ALUMNI NEWS
sports; their two children are in college, and David continues to practice law in his own firm. George Sealy checked in with the news that oldest daughter Hilary ’05 is now working as a legal assistant for a large pipeline company in Houston. Marion ’08, next oldest, graduated from Chapman University in summer 2012 and is currently working in Australia. His youngest George V ’11 is a junior at University of Texas. His wife Lita had a bad case of “empty nest syndrome” as he has been working for the last couple of months in Ohio, all the kids are out of the house, and the dog died recently. Fortunately she replaced the dog so George thinks she will survive the holidays. George is still working with Jimmy Byrd. Jimmy was mentioned in a few classmates’ info so I was glad he reported in for himself that he and Mary are still living in Kingwood, and he is spending more time fishing than golfing on the Deerwood Club golf course near his house. He still enjoys running his land brokerage business, Byrd Land Services, Inc. and tries to spend as much time as they can at their house in Santa Fe. Their son Hy is a junior at Ole Miss and is doing great! He went easy on Jimmy when the Rebels beat the Longhorns this year! Mamie Goebel lives in Florida in a suburb of Orlando, 20 minutes from Disneyworld and 30 minutes to her favorite place, the beach! She is in residential real estate and has spent some time traveling to Arizona, South Carolina and in Florida. Mamie is doing something that none of us can probably say: she will be interning for a week with the Kardashians in California. We want to hear about this! She is also writing a book, which we will hear about as well in the next issue. Mamie enjoys pilates, walking, hiking, boating, fishing, horses and catching big reds and trout and cookin’ em up! Thoughts go out to Mamie who lost her mom last year. John Riggs is still working for UT Medical School. His family is flourishing. Keith, Kevin and Jack, ALL Eagle Scouts, are in med school, college and high school. They are also psuedo-parents for a wonderful young high school student, Yasin. John still gets to play guitar a lot, and he and Cathy may be the loudest Dynamo fans in BBVA stadium. He says Mr. Festa taught him well. (I’ll vouch for that!) Kevin Wheeler is still practicing surgery at Memorial City. He and Susan are now empty nesters. Graham and Ross are at TAMU, and Kevin Jr. is in vet school at Oklahoma State. As for me, Ken and I are still living in Austin and loving it! Our oldest Kevin (24) lives in NYC and works for Twitter (I also have a Twitter account but don’t Tweet) where I want him to meet Ellis Bowen. Kyle (21) is a senior at Ole Miss studying accounting, and he will need to get together with Robert Cassidy, Wade Brill, Neilley Brooks and Hy Byrd – while we parents need to meet in the Grove and get Clayton and Vivian to join us! Our baby Caroline (16) is not a baby anymore
and is a sophomore in high school. We’re enjoying the girl thing – different after two boys! I have the greatest job working at our high school (Anderson High School) where I do special projects that include recruiting, alumni events, PR, PTSA liaison – all kinds of things that no one else wants to do! I recently got to organize the band Phoenix when they wanted to play in a retro high school gym (which translates to old public school gym) as part of the Artists Den PBS concert series that will air in 2014. Ask your kids; they will know who they are! Keeps me young! I also get to see Kinkaid alums like Brian Doyle ’79 and Keith Lewis ’81 when they come with their kids to tour the school – which reminds me again that I’m NOT so young! Life is good. Again, thank you to all for answering my email. It’s been fun hearing from you, and I look forward to staying connected! If you didn’t receive my email, it means that I don’t have your contact info so be sure and email it to me so that I can add you to the class list. Take care!
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UPCOMING
REUNION YEAR 2014
Steve Arnold Houston, Texas sda@3lmc.com Evans Attwell Houston, Texas eattwell@gmail.com Alice Berry Houston, Texas missformicadinette@yahoo.com Greetings classmates. Hopefully everyone has received the “Save the Date” card for our 35th (“where has the time gone?”) reunion this spring and plans to attend (our dwindling brain cells currently do not have the capacity for us to remember the exact date). Our 30th reunion was a blast, despite more than a few classmates not attending. We guess we have been running around in our own little worlds recently (and not checking Facebook), as we have only a very few classmate “sightems” and news items to report. We did see Johnny Sutton in October in Houston for the Crime Stoppers Gala. Judson Wood checked in from Dallas and informed us all was well there. Susie Peake was seen recently having a power breakfast at Tiny Boxwoods. As for your class correspondents (who admittedly have not been doing a good job “corresponding” (any volunteers?)), one of us went on a wonderful bike (as in bicycle) trip in September along the Oregon coast. Another has been focused on getting his/her two high school seniors to complete their college applications and has discovered the pain and pleasure of spinning, while the other has been lying very low. Please call or email us with any and all updates you all have. As you can see, we need copy for this little column desperately.
