CLASS NOTES once, but our beloved S-1 parked his RV (War Wagon) in front of my house in suburbia, which was fine until BP cameo’d as Uncle Eddie one morning. Anyway, we were unable to connect on this last trip due to the schedule of some general that Brian was traveling with (chopped liver here), but hopefully we can connect on his next trip through. Brian has had a tough few months, as his mother lost her fight with cancer in March, and Mother Nature has provided for significant challenges in executing her North Dakota burial plans. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Brian. I actually heard from Michael Violette’s lovely wife, Courtney, who explained that Mike is now a lieutenant commander in the Navy and is attending the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. God help us! The Violettes have a son, Charlie, who just turned 4 and a daughter, Maryellen, who will be 2 in June. I hope that all of you out there who didn’t get your update in will consider having your beautiful wives take care of that for you in the future! Thanks so much for the update, Courtney and Mike, and please take care, and keep in touch! Ed Allen wrote in to warn everyone that he is just back from a 16-month deployment to Iraq and will be at Fort Leavenworth this summer attending the CGSC. Be careful, Ed; my dyke, Bill Percival ’95, is an instructor up there, and I plan to come visit both of you! I was thrilled to hear from Neil Holloran who has a new son (Sawyer Patrick Holloran), who was born on 4/20/2010 (yes, he has heard the jokes). His wife, two daughters and newborn son are all doing great, but Neil freely admits that, after the third kid, sleep deprivation somehow becomes bearable. I think he may just be desensitized to the pain!! Anyway, Neil is still living in Fredericksburg, VA, and working at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA, where he does program management work with Defense Critical Infrastructure for the Department of Defense. Brad Cooke wrote in to update us on the tough life in Steamboat Springs, CO! Apparently, it snowed for four days straight, just before New Market Day in Colorado! Brad noted that his wife, Shayna, gave birth to their son, Cyrus Sherwood Cooke, who was born Oct. 22 and is doing great. He got to go skiing a lot over the winter and was gearing up for a bunch of camping trips with Ma and Pa Cooke this summer. Brad wrapped up his teaching year in May and was looking forward to spending the summer with the family. Brad and Shayna made it back east recently for Gardner and Stinson Mundy’s wedding. Apparently, it was well-attended and represented by ’98, and the after-party went well into the night. We are waiting to hear details and see
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some photographic evidence from the wedding, Gardner! Jimmy Epps checked in to report that he and his wife, Olivia, celebrated their daughter, Addison Jade’s, 1st birthday back in January, and already she is extremely agile, on two feet and quickly becoming very well spoken. Apparently, her vocabulary is expanding exponentially, which keeps Jimmy and Olivia honest. Jimmy and Olivia are still living in Halifax County, VA, where they completed construction on their home just days before Addison was born. Jimmy built the entire home himself over the course of two years, and I can only imagine how impressive it is! The land where they built their home has been in Jimmy’s family for well over 100 years. Somehow, in his spare time, Jimmy and his dad continue to operate the farm. Jimmy left the state (VDOT) back in November to join BandB Consultants, Inc., as a structural engineer and project manager. Jimmy has been licensed in Virginia as a professional engineer since 2007 (God Help Us) and recently obtained a license in North Carolina. On April 24th, Jimmy and Olivia attended his brotherin-law, Grady Orr’s ’04, wedding in Corolla Beach, NC. Jimmy joined his sister’s husband and Daniel Runion ’02 at the wedding, and apparently, all had a blast. J.C. De Los Reyes checked in to report that he is still in Wellington (where he grew up) in the heart of Palm Beach County as a supervisor in Parks and Recreation. Things were going pretty well, and he was pretty busy when the city council decided they should take over baseball from the independent provider that was doing it two seasons per year. Plus, for some reason, they decided he was the man to run the city’s fingerprint and security background checks for all of their employees and volunteers. Naturally, these became additional responsibilities to his already heavy load, including boys basketball, girls basketball, adult flag football, summer camp programs, and two summer basketball leagues and camps, and he is the liaison to two independent travel programs. As for his family, his daughter, Gabi (1.5); his son, Antonio, (4); and his wife, Paulette, are all doing great. I did hear from Brendan Toolan some time back, who I believe is still deployed and working in Kandahar for the Validation Training Team. When his deployment is finished, it looks as though he may be headed to sunny Fort Sill, OK, at which time I am quite sure I will be able to glean a more complete report from him! My own update, I suppose, is that Tulsa is treating me great. My parents have relocated to Tulsa from Dallas, along with my grandmother from OKC, and it is nice to have the whole clan back together again. I am working like a dog
and busy with industry boards and charity work. I had an incredible opportunity to host Kris Dietrich at my house in February. Kris was in town on business, and we were able to take in an Oklahoma City Thunder NBA game in OKC and spend a few nights howling at the Tulsa moon! I also saw Kris’ younger brother, Stefan Dietrich ’07, at our Oklahoma Chapter New Market Day Event in Oklahoma City. In early May, I made it up to Richmond for the race and stayed with Todd and Christina Boykin and was able to spend some time with their two amazing children (Saddler Reese and Sara Grace). Todd is still working for Malcolm Pirnie (engineering firm) in Richmond. During that same trip, I caught up with Sean Williams at his house in Richmond on Friday night before the race. Needless to say, good times were had by all. Although I was unable to get together with Paul Sakellariou, I had a great chat with “The Greek,” and we are shooting to connect on my next visit to Richmond. Paul is doing well, bought a house and is finally settling down with Mrs. Right in Richmond! Congrats, Buddy!! That made my second driving trip to Virginia in a month (that was a little much), the first being my annual trek up to VMI for the Class Agents Conference. Thanks to Pat Webb, Gen. Peay ’62, Gen. Schneider, Col. Trumps ’79 and the amazing staff in the Alumni Office for a great weekend! It was an amazing couple of days on Post, and I encourage all of you to go back and see some of the changes. It really is quite impressive how our alma mater is developing! I got a few brief updates on Facebook to include a touch and go from Jason Doucette who is in Culpepper, VA; Gabe Hubble who checked in from Murfreesboro, TN; Jordan Clark who now hails from Salt Lake City, UT; Chad Novacek in Lincoln Nebraska; and a brief note from Joey Bates who is still in North Carolina and is about to embark on a three-week vacation to Italy. Can’t wait to see pictures from that trip!! I would like to congratulate each of you on the exciting news in your lives, and thank you for writing in to share your news with our class. If I have missed anyone’s update, please send it again, as I hope to have enough updates for our next edition to force Moody Hall to tell me I have to limit the size of our “Notes” … ’98, ’98, ’98! I have started a Class Agent’s Discretionary Fund to be used for cards, postage, care packages, travel expenses, etc. If you would like to donate to our class fund, please send me a check made out to “BR ’98.” I hope that the next few months bring health and wealth into each of your homes. Please keep in touch, and let me know if you are ever passing through Tulsa in your travels. (My door is always open.)
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