After graduating from O'R in 1965, I joined a few other OR grads heading to the Christian Brother College, Saint Mary's College, in Winona, MN. Not knowing what else to major in (no one told me about engineering) I followed the lead of Mr. Su, and studied Physics. While there for a summer research program, I met my wife, Jennifer, a chemistry major also on campus for summer research, and from a campus down the street, College of St. Teresa. In college my priorities were (1) Physics, (2) Music, and (3) Jennifer. She set to work to change that, and we were married a year after my graduation from SMC, 1970. Do the arithmetic; we just celebrated 40 years of marriage this year!

After SMC, Jennifer and I spent 6 years in Ames, IA, where she put me through graduate school to earn a Ph. D. in Physics. Our first daughter, Jessica, was born there in 1973, so it wasn't all about physics. IA is pretty flat, so it was natural for us to be attracted to the mountains of Bozeman, MT, where we lived for two years while I worked as a post-doc, traveling between Madison, WI and Bozeman. I must have been home occasionally, because our second daughter, Andrea, was born in 1977. We were on a two year plan, with my Ph.D. being our creation of 1975.

In 1978 we moved to Long Island, NY where I worked at Brookhaven National Lab, for almost 3 years. Our third daughter, Megan, was born in NY, 1979.

We jumped at the chance to return to Bozeman in 1980 when I joined the faculty in the Physics Department at Montana State University. We have been here from that time on, with numerous adventures in raising a family. In 1987-88 we had the opportunity to spend a year in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, while I was on sabbatical leave working at a lab there. We returned with our fourth child, son Nicholas. Jennifer has worked in the Chemistry Department in a variety of positions since 1983, most recently as program coordinator for their graduate program, and will retire in September, 2010. I became Physics Department Head in 2008, and will likely continue until they kick me out, or I retire in a few more years. I can't retire until Jennifer figures it out, and tells me the secret to success. In the mean time I am to stay out of her way by going to work each day.

We became grandparents twice over in 2009. Our children are all here in the Northwest, one in Portland and two in Seattle. Our son is a student here at MSU (Montana State University).

That's about it. I have enjoyed reading about all of you, and your adventures during the past 45 years. I hope our story brings a pleasant memory of ORHS to you.

Best wishes to all,

Dick