Page posted Feb 15, 2010

Updated May 29, 2010

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I am married to Shelli and  have 2 kids (by a previous marriage), Michele and Michael, and 7 grandchildren.

After graduation, I worked for Continental Allied Van Lines as a swamper.  I attended the Universities of Alaska and San Francisco majoring in Political Science until 1963.   I returned to Anchorage for a short time, but went back to California where I held various jobs until 1967.  I went back to Anchorage to become partners in the Bird House Bar at Bird Creek, Alaska.  I later sold that business and became President and CEO of Jadon, Inc, dba Chilkoot Charlie’s.  I have served on various boards, including Alaska Repertory Theatre, Boys and Girls Clubs of Alaska, Anchorage Restaurant and Beverage Assn.,  and Anchorage Downtown Rotary.  I also was chairman of the ABC Board for 2 terms and have served on the Anchorage City Council and Borough Assembly.

I am a licensed pilot, single engine aircraft, and a certified deep water diver.  I am also a licensed realtor.

I have summited Mt. McKinley, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Aconcagua, Mt. Vinson, Mt. Koscuisko and Mt. Elbrus.  I have attempted the north side and the south Col route  of Mt. Everest reaching the height of 27,500 feet in 1993 at age 50 (the summit is 29,028 feet).

I have completed a number of marathons all over the nation and one in Athens, Greece.  My best time is 3 hrs. 31 min.

I have written several short stories:   Max and the Axe, Johnnie Tegstrom, The Operation, Crazy Cliff, Safaris, The Entrepreneur, Shame, The Wild Duck and several more.

I went to college in San Diego, (USD & Cal Western).  After college I taught 5th grade.

I married Terry Smith who was raied in Anchorage and Kenai.  We have two kids, Brian and Jeni.  They are great people!

My best personal achievement has been to not consume alcohol on a daily basis for many years.

Life has been good.  We have lived in Anchorage most of the time since high school – caught some sun in other places, but always returned to Anchorage.

After graduation I attended Syracuse and George Washington University.  I completed law school at the University of Texas.  I was licensed in December 1966.  I was a trial lawyer for twenty five years (12 years in Austin and 12 in Houston).

In 1990 I married M. Ray Thomasson and moved to Denver, Colorado. I was Chief of Staff for the Colorado Attorney General until 1999.  I have been corporate counsel for our company, Thomasson Partner Associates, an oil and gas exploration company, since 1999. Fortunately I only am needed part time so I have joined several nonprofit boards including Opera Colorado and The Park People (it helps the city with special projects to maintain our park system).

We travel frequently for both business and pleasure.  We have a second home in western NC which is fun to share with friends and family.  Ray had three daughters when we married, then we adopted my god daughter when her parents died.  We have four grandchildren so I also get to play grandmother in Atlanta, Durham and Bali.

Colorado has great hiking in summer and wonderful skiing so we are active both seasons.

I was at AHS for three years (as a military dependent we moved in 59) but I remember great adventures and some special friendships....Merrill Shields

Renetta Thomas

Hello, fellow classmates.  Wow, 50 years.  How can it seem several lifetimes ago and just like yesterday, too?

As for today, Bob (Bob Smith, class of  59) and I live on beautiful Whidbey Island in Washington state.  We have been here for 17 years that have just flown by.  We moved here from Anchorage after I took early retirement from the State of Alaska, Dept. of Law.  

  I married a year after graduation.  After a long and rocky marriage I divorced.  I have three sons whom I love and treasure.  

     About the time I divorced I got a degree in Law Science from UAA and went to work for the Dept. of Law as a paralegal.  I worked for several sections but for most of the years I worked for the District Attorney's Office.  These were the most rewarding for I worked primarily with victims and other witnesses, usually in sexual assault cases, most of them children.  

   Bob and I married in 1981.  We met in Anchorage after he had attended his 20th reunion and had such a great time he decided to move back!

   I have had a couple of fun jobs here on Whidbey.  I worked as chef/writers  liaison  at a retreat for women writers for about 2 years.  Published and unpublished writers of all ages were invited guests and came from all over including from a couple of African countries.  I even got to hang out  with Gloria Steinem!  I also spent 5 years at the local community college administering placement tests for new students.  I had the most fun with the early entry high school kids.

