Updated June 1, 2010
My first job was in an administrative capacity on the White Alice Project for RCA Service Company. Later I worked for a number of years in the exploration office of Mobil Oil Corporation in Anchorage. Pre-pipeline, those were exciting days. Mobil contracted with Flying Tigers to fly CL-44’s on 150 round-trips to the North Slope delivering the first shipments of cargo to Kaparuk. During the pipeline years I worked under a federal and state grant for Alaska Labor and Management Employee Affairs in Fairbanks. After a while, I lived on Badger Road, but because of the housing shortage, I first lived above a halfway house for work-release convicts on Airport Road. During the peak of the pipeline in 1975, under the ALMEA contract, I also worked for a few months in Valdez. Again, due to the housing shortage, I paid $1,800 per month for a one-room studio.
Later, at the request of our late classmate, Sandy Betz Johnson, I moved to Soldotna to assist her in her business. I then went to work for the McLane family, engineers and surveyors, when they developed the Peninsula Center Mall. Returning to Anchorage in the 1990’s, I reacquainted myself with my childhood friends, Tom and Rena Culhane, owners of Anchorage Refuse, and worked for them in finance and human resources. Into their 90’s I traveled with them and enjoyed their friendship.
We didn't lock the doors to our house. We left the keys in the car in the driveway. Neighbors knew one another and all the kids.
After graduation, I married Patrick Brouillet, and although we were divorced in 1975, we remain friends. Our son Kash was born in 1961 and is a chef in Los Angeles where he owns a restaurant. Our daughter Tara was born in 1964 and is a microbiologist for the VA Hospital in Seattle. Tara has two daughters, Ava 10, and Sydney 12. I have two beloved stepsons, Pat, who is a block mason and has 3 children, and Mark who is a directional driller on the slope. Mark has 9 children and lives on 400 acres at Point McKenzie.
My sister Judy Rosenberg lives in Anchorage and my youngest sister, Candy Jennings lives on Vashon Island. Our father, Clark Andresen, passed in 1991. Our mother Midge, lived 95 years and passed in 2008. Mother retained her beauty and enjoyed being the glamour queen of the Anchorage Pioneer Home.
South of Talkeetna, on the railbelt, our family owned the original Caswell Lake parcel that they bought for $900. 160 acres on a floatplane-sized lake with a 6 room two-story house. We had a year-round caretaker but seldom used it in the winter. We usually spent the entire summer at Caswell. We would invite all of our friends and had great fun. At that time, it required a train trip to Caswell station, then over 4 miles of road in a Jeep with airplane tires.
When I was 44 I bought a Harley Davidson and had great fun with an extended group of friends. One year, we put the bikes in a big truck and went to Sturgis, SD. During that trip we also rode in the Colorado mesas. I met Rusty Mason in Sturgis and we became friends. In the movie Mask, Cher played the part of the real-life Rusty.
With the birth of my first grandchild, I moved to Seattle for a year. I worked on the waterfront for a small privately owned chemical company and lived downtown – just 4 blocks from Nordstrom. A part of my job was to plan sales meetings. One of the trips I orchestrated was to the White Stallion Dude Ranch in Tucson, AZ, for 30 international associates. For some, it was their first trip to America and I enjoyed their reactions as we rode horses out onto the desert for a campfire breakfast.
Currently, I am CEO for the Anchorage Board of REALTORS®, and have the pleasure of extensive domestic travel and sometime trips to Canada. I live downtown, just a few blocks from where I grew up. In April, Kash and I had a delightful visit to Paris, visiting French friends and touring the countryside. I have maintained childhood friendships with Patty Cassel Jackson and Ray Plummer.
Over time I have been a committed volunteer, serving on non-profit boards. For three years I was the site chairperson of Operation Stand Down – an annual encampment for homeless veterans. Currently I volunteer with Alaska AIDS Assistance Association.
I am so glad that you are a part of our class, and I thank you sincerely for creating and maintaining the website. I look forward to seeing you again.
Do you see something suspicious here? There is something wrong with these names. We don't want imposters on our web page. Just genuine AHS Class of 1960 people. Right? Your webmaster had the get to the bottom of this. I asked Kaye (Kay) to explain herself. Here are her words:
Kay Andresen is my maiden name. DuBois is my adult name! I've been married so many times that I had to have a name of my own, which is my grandmother's maiden name. I've had the name legally for 20 years - and I caught on and haven't been married for 20 years. To further confuse names - my given name is Scarlett - middle name Kay. Sometimes it confuses me also.
I was touched by your remarks about being a military kid and how fortunate some of us were to grow up together. We lived in the Anchorage Hotel from the time I was born until I was 6, then moved to 9th and I, then in 1950 moved to 10th & G. I went to school with most of the kids in our class from first grade on. In my estimation, some of those kids from childhood are recognizable today when we meet at the reunion.
(Unidentified boy and Nancy Imlach in center)