany, NY, and Lafayette, CO.

One of our joys through the years has been music and especially our church choir. Some wonderful experiences have come our way in our current choir as we have sung at Carneige Hall and Kennedy Center.

You may remember me as the smallest and most shy girl in our class. Because of my shyness I was not into a lot of activities at school. I loved the football games though and attended many of them with our small group of friends.

After graduation I attended Bob Jones University after realizing I did not want to work at W. T. Grant’s the rest of my life! I completed two years in an elementary education major and fell in love with a 1962 accounting graduate, King Little. He was in enforcement as a Revenue Officer for 34 years with the IRS. He now has his own business as a Tax Consultant. I have been his queen for almost 47 years and loved every minute of it! We have three wonderful sons, Rusty, Kevin and Gary. Rusty is a CPA, Kevin is an Attorney and Gary is a Budget Analyst. We are blessed with three wonderful grandchildren.

I was a stay at home Mom for many years until the boys graduated. I became a Federal Investigator for the US Office of Federal Investigations when they attended college. I conducted background investigations for those seeking security clearances to work in nuclear plants all over the country. My home base was Augusta, GA but I worked from Miami, Fla to New Mexico, Denver, Colorado etc. Wonderful job! I loved it. I later conducted security interviews for the US Department of Energy in Aiken, SC making recommendations for the granting or revoking of security clearances. Upon retirement from this job in 2007 I became a full time student at Augusta State University and took classes through Extended Education from Bob Jones University. At long last, on May 3, 2008, I was conferred the Bachelor of Arts degree in Counseling/Psychology from Bob Jones University. As I stood before 10,000 people at graduation to give my testimony of what God had done for me, needless to say, the shy girl from Grady High School had changed and was ready to take on the world! I am currently pursuing a Masters degree from Bob Jones University in Counseling which I hope to receive in May of 2010 at the age of 69! I would then like to bring “hope” to many who are struggling with addictions, depression, marriage problems and the like. I firmly believe there are answers, and we can find them. We are just looking in the wrong places. The answers are in God’s Word.

My favorite activities are reading, traveling, water skiing, and playing with my grandchildren. We regret we will be unable to come to the reunion because of a trip to Europe. The Lord has given us a beautiful home five minutes from Lake Thurmond near Augusta, GA, and we live on a ten acre lake of our own. Come to see us. We love having company and would love to see you!

I have enjoyed reading what you all have been doing, and am looking forward to seeing you soon.

After graduating from Auburn I worked as a welfare worker for two years. In 1964 Alec Long (58) and I married, and moved to Port Arthur, Texas, where he went to work as a chemical engineer for Gulf Oil. Soon, Diane Scarborough and her husband Tom Lawrence moved into the area. Diane and I had been together at Auburn. In Port Arthur we got together often and stayed in touch after they moved away.

Alec and I have two children, Gena, and Timothy. They both graduated from Texas A&M. She works for an engineering contractor and he is a CPA. We had a lot of fun and made many long time friends, following our kids’ activities in high school and at A&M. When my kids went to college, I taught school, planning to teach 6 years.

Eighteen years after beginning my teaching career, I retired to the best career of all, grandmother. Ron and Jackson, six years old, are cousins, born 7 weeks apart. Around 18 months we began to lose Ron to autism. We have been working ever since to get him back, and thankfully, he is responding. These two are so much fun, and they live close. How cool is that!

Donald, thank you for setting up the tour of Morningside. Thanks also to all the committee for your hard work.

I attended the University of Florida where I earned a BAE with certifications in English, speech and journalism. While at UF I met my husband to be, Don Maddox, at a fraternity/sorority social. (Go Gators) After our graduations we married and started a family having a son, Joseph, and a daughter, Helen, of whom we are very proud. After following the corporate mantra for a number of years as we moved around Georgia and Florida, we settled for good in Jacksonville, Florida. This put us close to the beach and the ICW for swimming, fishing, and boating which we still enjoy to this day.

While in Jacksonville, I worked for Florida Community College teaching GED classes to the women inmates at Jacksonville Correctional Institute. (Not your usual HS class) Later I taught English as a Second Language to adults and then worked for the college managing a learning center. As you can see, I have always loved teaching, and part of this was due to my math teacher mother and to the many wonderful educators at Grady High School.

Through Don’s work we have been blessed with many opportunities to vacation in the U.S., the Caribbean, and overseas. However, our most adventurous vacation was an eight day white water rafting trip down the Grand Canyon. It took Don several years to talk me into that one. I loved it, and I would recommend this trip to all.

Our family has grown to include 5 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. God has blessed us in many ways; one of the greatest is that I am a Hodgkin’s Lymphoma survivor. Don and I relish our time together by visiting family, traveling, fishing, gardening, volunteering, and cheering on the Gators.

