The editors of the eDelt, our communication to Michigan Delta Chi fraternity members, have decided to implement a new bi-monthly section called “Alumni Updates.” Our plan is to keep members in the loop in the forthcoming years by letting others know what is going on in their lives. Our success depends in having YOU tell us what is going on with you and others that you have communicated with. It doesn’t need to be earthshaking, just a note. It can be long or short. We have decided to sparingly use pictures in the future. Here is our 3rd effort which we hope you enjoy. Direct your material to Frank Morrey ’64 at [email protected] and Keith Hellems ’62 at [email protected]
John Nicoara ’56 – After graduation I was hired by Chrysler Missile Division in Detroit as a Technical Writer. Later recruited by Convair in San Diego, then Martin Denver, and finally Lockheed in Sunnyvale, California, all for Technical Publications work. Became Supervisor of Electronic Publishing, Astronautics Division. Following retirement from Lockheed in 1990, hired by Hewlett Packard for cover-to-cover electronic layout of the HP Journal. Next, NASA came calling. Over a 2-year period my wife and I, working together at home, used Adobe’s professional document layout program InDesign to produce Educational Guides for NASA, over 6,500 pages. And later we again worked together using Adobe Illustrator to convert hundreds of pencil-drawn forest maps to electronic format for the Sempervirens Fund, a non-profit organization.
All the while, from 1972 to 1989, I also taught an advanced Balkan folk dancing class at Stanford University. After ending my class after 17 years, I became a guest folk dance teacher at various other classes and venues. Now we log into Zoom to participate in folk dance parties while still at home here in Sunnyvale.
My four children are Joseph, James, Peter, and Anne-Marie, all by my first wife. I have 7 grandchildren — Joseph’s: Taylor, Nicholas and Kalani. Peter’s: Tria, Benjamin, Allen, and Shelley. Jan and I recently celebrated 46 years of marriage. We met in 1973 at a folk dance party after I returned from a month-long trip to Eastern Europe.
John Farley Haskell ’57 – I have been a retired Professor of Applied Linguistics since 2000. Moved from Chicago to Atlanta to London and then my husband, now of 38 years, retired to Bradenton Florida. We now live in San Francisco with Jake, our black lab and, for this, closeted year, with our niece whose husband is a Captain in the USAF, stationed as a Public Health officer in Korea. We walk our dog and hers with masks always. As a Nurse Practitioner, she has gotten her COVID vaccine. We await ours. Thank God we will soon have an administration that can handle a vaccine distribution scenario. Otherwise, as with the rest of us, we remain at home, dreaming of restaurants we love and plays we have enjoyed, tired of TV and crossword puzzles and audible books. For all our mask wearing and distancing, ordering groceries and Christmas on line, California is close to shutting dow completely, as Great Britain is doing, in order to get things under control. All else is good. We won’t have to move to Spain or Ireland or Japan, our back-up homes of choice. That’s a good thing. I’m still a Michigander at heart. Love your current Governor. I remember the cold dorm well, bridge after dinner, our Tom Lehrer song for the fraternity chorus competition, reading Under Mirkwood sitting in front of the fireplace, a car trip to Fort Lauderdale with a band of brothers during Spring Break and so many brothers of that time. It was a good experience.
Thank you for reminding me to write something. It brought back a flood of memories. And believe me, at 86, it’s hard to bring very many of them back to life. By the way, the reason I included my middle name is because that is what I was called by many of the brothers.
John Broad ‘60 – Jeanne and I and our two adopted great grandsons Aaron (9)and Xander (6)are currently living in Charlevoix, Michigan. We moved temporarily up here so that the boys could go to school five days a week. Grosse Pointe went total virtual. The boys love their school up here.
Jeanne is still working for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. I am running a start-up non-profit called Helping Kids Go To School, Inc. This is a partnership with the Council of Baptist Pastors. We train volunteers to work with families to overcome the obstacles they may have to getting their kids to school. Detroit’s chronic absenteeism is over 60%. Kids who have this kind of absenteeism have little hope of having an education that will allow them to earn a living wage.
For fun Jeanne and I like to charter a sailboat somewhere in the world for a bare boat cruise. No hired crew. We have sailed all over the Caribbean, Australia, Italy and Croatia.
David Falconer ’62 – Bonney and I live in a mid-century-modern home situated just west of Stanford University and a few miles north of Silicon Valley. I have been retired from W-2 income for some 20 years, having worked at Stanford Research Institute for some 30 years and Vista Research, an SRI spin-off, for five more. At these organizations, I did research first as an optical physicist and then as an artificial-intelligence engineer, using the BS(‘62), MS (‘65) and PhD(’69) degrees earned in the physics department at UofM. Today, I manage Falcon Properties, his real-estate investment, syndication, and management company. When not tending to business, I cycle some 3000 miles per year, play around 100 rounds of golf each year, and ski the resorts of the Tahoe Basin each winter, lodging at our Tahoe-Donner cabin. When visiting grandsons in San Diego, I get to revisit my 50-year sailing career on my son’s sailboat on SD Bay. This career started with dinghies at the UofM Sailing Club on Baseline Lake outside Ann Arbor, continued with Lasers and windsurf boards on San Francisco Bay, and concluded with keelboats on the Pacific Ocean, in the Golf of Mexico, and on the Caribbean Sea.
