In the early 1900s, Ben Furuta’s forebearers migrated to California to seek their fortune in a new land. Fathers, brothers and cousins were entrepreneurs who worked together and established small businesses throughout Southern and Northern California. Last October (for the first time) he and his wife, Hideko, and daughter, Reiko , made the traditional family visit to Japan and did a little touring, especially among the fall foliage of the Japan Alps. They visited the museum (actually, the ancestral home) of his father's family and were given a lot of information about that side of the family. Ben says, “The big outcome for me was the filling in the blanks about those who had come to America and in some cases those who (like my father's cousin) having made their stake, returned back to the land of their birth.”

Ben Furuta, Hideko, and Reiko, at their ancestral museum in Japan

Roy Jolly is currently in a rehabilitation facility in St. George, Utah trying to regain the use of his right hand following surgery. He is still of good humor and loves getting calls from classmates. Greg Boyington is one of his correspondents and has flown out to see him in the not-so-distant past. He would love to get back into some sort of business. Looking back, he thinks that his prior success as an aviator and business man was not so bad for a “sheep-herder from Colorado.” He assesses that he and Barbara Ann are “doing good despite of everything.”

Bill Zersen lives in a rather large senior living community just north of Marine Base Pendleton in California. It houses some 18,000 people in 13,000 units, large enough that it is its own incorporated village, with an auditorium that can hold some 950 patrons. Bill enjoys living there and has his own private charity for the homeless of Laguna Beach. Each Christmas he solicits donations from his neighbors and then distributes proceeds into 70 individual envelopes. This last Christmas he had $20 in each envelope and, on Christmas morning, he went into the homeless shelter and gave each of the 55 residents an envelope. Then he went down to Laguna Beach proper and distributed the remainder to the needy and said a prayer for those who wanted to hear some soothing words. Bill also claims to be a master of the art of cooking roast beef, which he prepares for large numbers during the Lenten season. His prized recipe is on our web site.

“Don’t get Samantha Pederson angry. You’ll regret it. When a massive explosion kills the people assembled to watch the first physical interaction by teleportal with an alternate universe, Samantha is too close to the blast. She’s injured and takes it personally. She sets out to identify the bombers and simultaneously prove the blast wasn’t caused by the teleportal. Her quest puts her up against a master criminal, drug dealers, and, of course, the bombers, all of whom want her dead. Boy, are they going to be sorry! All she has to do is get out of this explosives vest before it goes off.” So wrote Gordon Savage introducing his second book in the Teleportal series. He has a unique approach to marketing—the longer the book is on sale, the higher the price. Check his blog at https://gordonsavage.com/damagecontrol.php for more details.

Frank Gorham has been busy keeping the Florida medical establishment gainfully employed. After inhabiting some 14 medical facilities in NW Florida following Hurricane Michel, he now resides in the Bonifay Nursing Home in, of course, Bonifay FL, where he continues to recuperate and rehab. His claim to fame after all this is that he successfully survived three Code-Blue episodes, which may be a class record. Immediately following the “codes”, he experienced wild dreams, recollections, and hallucinations, which have now subsided--although his life now is a bit less exciting.

Lew Price has developed a killer web site (www.lewpaxtonprice.us/main.htm) that spans decades of his work to understand the mysteries of thought beyond Einstein’s unified theory. The site includes articles published in General Science Journal and volumes on, among other topics, Indian flute making and playing, and ancient astrology, are evidence of his broad range of interests and knowledge. Several of Lew’s ideas and concepts can be found on our class website in the Miscellaneous section. Lew’s work has been translated into several languages and has served as an inspiration for other intellectual explorers. He credits much of his willingness to think out of the box to the opportunities offered to our class to study a broad range of topics, beyond the core curriculum.

Fred Porter instructing at the Academy

Speaking of academics at the Academy, Colorado TV station KKTV featured a segment about Fred Porter’s employment as an instructor in the Air Force Academy aeronautics program. Fred was both an F-4 jock and a test pilot, and he brings real world experiences to the distinct challenge of educating Zoomies According to KKTV, Fred’s course is a required pass before cadets can graduate. See our class web site for more details.

As tax time rolled around, Tom Burke realized that 2018 is the first time in 69 years that he had no income from work. Aug 15th was the first day since 1950--when he was 12 years old, working during Easter vacation digging and filling holes for a landscaper—that he was truly unemployed. He says that he is still learning how to be a good, full time retiree. He tells us that, “it is amazing how the early lessons provide such a sound foundation for success. My first job taught the importance of having holes be the right size in the proper location and, applying this, I became very adept at digging holes for myself and then moving on or digging out of them.”

Gordy Flygare is proud to have been instrumental in bringing two girls from Chinese orphanages to the United States before that government’s crackdown on US adoptions. One of the girls, Maya Z Foles, (his granddaughter) is a middle schooler who is very active in volleyball and soccer. The other young lady, Lily McDonogh, is now a first classman at West Point and will become a combat engineer at Fort Bliss, learning about disarming IEDs and how to build walls. Also, Gordy stays in touch with Rosie Cler, trading box sets of classical jazz from the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Cadet Lily McDonough and her USMA roommate Cadet Maddie Nelson

By the time this Checkpoints hits our mailboxes, Jerry Farquhar will back from sailing his recently-renovated 48’ trawler, the Matecumbe, to Nassau and other Bahamian Islands. Upon his returns from this latest trip, he hopes to again become certified to fly his six-passenger Piper Aztec, perhaps even to our next reunion. He has been grounded following a major heart attack on a previous trip to Nassau. Jerry still has an open invitation to classmates who might enjoy sailing, fishing and other friendly Island activities to join him the next time he goes out, which is about twice a year.

With the recent notification of Dr. Bob Baker’s demise in December 2018, our class tally is: Classmates living=213, Deceased=105. Graduates living=150, Deceased=77

Nulli Secundus