I have enjoyed reading your posted stories, and I sometimes get out my Orator to match up names and faces. Mr. Randolph’s and Mr. Godwin’s classes stand out as memories never forgotten and include some often told stories. However, I think my favorite memory about Grady is the senior play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream that so many of us participated in with both fear and joy.

I am sorry that Don and I will not see you in May, but other commitments prevent a trip at that time. We wish you fair sailing on the remainder of your life’s journey. I would be happy to hear from you.

For more than 25 years, Nancy has been a leading Consultant as well as Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Fortune 100 companies and service organizations, providing a depth of expertise in organizational assessment and transformation, strategic planning, business and technology alignment, project management, governance and metrics, systems development, leadership development and coaching, staffing, process improvements and optimization, compliance and security, business continuity, mergers and acquisitions, interim management, regulatory compliance, and sourcing. Her clients include companies such as IBM, Harcourt, LILCO and AT&T. Industries for whom she has consulted are: Financial, Technology, Colleges/Universities, Hospitals, Retail, Engineering, Utilities, Publishers, Non-Profits, Government, Venture Capital and Boards.

With Arthur Andersen, Nancy Markle was the Partner Responsible for Global Technology Strategy and Change, an organization of over 2,500 technologists. Prior to that, she held the position of Americas’ CIO, meeting the firm’s business needs with technology solutions throughout the US, Canada and Latin America. Nancy is the first person to fulfill the role of Americas CIO, which included technology affecting about 35,000 employees in more than 100 Andersen offices.

Under Nancy’s stewardship, significant organization changes were effected, saving the firm millions through automated systems and process improvements; producing measurable improvements in customer satisfaction and quality products. She was a leader in the firm’s technology direction and professional growth; developing and implementing the Information Technology Strategy and Governance, sourcing and contract management including with Accenture, and special initiatives such as Growth and Retention of Women (GROW).

Before becoming a member of Andersen’s leadership, Ms. Markle held the position of Executive Vice President and CIO for H. F. Ahmanson and its principal subsidiary, Home Savings of America, America’s largest Savings and Loan. She led the corporation’s technology policymaking, planning, strategy, systems development, advanced technology and the infrastructure for numerous acquisitions and divestitures. Her prior positions include President of Information Technology Consultants, Principal with Arthur Young’s [Ernst & Young] Consulting Practice, CIO for Georgia Power Company and Fannie Mae. She has also served The Pennsylvania State University and IBM as a faculty member and researcher.

I’m writing on behalf of my husband, Leo Grady Moore, who would have loved being a part of this significant reunion of his high school class! Unfortunately, Grady lost his battle with a very strange form of Multiple Myeloma on November 22, 2004. And battle he did leaving a vibrant personality and legacy behind.

Grady served with the U.S. Marines Reserves prior to receiving his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1963. He worked several construction related projects (several in downtown Atlanta) prior to joining the U.S. Geological Survey which he served for 38 years. Grady received several national and state awards for his work on behalf of water resources.

More than the list of places and awards, however, was the fact that Grady was admired and respected by so many colleagues all across the country and Canada. Our journey with the USGS took us to St. Thomas, VI, Washington DC, Helena, MT, Bismarck, ND and finally Albany, NY.Grady remained a Southern gentleman with charm, twinkling in the eyes and quick wit. Any spare time was spent on home projects, fly-fishing, woodworking and reading. His special love was our 2 grandchildren who called him Pampa!

We met when I was a Grady HS senior and married several years later. The almost 40 years we shared were amazing times. Friends found it very amusing that Grady went to Grady and that I had known Grady at Grady! Every trip to Atlanta continues to include a drive by the old ‘hood’. We even toured the school when our 2 children were about to enter high school. It was beyond belief that several teachers we had known were still there! Weren’t they older than dirt when we were students?

Samuel W. Norwood III ("Sam" and "Woody")
42 Camden Road
Atlanta, GA 30309
Home 404-352-9536
Cell: 678-427-2937
Email: snorwood@mindspring.com
Birth Date: April 6, 1941
Married (4th time) January 13, 2000 on Aspen Mountain, to Alice
Lynch, resident of San Antonio, TX,
Two children in their mid-40s (married and living in Denver, CO
Four Grandchildren ages 12 to 18 (oldest attending Northern Arizona
University in Flagstaff)

