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The
American School in Japan: The Class of 1960
Since graduating
from MIT with BS/MS degrees in 1965, I've worked for various small and
large companies in New York City, Tokyo/Yokohama, Washington D.C., and
Hong Kong. I married Christine Wong of New York City in 1965, and we
raised a son Erik, now 33 years old, who works as an architect in Los
Angeles, and a daughter, Pamela, 30 years old, who is spending this year
getting her master's degree at the London School of Economics. Erik
attended MIT and he is now married and the father of a two-year-old boy.
Pamela is still single and graduated from Yale University. After 28 years
of marriage, Christine and I divorced in 1994 because we both had changed
too much. I have been doing my own business since 1985, and will probably
spend the balance of my life in Hong Kong.
People who know me say that I am semi-retired, but to pay the bills I run
my own business shipping motors from China to Japan. This business is
possible due partly to the fact that I speak Japanese, because my Japanese
partner speaks only Japanese, and over the years we have developed our
trust in each other. The source of that language knowledge and
appreciation for Japan and the Japanese is evident.
My life now seems
more active and fuller than ever in the past 57 years, and much of what I
do and enjoy today have their roots from my days in Japan and at ASIJ. Two
years ago I started to learn to play the piano, and one source for that
desire was the play "Our Town" of our senior year, when I was
miscast as the family uncle who was a musician. (Don Berger taught me a
few notes of "The Blue Danube" to play on the xylophone, and to
this day I still remember the sequence of notes.) Because my life partner,
Olivia Mak of Hong Kong, is very much into ballroom dancing, I started
lessons two years ago, and I now can do all the ten ballroom and Latin
dances. I play tennis twice a week, and I find that my love of sports came
from the from the intramural class leagues in football, basketball, and
softball that were taught to us by Charlie Swindell, Al Smith, and James
East.
I want to take this opportunity to say "Thank you" to all of you
who came out to Yokohama to say goodbye to me when I boarded that small
freighter the day after our graduation 39 years ago. And finally, I want
to say how very much these special teachers at ASIJ-Mrs. Kunkel of my 5th
grade, Les Crandall of 7th grade, Mrs. R. Smethurst of Latin, and even
William Spooner, the science teacher-have nurtured and helped me develop
my love of languages, technology and science, humanity, and business.
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