We look forward to seeing everyone at our reunion in the spring and wish you all the happiest and safest of holidays.
1980 Marcela Chavez Houston, Texas 2marcela@email.com
1981 Bridget O’Toole Purdie Houston, Texas bridget.purdie@bgllp.com Warren Whitehead Houston, Texas whiteheadhw@aol.com Fall Greetings to Falcon peeps of ’81! Seasons do seem to be flying and everyone appears to be quite busy so I bring to you what’s new (and printable) here. For the best class correspondent partner a person could ever have: Bridget O’Toole Purdie was voted Texas Super Lawyer for Estate & Probate in September (kudos to her for that achievement and, thanks Bridget for the collaboration and keeping our legal risk minimized with this column). She and her husband Burke Purdie are the proud parents of a goat herder Isabel, a sophomore at Lamar. Isabel is an active FFA officer who raised a champion reserve goat named Otis her freshman year and is on her second goat Douglas and she swims for Lamar’s Varsity swim team. Meanwhile younger sis Claudia was elected cheerleader at Pin Oak Middle School where the youngest Margot is pursuing a Magnet Language curriculum (Chinese, French, German, Spanish and Italian). Holy Goat! From the barn to the United Nations all in a day at the Purdie residence (limited global flavors samples of fresh goat cheese available while supplies last each Monday). Craig Wilson and wife Lisa once again take honors for first place as their second daughter Demi and her husband, an uber nice German who was captain of his college soccer team, are proud parents of their son Max (this makes three the number of GRANDKIDS that Craig and Lisa have!) Between the kids and grandkids, Craig and Lisa took a long overdue honeymoon to attend the Golden Jubilee of His Royal Highness the Maharaja of Jodhpur’s celebration in India. Sting was in concert with HRH Prince Andrew and Fergie, Duchess etc. Don’t be shocked if Sting, Fergie and the Maharaja make it to Houston soon – just be ready. Isn’t that new song “Royals” by Lorde a perfect for a theme song for that visit! From the Earl of York in India to Oklahoma where we find Emily McKay Sullivan and Jennifer Huggins Modesett re-collaborating again in consultancy work (old Anderson days no?), commuting and spending several days a week there. Depending upon the
WINTER 2014
location, Moonshine or Boones Farm is featured at happy hour, but they thank goodness that cellular coverage is statewide so that can stay ”conTexed “. Boones Farm Tickle Pink 2011 has a delightful nose! Beth Mossy Watt’s son Griffin is now settling in as a freshman at Ole Miss. Beth and her hubby Jim departed to a vacation in southern Spain. Beth Blackbird Bryan, now residing in San Antonio, celebrated her big 50 in Houston with a number of gal friends of ole, including Blake Brennan Collier, and with a collection of X-rated Barbie Doll stories that were retold. Lise Liddell decided to keep it local and natural and took her nieces on an adventure, a backpacking trip to Costa Rica. We are uncertain as to how nature or Costa Rica survived. Diane Lowery Zdunkewicz is the proud mother of a freshman Baylor bear. Ask her to give the Baylor bear “growl” call! Julia Gregg DeWalch and hubby Mark continue to look like they just graduated from high school and indicated that they are now getting ready to have an empty nest as the chickadees all head off to college. Be careful to remember how the nest got full in the first place. The Grand Prize of following one’s passion and heart goes to Adam Battelstein who competed nationally and made the finals of the TV program “ So You Think You Can Dance?” Congrats! I celebrated my 50th in late August by spending three weeks in Europe. Dr. Edward Fred Heyne IV spent a week of that with me revisiting Paris and ending in Barcelona. If you have not been, go to Barce; it is magical. I came back and decided to leave St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System after a 17-year run overseeing the organization’s global efforts. It has been a truly remarkable professional and personal experience and a privilege to serve the hospital. Miracles still do happen every day, and I can testify to seeing that here and abroad. A new chapter waits for me, but equipped with my new AARP credentials (by the way, huge discounts they have), I am ready. I also am privileged to be associated with this classy Class of 1981 and to witness the compassion by so many over the last couple of years as we have celebrated milestones and mourned the passing of our contemporaries and loved ones. May your spirits soar forever Daryl, Clay and Diane as you touch our hearts and souls during your time, and the remembrances remain part of us always. Also search for the Kinkaid Class of ’81 Facebook page, and get connected if you so like; it is real-time updates and fun information. Godspeed and best, Warren
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