Still scratching for a living part time as Senior Partner with Tatum, LLC (www.TatumLLC.com) providing analytical advisory services on strategic issues to corporate CEOs and boards of directors. I plan to keep doing this interesting and financially rewarding work as long as my clients think I have a brain. My other passion continues to be sailing. However, I have morphed from racing dinghies around the buoys to racing and cruising on the East coast and offshore. I have a second home in Beaufort, SC where I keep my boats. A few years ago I organized The Classic Boat Rally that has taken on a life of its own (see www.ClassicBoatRally.com). In the winter I ski in Aspen, Deer Valley, and Alta. I live in Brookwood Hills, near Piedmont Hospital, in a house built in 1928. My spouse of 9 years continues to live in San Antonio where she has kids and grandkids and is very involved in the community. We are together about half the time, either in Atlanta, San Antonio, Beaufort, or some other place traveling. It seems that this arrangement may be the key to my remaining married. We're each financially independent and we are always happy to see each other. We have the good fortune of traveling a lot. In 2008, aside from skiing and sailing trips, we spent two weeks in Turkey where I was a facilitator at the Central Eurasian Leadership Academy at Koc University near Istanbul, then two weeks in Alaska to see the glaciers and wildlife, then two weeks in New York and Ottawa seeing the autumn trees and attending the annual conference of The Society of International Business Fellows, of which I am an active member. In January 2009 we will be fly fishing on a ranch in southern Argentina. I am gearing up to sail my Flicka 20 sailboat, mostly solo, in 2010, up the Atlantic coast to Nova Scotia (and maybe on to Europe, depending on how much fun I'm having. Life has been very good for me, and I look forward to seeing my classmates in May. The 2009 Classic Boat Rally will be April 16 to April 20, starting at Fernandina Beach, FL and ending in Charleston. So, I'll have to hustle back to the Reunion May 1

Sam

After graduation I began working full time for an insurance company and later an actuarial consulting firm while attending Georgia State College at night.

In 1964 I married my wonderful husband, Tony, and we are still together after 45 years. I continued working until our daughter, Kay, was born in 1968. And in 1971 our son, Chris, was born. The children kept me busy with their piano lessons, ballet lessons, girl scouts, boy scouts, sports and church activities, etc. I was a PTA officer and often a school field trip chaperone or band chaperone. Somehow I managed to have time to be active in one of the church affiliated women’s organizations – serving on its board in many offices, including twice as president. We remain active in our church and its programs.

Our children are married and we have four grandchildren. Our daughter, Kay, and her husband, Christopher Nastopoulos, have two children – Charles, 11 and Christina, 8. Our son, Chris, and his wife, Maria, have two girls – Angela, 4, and Sophia, 3.

After the nest emptied out, I went back to work part time for several years, retiring when our first grandchild was born in 1997. We spend as much time as possible with the grandchildren – they are the best.

I enjoy crossword puzzles and do lots of needlework. I have in recent years accepted the challenge of learning how to use a cell phone, I-Pod, digital camera, camcorder and my computer – so far it’s going good. My husband, a CPA by profession, is now working a lighter schedule so we have more time to travel. We have been to many places in the U.S. and visited Greece and several Greek isles numerous times. Our most interesting travel experiences include a visit to Mt. St. Helens, surviving a hurricane in Palm Beach, FL. and a snowstorm in New York. We took a hot air balloon ride in Napa Valley and in 1996 we took an

8-mile hike down the Samaria Gorge on the Greek island of Crete. It was a spectacular sight – but could not walk for three days.

Frank Pate class of 1959. After graduation from Grady I went to Young Harris College for two years and got an AA degree then transferred to The University of Tennessee for two years. I got really sick with pericarditis my senior year so I did not graduate from Tennessee. In 1963 I entered the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry where I got my D.M.D. in 1967. I then went to the University of Alabama at Birmingham where I completed a three-year Oral Surgery residency and later practiced oral surgery for about 10 years in Decatur, Alabama. I got tired of Oral Surgery so for a year I headed up a General Practice Residency for general dentists at the University of Mississippi in Jackson, MS. Since oral surgeons were doing a lot of combined surgery Orthodontic-Surgery cases I decided I would go do a two year Orthodontic residency at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Later I practiced orthodontics for about ten years in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and retired from dentistry. I am Board Certified in both oral surgery and orthodontics. Retirement lasted for about a year. I went to work promoting a computer surgical simulation program that was developed for Orthodontists and Oral Surgeons which allowed me to travel all over the U.S. and twice to Australia. In 1995 while in the process of moving from Alabama to Atlanta, I was sitting at a stop light in Atlanta while going home and was rear-ended by a man going about 50mph resulting in a very severe traumatic brain injury. I was in a coma for several weeks and had rehab in the hospital for three months followed by six months of out patient rehab. Since then it seems to have been one problem after another so I am in a wheelchair now doing the best I can.

As I began dental school I married JoAnn Hudson who I met at U.T. Jo is a graduate of Druid Hills High School in Atlanta and is two years younger than me. She graduated from the University of Kentucky and taught for several years and has done a great job working for me in both of my dental practices. She raised our three great kids and now tends to me getting me from Doc to Doc, etc. and trying to keep us solvent as the man that rear-ended me had nothing and was bankrupted. Our three children - one girl and two boys who to date have given us seven grandkids who are really neat � all live within about two hours of us. Our daughter lives in Selma, AL and our two boys, in Birmingham, AL. We live in Dadeville, AL, a rural area on Lake Martin near the Opelika-Auburn area.