     I finally really retired 5 years ago.  Well, at least retired from getting a salary.  I volunteer at the local food bank, I m the Democratic precinct committee officer for my precinct, and I serve on the vestry of our church.  I take Pilates classes twice a week, I love to read, read, read, and Bob and I have a garden plot at our little town s community garden.  We still don t have it planted because we have had a wet and very windy spring.  We are going to try again this weekend.  

   Life is good despite a few stops for repairs in the body shop.   Thank goodness for brilliant orthopedic surgeons.  

     Thanks all you Reunion Organizers Extraordinaire.  You know who you are!

From Class president, John Skousen: Hi guys,

Sorry for the delay in getting signed up for the reunion as well as getting info back to you.    It does appear a lot of effort has gone into making this a really successful event and you all deserve kudos. 

As for me, I haven’t written a bio in a long time, especially not since retirement, so I will just send you some info in the form of a narrative.

After graduation, I “spent time” in several Utah colleges, including CSU, Utah State and BYU.   Later (much later) I received an MBA while working for British Aerospace; but, I’m getting ahead of myself.

I served in the US Navy, Quantanamo Bay, Cuba as an Air Traffic Controller.  Pretty much everything after that involved airplanes in one way or the other.

I met and married Sandi in Jacksonville, Florida.   She worked with an Aunt of mine and our first date was a water skiing/picnic event with Aunt Dot.   Sandi agreed to the “blind date” because she was an avid water skier.  I, of course, had to agree because my Aunt set it up.   Seven months later, we were married and have been for 46 years.    Sandi had two small children from a previous marriage and we later had two more on our own.  So, 4 children and 6  grandchildren later, we are retired, living the summer months in Leadville, Colorado and most of the winter in Cottonwood, Arizona.

After a short stint working for Sandi’s dad, I returned to the airline industry at Alaska Airlines in Seattle.    We were later transferred to Anchorage and once again lived there with our children for seven years.  Our youngest, John C. Skousen III was born in Anchorage at Providence Hospital.    Another “state-side” opportunity presented itself and we moved to Denver, Colorado where I worked for Aspen Airways.   During a series of corporate changeovers, I became CEO/President of Aspen Airways which later became a United Express carrier owned by Air Wisconsin.    Upon that sale, I was offered a position with British Aerospace as VP of Customer Support for The Americas.    That experience required a stint in Brazil with travel all over South America and a home-base location of Purcellville, Virginia.  

Sandi had been Director of Marketing for the Denver office of Coopers & Lybrand.  Following our move to Virginia, she took on several volunteer opportunities, as well as some freelance marketing consulting and wedding planner. 

We pulled up stakes when the aerospace industry was having a rough time.  I took an early retirement and we returned to our mountain cabin in Leadville, CO.    Tried retirement for close to a year and neither one of us were quite ready for that.  We decided to market ourselves as a management duo.   That ended up with the most challenging jobs of our lifetimes (after raising kids).  We managed an over-55 community in Lacey, Washington. All retired doctors, lawyers and “Indian chiefs” with too much time and money on their hands; i.e., a very demanding job, although we loved it.   Later, the real estate development company that hired us asked to take on a bigger challenge.  A family-style manufactured home community.   We were asked to bring it up to higher standards. We agreed to this position as it was closer to our daughter and granddaughters in Vancouver, WA.    Three years later, we had accomplished our goals, but were worn out in the process and decided to try retirement once again.   Since then, we bought a camper and spend 1/3 of our time in Colorado, 1/3 in Arizona and 1/3 on-the-road.    In short, no one ever knows where we are!

I have suffered a few health problems along the way, but nothing has beaten me yet.  After a fairly large stroke, I was fortunate to have an almost full recovery. The only residual is that I have difficuly reading.  I see very well and can write very well, but have trouble reading what I’ve written.   We both immensely enjoy the outdoors and all that comes with it.  Sandi dabbles in several arts and I particularly enjoy fishing and Dutch oven cooking.   Am working on stacking my ovens this year and can make a killer pineapple upside down cake. 

We have been undecided about coming to the reunion as the last year has been challenging on a lot of levels.   We both are looking forward to making the trip and God willing we will be there for the reunion.  

I look forward to seeing each and every one

Hi Judy. Thanks for all your efforts. I am sending my RSVP as well as Survey via mail, but am (hopefully) attaching a bio via Sandi's email address. We are busy ltrying to line up housing/transportation for the reunion. Looking into rentiing a camper with youngest son/grandon in tow.

Anxious to see everyone. John.