Class Notes
Jack Rokahr ’47 - Jack recently reconnected with Thunderbird and noted that as T-birds, we are citizens of the world. It is exciting to go out into the world and meet someone and see what the two of you can do together. His mind has always been abroad and fascinated with world travel. He joined the U.S. Army after attending the University of Nebraska. He was called to active duty in WWII. He spoke French, so he was selected to be on the first Jeep on a regimental convoy. Jack got special assignments that took him behind the lines. When he returned home in June, his aunt and uncle knew bankers who were putting up money to buy Thunderbird in Glendale. He didn’t realize until afterward that it was perfect for antsy GIs like himself. Howard Crooks ’54 - Mr. Crooks graduated from Thunderbird in 1954. He is a member of the Board of Directors for Nancy Ellen Crooks Foundation, which empowers Kenya’s children with educational and play opportunities. He started the foundation to honor his wife, Nancy Ellen. The foundation provides solar lights to rural schools, installs playgrounds to promote safe play (including at Kenya’s women’s prisons), and implements gardening programs to improve accessibility to food/nutrition. Dr. Belmont Haydel ’57 - Dr. Haydel was appointed by President Kennedy in 1963 and President Johnson in 1964 as a US Foreign Service Officer (Diplomat) in economics, commerce, and protocol in Brazil and Argentina. Later, he returned home to New Orleans to work as an accountant in the family business, Haydel’s Flower Shoppe. Later, he served as a Peace Corps adviser and economic consultant in Paraguay. He was awarded two Fulbright Awards in economics at National Universities in Amman, Jordan, and Uruguay. A native English speaker, he’s fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, with familiarity with Arabic, French and Latin. He was also a professor and recruiter for Thunderbird. William W. Morgan ’58 - William states, “At my age, I'm trying to stay away from the virus. My Vietnamese wife recently acquired citizenship, and her mother and sister are now green card holders.” George Ramirez ’59 - George is the Director of Armed Forces Service Center, Inc. at Miami International Airport. Jerome K. Pascoe ’65 - Jerome is long retired!
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Alan McDonald ’66 - Alan spent most of his business career working in the cable television industry on the operating side in Denver, CO. After 25 years, he switched to the dark side (program provider) and worked for a short time as the president of Turner International Japan in Tokyo and NBC Sports. He is presently splitting his time between Tequesta, FL, and Lake Toxaway, NC. J. Clark Hallmann ’67 - J. Clark retired in July 2008 after working almost 40 years internationally. He moved with his wife, Ulla, to the high country in northern Arizona. His last position was as an Executive Committee Member of Union Bancaire Privee, a family-owned Swiss private bank in Zurich, Switzerland. He published his autobiography in an eBook format in January 2020 on Amazon.com, entitled “Sailing Against the Wind.” Previously, he had written a guide for his European and US relatives to assist them in their business lives and give something back. And this manuscript morphed into his autobiography, which his European and US friends urged him to publish for a global audience. John Farrington ’68 - John is retired. Manfred Lo Locher ’69 - Manfred was a Management Trainee at American Can Corp., makers of DIXIE Cups; followed by Bendix Corp., in the USA, Germany, and France in 1972. At Bendix, he reported to Michael Blumenthal, later the US Secretary of the Treasury during the Carter Administration. In 1978, he joined MBB (Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm, now Airbus Corp.) in Munich, where he held management positions at EuroCopter EC sales departments in France, Belgium, Germany, Iraq, Dubai and Kuwait. In 1990, during the Gulf War between Iraq and Kuwait, he was taken hostage and deported to Iraq but released November 1990, right before the allied Desert Storm military intervention. In 1991, from April to December, as a lieutenant colonel in the German Air Force reserves, he supported the German Embassy Attaché staff in Kuwait. In February 1991, Manfred returned to work with MBB in Munich, where he retired in 1996. Manfred founded and organized Cavitator System GmbH and Hydrodynam Jetmix GmbH with partners based on his own patents. He sold all shares in 2014 and retired definitively. Manfred was married for 30 years until his wife died in 2007. Since 2015, he has lived with his partner Annette Kahn in Munderkingen, Germany and New Jersey, USA. He will be 82, and even after some serious health