We have seven grandkids, two boys and five girls. They visit us often and we enjoy them very much.

E-mail: patedoc@charter.net

Post Grady days I attended Georgia State University and graduated in 1963 with a degree in Psychology. About six of us in the Gents Social Club at Grady became Kappa Sigma's and continued our social ways. At Graduation I was also commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Army. I completed Infantry Officers Basic Training and Jump School at Fort Benning, Ga. Served with the XVIII Airborne Corp at Fort Bragg, N.C. and the U.S Army, Vietnam.

After the military service I was employed with the State of Georgia in the Rehabilitation Agency and worked in numerous positions and hung in there and retired after thirty years service. Many of my friends said I would never get rich working for the State and they were right, but, I've been retired 12 years and many of them are still working. In that thirty year period I got married and Divorced, completed a Masters degree in Education from UGA and a Masters degree in Public Administration at GSU. I mention this because our High School Guidance Counselor, Mr. Morris, said to me after one of those Standardised Test, "Emmanuel, I'm not sure you will do well in College."

I now focus on my hobbies wich are woodworking, fly-fishing and photography. My next big woodworking project is to tear out my kitchen and build my own cabinets. Fly-Fishing has been a wonderful opportunity to see some wonderful and beautiful parts of this country while fishing the Bighorn, Madison, and Yellostone Rivers out west and the Bow river in Canada. Some of these trips have been with some of our uperclassmen such as Capt. Bill Sims, a real sea Captain, Dr. Fred Roach, And The Reverend Ed Nash. I have traveled out of Country with friends to France, Canada, Mexico, Greece, and will be going to Turkey this Fall.

It will be great seeing everyone and remember, we are in the Fourth Quarter and there is no overtime!

At Morningside Grammar School: discovering girls when they began to blossom; having a different girlfriend almost every week;( that carried over into adulthood)Finally being able to hit the softball over the fence and out of the playing field; playing the blackfaced ghost in our 7^th grade play, “Ghost of Lollipop Bay;” having a Mohawk haircut ( I’d love to have a picture); being called “Billy;” hopping trains on the tracks near Ansley Mall, jumping from rooftop to rooftop on the moving freight cars, with Donald Bohne, and smoking John Ruskin cigars, at age 7 or 8, while supposedly attending piano lessons; exchanging penny valentine’s cards with classmates; ballroom dance lessons at the Biltmore Hotel.

At Grady High School: Robert Norris singing “Hearts Made of Stone” in the 8^th grade football locker room; Jack Rudolph, who later played pro football, popping our butts with a towel; dancing to “Earth Angel” at Roy Hickman’s 8^th grade party; Mickey Stovall and Muriel Hannah being an item; all the guys falling in love with pretty Claire Dunn; trying to tackle Larry Lafkowitz one-on-one while the “Bull of 10^th Street” was running straight at me; Mr. Godwin’s detention hall; sock hops; good old Mr Derthick leading the cheers; Janet McGee opening most of the assemblies with her awesome voice; many Demolay functions particularly the Sweetheart Ball; proms on the second floor of the Fox theatre; crinolines and strapless gowns; Sunday nights at the Varsity; great football, track, and basketball teams, Erk as our coach; going steady with first one girl, then another; 1953 Ford, 1955 Chevrolets, glass pack mufflers, suicide knobs; Dewey Overton and stink bombs in chemistry class.

At college and law school, and afterwards: Davidson, 1959-1961; becoming a KA; growing a beard, attending several Old South balls; Ga. State1961-1963, BA in Philosophy, of all things; Emory Law School,1963-1966; renewing friendships with Bobby Dodd, Hilton Fuller and Ed Solomon, who also attended; playing Frisbee on the quadrangle with about 20 other guys during lunch break; playing bridge in the basement of the old law school building instead of studying;( Bobby was a regular); law clerking for a federal judge in Brunswick; active duty training, summer camps, monthly drills, Army National Guard, then JAG corps army reserves; practicing law in Augusta with a law firm; divorcing then remarrying, moving to Acworth; practicing law there as a solo practitioner for 30 years. Short stints as General Counsel to Ga. Judicial Council, City and County Attorney, served on several historic preservation boards and election boards. Campaigned for a number of local politicians, most were elected, except me, when I ran for Mayor of Acworth.

Divorced, remarried, more than one more time. Dated and married beauties, of course. One later became Ted Turner’s steady squeeze (I knew her first). Old sweethearts, new sweethearts.

Health setbacks; bought old Lake Rabun Hotel at an auction in 1990, owned and operated it, and sometimes a pub and restaurant, until I leased it in 2003 and then sold it in 2005. That was my 1957 El Dorado Cadillac convertible. Retired from law practice in 2003.