Editor’s note: David Falconer is the largest donor to the Michigan Delta Chi with $156,000 which he donated to the building fund.
John Holmes ’65 – Right now there is a spike in covid-19 so I’m not doing much of anything interesting. Hopefully by spring I can get back to visiting friends and family. We are planning a family reunion in western Michigan next August. I did adopt a rescue dog just as the pandemic was about to hit. She is a small beagle about eleven years old. We walk in the park a lot and she seems happy exploring our back yard. Maybe another year I’ll have a more interesting life to report. [email protected] Editor’s note: John Holmes is the 5th largest donor to the Michigan Delta Chi with $31,000.
Randolph I. Gordon (Randy Gordon) ’75 – During the 2020-2021 Pandemic, my wife Bridget and I are living in our beach cottage on Vashon Island, just a ferry ride away from Seattle. I continue to practice law remotely (my 42nd year) and teach at Seattle University (also remotely) as an adjunct professor of law.
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Scott Leak ’77 – Scott and his wife Jeannine Juhnke recently retired (Scott from Defense Intelligence Agency & Jeannine from Department of State) and escaped Northern VA for Helena MT (AZ is too hot, MI is too wet, & Jeannine’s parents live here). We also survived the Wuhan virus not long after arrival. We’re still unpacking, settling in, and enjoying the Big Sky views. Scott plans on camping/overlanding; Jeannine will get back to her food photography & blog. Her blog is Jeanninescuisine.com.
Jeff Holbrook ‘78: I taught Math and coached football (High School) in Michigan for 32 years. Retired in 2010 from Adrian Public Schools. Moved to Florida with my wife Susan in 2010. Presently living in New Port Richey, FL. I have had several part time jobs since being in FL including working for the Salvation Army and as an election poll worker. Asking for prayers for my 39 year old stepson who has been diagnosed with bile duct cancer, it has metastasized and the outlook is bleak.
Greg Roda ‘83 – Greg lives in Broomfield, CO. Just finished up an elk hunt with the Grand Hotel Hunt Club in Western CO. Our group of 20 got 13 elk (3 bulls). I got a nice one on the last day. Freezer is full.
Jonathan Meyer ‘87: I have lived in Lansing Michigan since 2001, with my wife Cheri and our 2 boys, Jake and Casey. After getting my bachelors, I went on to law school at Detroit College of Law and have largely been working in HR and Labor Relations leadership for the State of Michigan since 1998. Cheri and I work for the State of Michigan, in different departments. She is an Environmental Manager and I am a Labor Relations Manager. We have been working from home since March of this year, and loving it. Jake was Army ROTC at MSU. He graduated last year and is a 1st Lt. with the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division in Ft. Campbell KY. Casey is finishing up his engineering degree from MSU and is interested in Civil and Mechanical Engineering. Pre-COVID we were well on the path to touring the Big 10 football stadiums with the Doug and Irene Godbold ‘86. We were actually spotted wandering the streets of Champagne Illinois by Pete Fogler ‘89 last year and visited the D-Chi house together. Looking forward to reconnecting on a much more frequent basis.
Dennis Carr ’96 – I live in Mentor, OH with my wife Julie. I am the Assistant Supervisor of the Education Services Department at the Lake County Juvenile Justice Center. I also am an avid sailor who competes in racing off-shore trimarans. My crew won four of the last five Mills Trophy Invitational Races on Lake Erie and this July placed second in the 96th annual Port Huron to Mackinac race.
Editor’s note: Dennis Carr’s update was published in our October alumni update. We asked for a picture of his boat which is included now.
Ken Moll ’98 – Since graduating in 1998 with my bachelors in ChemE and MSE, I’ve been working for BASF in various locations in Michigan. Currently I am working out of BASF Wyandotte with my role as expert in process automation, supporting BASF’s North American dispersions division in automation, controls, MES, and general technological evolution. I earned a masters in ChemE from Wayne State in 2012. I have been married to my wife for 15 years now, with a 5 year old boy. I do come back to campus for most home games, and usually try to do at least one hockey game. I also usually mentor for the ChemE senior design class and have been recently been doing a lecture on instrumentation and safety instrumented systems for the controls course. I’m on Delta Chi’s Building Corp as its secretary and have been doing that for I think close to 15 years.
David Bacon ’06 David and his wife announced the birth of Walden Porter who joined his two sisters Millicent Quinn who is 4 years old and Charlotte Ann who is 6 years old.
Dan Johns ’11 – I live in Madison, WI with his fiance, Erin, a professor of music at Ripon College. After undergrad, I completed a master’s degree in urban planning from U of M in 2013 and spent seven years at a Wisconsin-based municipal consulting firm assisting communities around the Upper Midwest. I recently became the Housing Specialist for the City of Madison’s Community Development Authority, leading the redevelopment of the city’s public housing portfolio and advancing other affordable housing projects.
Ben Rosenthal ‘14 – I am living in Boston and finishing up my last semester of medical school at Tufts and am going into internal medicine residency this summer. I’m planning to specialize in either ICU medicine, gastroenterology or oncology – not sure yet. I am planning to get married in May in Boston – a handful of my Delta Chi brothers will hopefully be in attendance. Got my first dose of the COVID vaccine and hoping for a happy 2021.