Ever after a new adventure, bought and owned and operated for a short time a waterfront restaurant on the Georgia coast called Hunter’s, and a dock-building business with worn out equipment and some of the worst workers one can imagine. You guessed it, the 44 foot barge suffered from serious leaks, I gave it to a crabber who hauled it away, the 37 foot push tug sunk at my dock, and I said “screw the coast, I’m going back to the mountains”. The no-seeums in McIntosh County can carry off even a big man.

Have one son and raised two step-children; all are in their 30’s. No grandchildren but a new puppy, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. Now happily married to a younger gal, Bitsy, who keeps me on my toes, active in volunteer work for local chamber of commerce and Hospice; have appeared as a bit actor in 2 amateur plays, do water aerobics 3 times a week, have recently studied for and passed tests, with my wife, for Coast Guard Captain’s license, and, having forgotten how bad the no-seeums were, am looking into acquiring some type of floating restaurant/ pub with some living quarters and relocating to the coast of South Carolina. Ya’ll come!

In 1959 I was Judy Seidenspinner, now I'm Mrs. David Massey. My new address is 3639 Tradition Dr. Gainesville, GA 30506. I was only at Grady for my senior year and played 2nd singles varsity tennis that year. Our team won the Atlanta City Championship and brought about a three foot trophy back for the school.

Both my husband and I were in education until we retired. I earned a BA degree in English from Oglethorpe University in 1963, and a master's in library science from the University of Georgia in 1968. When I retired in 2000, I was the library media specialist at Riverbend Elementary in Gainesville.

We are not in town usually during the warm months, for we have a log cabin in Blue Ridge, Ga. and a lake cottage in Canada, near Ottawa, Ontario. So I haven't been able to attend any of the reunions thus far. It's certainly been good, though, to have information about the events and people in my class every so often. Grady was a good school and I enjoyed the time I spent there. Double click the attachment line in the heading to see a recent picture.

Marilyn Makover Shapiro
255 Stirling Ave
Winter Park, FL 32789
407-644-0623

Life is good and keeps getting better. The memories from high school are
great and the years after have been fun and interesting.
To summarize- I am widowed, have 2 wonderful sons, great
daughters-in-law, and 2 grandchildren. Even though I am in Florida and
one family is in San Francisco and the other in New York, I see them
relatively often (more than when they were in Brazil). I continue to
enjoy living in central Florida as long as I can travel a lot . Over the
years I have had a private practice in psychotherapy which I love and I
have enjoyed doing Diversity and Conflict Resolution work. The
accomplishment I am most proud of aside from getting a doctorate 20
years after finishing college was becoming a Black Belt in karate at age
48. However, my kicks are a bit rusty at this point.
Looking forward to seeing you all -- I keep remembering what a wonderful
group of people we had in our class.

PLAYED GOLF AND ATE DINNER WITH "ERK" ABOUT 6 YEARS AGO IN STATESBORO. ALWAYS HAD A CIGAR IN HIS MOUTH AND NEVER STOPPED TELLING STORIES FROM HIS PAST.

This is Bill Krulak. I received another mailout about the reunion today and it provides impetus to write. I am sad to report that your classmate and my dear wife of 45 years, Mae Mallory Spence, died on January 17, 2008. She dies after a brave battle with metastatic melanoma. Throughout her adult life she was a loyal alum of Grady High. She raised 2 wonderful children while supporting me in a peripatetic journey. Reading and literature were central to her. She was graduated as a classics major from Goucher College in Baltimore where she was the president of the student body her senior year. She received an MA in English from George Mason University and a MA in Religion from Yale and taught religion and English at secondary schools and community colleges. In 1999 we returned to Baltimore (where we were married on her graduation day June 16, 1963) for me to serve as Rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church. She was intelligent, funny, supportive, loving, and selfless. I miss her and I’m sorry we can’t join your festivities.

My life since graduation from Grady included acquiring a BA from Emory University and a MS in Biology from Georgia State University. I married John Spotts in 1968 and we moved to California while he was in the Navy stationed at the NAVFAC in Point Sur. We then were stationed in Antigua in the West Indies. We have two daughters who are married, two grandsons, and one granddaughter.

My career has been as an educator except for a brief stint as a histology technician when my husband and I lived in California. I love field research and traveling. I have participated in five Earthwatch expeditions of which most had something to do with Archeology or plant study. My travels have included a photographic safari in Africa, a cruise down the Yangtze river in China, travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow in Russia and travel in both eastern and western Europe. My most eventful trip was one that included accompanying students to Ecuador. The trip included a two hour-long hike up a mountain to the lodge, which was located in the cloud forest. The lodge lacked modern conveniences such as electricity and was inhabited by a diverse population of insects. I found that 6^th through 8^th graders have a greater tolerance for high altitudes than adults and it was difficult to keep up with them without gasping for breath.

Currently retired from teaching science at The Lovett School in Atlanta, I spend much of my time either with my grandchildren, planning my next trip, or substitute teaching. I’ve visited five of the seven continents and hope to visit the remaining two soon.

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1I have tried on several occasions to leave Atlanta but somehow I have never been able to do that successfully. I am root bound to this great city and I have loved the many changes over the years. I was married to Jack Murphy who was a Grady graduate in the class of ‘60. We moved to Delaware where he was stationed in the Air Force. We divorced several years later, had 1 son, Steve, who now lives in Wales with his family. A few years later I married Stan Daugherty. We had 2 children, a girl Angela and a son Rob. Stan and I were married 10 years. We lived in Dunwoody across the street from my sister Carol and her family and near my parents who lived on Ashford Dunwoody which at the time was out in some small little place no one had ever heard of called Dunwoody. There was nothing there but acres and acres of pastures.

Speaking of pastures, I had always yearned for a horse and finally I bought one. Little did I know how far I would take that interest. It started as a hobby and grew into a business that I enjoyed for a quite a few years. My friends tell me that I never looked so bad as when I was in my “horsey stage” but I’ll tell you I was in heaven up in the hay loft with a guitar singing to me kids, the chickens and the horses. Those were great days. Then I went wild over photography. Every where I went I had a camera strapped on my back. Those were my artsie years. When Stan and I divorced I became a distributors rep and had to put all of those fun things behind me for quite a while. I am now a rep for 5 optical companies and I can say I honestly enjoy my work and it has treated me quite well. I have a boat at Lake Lanier and so in the Summer months my friends and family enjoy the sun and lazy days on the water. Life has treated me well. My greatest gift being good health, good friends, loved ones and staying interested in the world around me.

The phone rang and it was Donald Bohne and he wanted to know if I would like to go with him to the dance on Saturday night. I said yes and when I got off the phone I wondered why he wanted to go with me. I had the confidence of a slug. Donald showed up at my front door with a cast on his leg up to his mid thigh. Seems he had been in a motor cycle accident and had broken his leg. We went to the dance and he drug that gemming white cast around with him as we stumbled around to the music. But I didn’t mind - I had a date didn’t I?

Robert S. (Bob) Strickland
509 Takely Drive
Lawrenceville, Ga 30046
770-995-0550 404-216-1895
bobstrickland2@hotmail.com

After Grady, I went to Mercer Univ. in Macon about 1 1/2 years, then to Ga. State.& then Ga Tech. I got married (first time), dropped out, went back to Tech & graduated in 1966 with a BS degree. My wife #2 says I'm good at BS.

I went to work for Ga Power Co. & several small Heat & A/C companies, landed with Sears in 1969 selling Heat & A/C. I won many awards including trips, cruises, monetary, plaques, and top salesman of year several times. I retired in 1999, went back & retired again in 2003. I am now a Building Inspector with Gwinnett County, Ga.

In the meantime I divorced & remarried Ellen who is the love of my life & retired. We have 3 children between us: Scott, Kimberly, & Lynn. We have 6 grandchildren ; 3 in Georgia & 3 in Colorado.

There is no truth to Ronnie Goings claim I was ever locked in a locker.

I have enjoyed working with this committee on your reunion. I look forward to seeing all y’all.

Thanx

Bob S.

Barnett "Barney" Suratt Grady '59

50 Years... Blink!! Where did it all go?!

Over the years I have owned several small businesses in the fields of radio
communications service (Atlanta), and background music, computers and
software, as well as a Radio Shack store (St Simons Island).

Married a wonderful lady, Dianna, and we will celebrate our 45th anniversary
this June. We spent our early married years renovating and enjoying old
beach houses on the GA and SC coasts. We travelled throughout the SE in our
Cessna airplane, making many wonderful friends in the flying community. We
moved from Atlanta to St Simons in 1978.

"Right place at the right time" When the first desktop computers were
delivered to the Navy at Kings Bay, GA I became a contractor for the Federal
Government training civilian and military personnel in the use of desktop
computers and software. I organized a team of instructors which travelled
through out the country ultimately teaching over 2500 students over a 5 year
period.

After 20 years at St Simons I sold out for the corporate world and went to
work for Nielsen Media Research (TV ratings people) as a software engineer
at the global operations center in the Tampa Bay area. After 15 years with
the company I retired a little more than a year ago.

My wife and I are avid photographers, she mostly does stills, and me, high
definition video. We do a lot of nature photography as well as events. Last
summer we joined a water ski show team and enjoy working in club activities
and regional competitions. We have worked with the Cypress Gardens Ski Team
and have done some work for organizations offering ski clinics for people
with disabilities. (Incredible.. but yes, paraplegics can water ski!)

Looking forward to seeing all of you at the reunion,

Barney
bs74007@verizon.net
783 House Wren Cir
Palm Harbor, FL 34683
727-785-2236

The last fifty years have been good to me. I was married in ’62 to John Thompson and will be celebrating 47 year of marriage soon. We have two daughters, both born in Missouri; they are Leilani Hook, a Retirement Specialist in Kansas and Leinesa Adams, in charge of new product development for a medical firm in Jacksonville. John was a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Everywhere you go there are wonderful people to enjoy and beautiful scenery to be enveloped by.

During this time I have run the gamete of jobs from Baking to Banking, in Mo., Il., Ne., Ga., SC, and Fl. Presently I am in a barbershop singing group, Jacksonville Harmony Show Chorus, which sang in Carnegie Hall in Feb. of this year, along with choruses from around the world. The chorus has competed internationally numerous times, the last was Calgary Canada and will again this year in Nashville, and most likely next year in Seattle. To support my “past time”, I am a greeting card specialist. I drive my 4 on the floor and sing all the way to the bank.

We now live in Jacksonville, Fl. near our daughter Leinesa, not too far from the beach and all that great sun.

Hello fellow graduates of a truly superior high school. Don't we wish we had fully appreciated that fact in 1955-59? Well I guess the fact that so many Grady Grads turned out so well speaks for itself. I've really enjoyed reading all of the wonderful bios you have been sending in. I am inspired to add my own to the group. Drew and I will be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary on Aug. 1st and are happier than we have ever been in those 50 years. We have 4 children.Rusty 48, Debbie 47, Cathie 45 and Randy 38 and 8 WONDERFUL grandchildren Justin 24,(getting married June 27) Michelle 21, Chase 21, Courtney 21, Alex 19, Rachel 17, Spencer 6 and Caroline 21/2. We have retired to our mountain home in a tiny town in North Carolina, and will be planting our first vegetable garden in a few weeks. City folks with recessive redneck genes, who would of thought it? We look forward to all of the weekends' activities and seeing old, oops,I mean middle-aged friends. I guess 70 will be the new 50!! Thanks to all of ya'll that worked so hard to make this a terrific reunion. See you all this weekend. Carol Converse Tuggle and Drew Tuggle Class of 55

No, that is not my daughter! That is my wife of almost 46 years, Janice Ulrici (Northside '61). Obviously, she has taken better care of herself than I have.

My family moved to Atlanta for the start of my eight grade at Henry Grady High School in 1954. I didn't know a soul. But, by 1959, I looked back on five of the best years of my life. I was blessed with some great friends, teachers and experiences. (I wish I could list all of them.)

Mr. Randolph was the ONLY educator I ever encountered in High School or in College. He was the real deal. I believe he had a lot to do with my development and above all, he challenged us to think. I soon learned that not all of us were equipped for the trip. I still quote him from time to time.

Mr. Godwin was indeed a wise man and very intuitive. Having made arrangements to meet someone in the parking lot, I would slowly shuffle into his 1 o'clock class. If the scuffing and slouching didn't work, I'd drop my books. But, he'd ignore me. The rascal KNEW I was trying to get kicked out of class and he wouldn't fall for it.

On other days, when I really needed to be in class to refresh for a test, no matter how carefully I entered the room, Rufus would stop me and with a smirk on his face and his glasses perched half way down his nose, he'd joyfully instruct me: "Boy, ......OUT!" while pointing to the door. As you recall, protesting was not allowed. No one challenged Rufus B. Godwin, not even Roger Dodger.

I was accepted to Georgia Tech. As I recall, my odds were 3 to 1 that I would not make it through my freshman year and 100 to 1 that I would not graduate. But, I did.

Upon graduation in 1963, Janice and I were married and headed for two years active duty at Fort McClellan, Alabama. I was a Second Lieutenant and an instructor at the U.S. Army Chemical Center in Anniston, Alabama.

Then, my first REAL job, Honeywell hired me and we moved to Knoxville, Tennessee were we have resided since 1965.

We were blessed with three children, David (1965) who died in 2006 of a heart attack, Laura (1968) an RN and Ashley (1978) a Social Worker. We have three grandsons and a few granddogs and grandcats.

I started my own business selling Heating and Air Conditioning equipment in 1976 and continue to work even today. Retirement is not in my vocabulary. I have been mildly successful. I do not have to work any more and actually do very little constructive regarding the business. Once again, blessed with an outstanding staff.

As a subconscious result of losing our son back in 2006, I have become a dogooder. I spend a great deal of my time helping those less fortunate. I am on several Boards, but do not like group meetings. They are counter-productive to my way of thinking. Ergo, I accept a task and get it done.

Health-wise, I had a heart attack at age 35. Then, open heart surgery at age 42 and again at age 53. In essence, I'm not suppose to be here. My appreciation for the gift of each day, makes me arise with a smile and a sincere intention to maximize the day. Most days I do just that.

I give back. Indeed, I hope all of you will consider that same path because so many of you helped me become a better person. And, I sincerely "thank you" for your efforts.

I regret that we are not able to attend this important gathering in celebration of 50 years ago, but you will be in my mind and heart on Saturday, May 2, 2009.

408 Erin Drive
Knoxville, TN 37919
865-588-5577, office
865-588-8670, fax
865-388-2277, cell

I’ve enjoyed reading about all of you who have responded. Here is the brief version of me:

I attended FSU and played 4 years of football, graduating in 1963 with a B.S. (in my case appropriately named) and 2nd Lt. bars. I spent 3 years in Germany and a year in Viet Nam in the Army.

I went to work with Charles Windham at the Atlanta Mart, then move to Brussels, Belgium in 1970. I moved to Paris in 1973, then back to Atlanta in 1977. All these jobs were large scale real estate projects. During those 14 years, I was married, divorced and fathered 3 children.

In 1978, I met Holly, the love of my life, and married her in 1979. We moved to Italy for a year, which is a two beer story, then back to Atlanta, briefly, then on to New York.There we had two daughters. After 7 years in NYC, we moved to Washington DC, where I started my own real estate development and consulting business. Development was slow; consulting was ok. I worked on projects in Zurich, Vienna, Calgary, Barcelona and later, Shanghai.

We moved to Orlando in 1993 during the last real estate crisis and we raised our girls there. In 2006, we sold our last commercial property and move to a bridgeless barrier island on the southwest Gulf coast.

One daughter is graduating from Gardner-Webb U. shortly after the reunion the other is at U of Miami, school of architecture. In addition, there are 6 grand children and 1 great grand child.

My full name is Mary Alice Buchanan Warner. My husband is Paul Cunningham Warner, and we have one son, Jonathan Bryn Warner. He and his wife, Dawn, have a daughter, Kennen, who will be 10 in May, and a son, Gavin, who is 7. From a previous marriage, Paul has two daughters and their families living in England. His late son’s widow and her children also live there. He has a total of 8 adult grandchildren and step grandchildren, and one great grandchild. Paul and I met in Malaysia when I was in the Peace Corps and he was stationed there in the Royal Air Force. After we married, we lived in England for three years where our son was born. We were married for 31 years, divorced for 7, and remarried last year. My career was varied: artist, floral designer, homemaker, draftsman, estimator and project manager for commercial flooring, art teacher, merchandiser, and others. This variety suited me very well. I am now retired and spend my time in volunteer work, church activities, arts & crafts, running, and projects around the house.

Richard Wilde

203 Oakleaf Drive

Macon, GA 31210

478-477-7010

Cell 478-808-1378

rnwilde@cox.net

It has been an enjoyable fifty years following my graduation, beginning with that 1959 Summer when Bill Pettys and I took his dad's Olds and drove over 12,000 miles to see the countryside. We camped out most of the time, covered 39 states, and checked out Juarez, Mexico as well as parts of Canada. Then on to college. I graduated from the University of Georgia, and ten days later married my Grady High School sweetheart, Beverly Jones. I had signed up for the Air Force officer candidate school, but after a couple of months training at Lackland AFB, I took a hardship discharge to return home and take care of my Mom who had Parkinson's disease and was getting worse.

I began working at Atlanta Federal as a management trainee, and after a couple of years as assistant branch manager, I decided to do something that allowed me to get out and about more. State Farm Insurance gave me that opportunity, and I became a claim representative working Metro Atlanta and North Georgia. Our first child, Donna, was born in 1964, and our second, Michael, was born in 1966. Still with State Farm, I decided to try an agency position and started an agency in Snellville. However, after a year I decided I preferred being in claims and I began working for State Farm Fire and Casualty Company. After a few promotions, I relocated to Macon to be the claims manager for six offices, and this kept me on the go which I liked. My duties also included supervising teams handling claims following catastrophes, such as hurricane Andrew in Miami and the earthquake in Northridge, California.

In 2004, I retired from State Farm after 39 years, and life is good. We have taken some nice trips to Hawaii, New England, the Bahamas, Virgin islands, and this past August, we moved to our dream home here in Macon. Beverly and I have been married 45 years. Our daughter, Donna, graduated from West Georgia and works for Cherokee National Life in Macon. Her husband Les Jones is a store manager for Kroger, and they have two children: Heather, 17; and Brian, 22. Heather starts Georgia in the Fall, and Brian is finishing up at Macon State while working at Kroger full time in the pharmacy. Our son Michael graduated from Ga. Tech with an ME degree, and he is the senior ME at DataPath in Duluth. He and his wife Patrice live in Sugar Hill and have two children: Mason, 3; and Lydia, 7.

Beverly and I look forward to the 50th reunion, and we appreciate all the work that is being put into this project by the reunion committee. See you all soon!

Send mail to brenda@rabunwebdesigns.com with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 2008 Grady High School Class of 1959 Last modified: 06/05/09

Send mail to brenda@rabunwebdesigns.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2008 Grady High School Class of 1959
Last modified: 06/05/09