Cristobal High School

Cristobal,  Canal Zone

Class of  1973

Thirty Odd Years Later... the Bio Page

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                       Bio Notes:

Steve Aponte - Currently working as the Manager of Warehouse Operations for Parker and Company Worldwide (US Customs Broker and 3rd Party Logistics Provider).  Married with 2 children, Rebecca (21) is a Senior at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX and Daniel (16) is a Sophomore at Edinburg High School, Edinburg, TX (Lower Rio Grande Valley - 10 minutes from the border of Mexico) where my wife teaches in the English Department.  Spent 11 years on active military service and retired in 1998 from the US Army Reserves. Give me a holler if you are ever in the area (South Padre Island is only an hour away)

Elaine (Austin) Vandenburgh - For the past 23 years (or so - who knows?) I have been living in a suburb of Saratoga, NY, about 30 miles North of Albany.  I really like it and we just built a new house.  After college I worked for 7 years for what is now Verizon.  Then I had a child and didn't work for a while.  I started substitute teaching as that's what my degree was in and discovered I love it!  For the past 18 years I have taught high school and middle school social studies.  Now I only teach 8th grade.  Believe it or not, they're really fun!!  So for those of you with teenagers, there are those of us who absolutely love them.  They're free entertainment everyday. My team mates and I are great friends and do a lot of extra curricular stuff together.  We ski (downhill, I need the gravity for help) and skate in the winter and go boating on Lake George in the summer and travel together.  I even ran a half marathon with one a couple years ago.  I have been married for years and years.  We have a wonderful 20 year old son, Luke, who is a sophomore chemistry major in college.  He is a snowboarder and basketball player and I must say knows how to have himself a good time in life.  He needs a good profession to fund his life style.  I also have a great step-son, Eric, who is a NYS Trooper.  He has a wife and 2 adorable kids.   However, notice that I did not use the word "grandmother" anywhere.  I enjoyed exploring our wonderful web site and "catching up".  Life is a great thing, no matter where we are or what we're doing.  But it does sound like we are all pretty lucky.  Best wishes to everyone!      

* Paul Bleicher -

UPDATE - 2005 - Congrats to Cyndi and Paul Bleicher on the arrival of their second Son, Rylee David Miguel, born June 3, 2005.

After CHS, I went to Marquette in Milwaukee for college but transferred to Santa Barbara, California to be near the ocean again.  Most of my family now lives in Central California/Bay Area.  I dabbled in journalism, public relations, printing and teaching.  Now I’m a lawyer.  I have lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico since 1980 (except for almost three years in Atlanta and a summer on the Navajo Nation).  I am married to Cyndi, a former dancer, an avid skier and mountain biker, a part-time businesswoman, and a full-time mom for our delightful, two-year-old son, Jackson.  I have a beautiful daughter, Ariel, who is 20.  Ariel finished high school at the top of her class, and she competed in gymnastics, swimming and water polo.  She’s a sophomore at Scripps Womens College in Claremont, California, studying math, French, literature and art.  We recently visited my brother and sister-in-law, David (CHS ’73/’74) and Sandra (CHS ’74), in Maryland.  Among other things, David sails, kayaks and builds boats, and he took my daughter and me backpacking on the Chilkoot Trail in Alaska some years back with his daughters.  I try to run in the nearby mountains often and have managed to finish the Pike’s Peak Ascent and a couple of marathons.  Cyndi and I love to ski and hike, and we just started snowshoeing.  I have continued my swimming over the years, too, and I may start again someday.  My sisters, David and I were army brats, as well as CZ brats, and lived at Fort Gulick on a hill above the lake.  My first summer there, I met Billie Gillespie (CHS ’72) and he introduced me to a fun group of people who quickly became my friends for the next three years, along with everyone else I met through them, or from school, or at the block parties.  I love telling CZ stories on long runs with my friends here.  The stories are shamelessly embellished.  My new friends have wonderful stories, too, but I think they pale to my exotic tales about young and wild teenagers who lived in paradise. 

Barbara (Bloemer) Ellington - Housewife and Substitute School nurse, BA degree in nursing from Baylor University and Baylor Med Center, lives in Greenville, Texas which is about 50 miles east of Dallas.  Married to Tim for 20 years, he practices internal medicine here in Greenville and runs the dialysis center.  We have 2 children: Matt,18 and a Freshman in college, and Laura 16 a Junior in High School. 

Denise (Bullinger) Will - After high school, I attended CZ College and later obtained a B.S. in Professional Management from Nova University Southeastern Branch.  My husband and I retired in 1999 from the Panama Canal Commission, where I was a Management Analyst responsible for retiring the historical records of the Panama Canal to the National Archives in Washington, D.C.  We moved to
Ormond Beach, Florida, where we had purchased land 4 years earlier and in 1999 built our dream home.  I've been married to Atlantic-sider, Robert Will (class of '67), for the past 22 years.  We have two wonderful children, Ray 18 and Regan 13.  I'm currently working at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach.

Patches (Brown) Harrison - Married 29 years to Phil have one child a girl 16 years old.  I work for Harris County Appraisal Dist.  Been there 20 years.  Records Manager, Micrographics and Elec. Doc. Imaging Supervisor.  Have my Master in Information Tech. and Laureate in Micrographics and Electronic Doc. Imaging. Live in Kingwood, TX just north of Houston.

* Robert X. Careless - The Journey of my past 30 years began with my leaving Panama in August of 1973.  I left with a very bad case of Hepatitis.  It had me laid up in Gorgus Hospital for a month before I left.  I faked feeling better or I would have not been allowed to leave the country with an infectious tropical disease.  That would have meant missing the first semester of College.  I landed in Oklahoma and began attending OSU in Stillwater.  I cannot express in words what a truly wonderful group of lifetime friends that I fell into there.  We still get together during the Thanksgiving break for a huge reunion.  Well I started out in Pre-Med.  I know I know Dr. Careless would leave a lot of people wondering what is going on here.  I dropped out after year 2 and went to work in a large hospital to see if medicine is what I wanted to spend the next 10 years of my life studying.  It wasn’t.   So then the wandering started…I got in my VW camper Bus and traveled down to New Orleans to get a job on an offshore oilrig.  This is something that I had always wanted to do especially since there were no more cowboys!  I was and still am fascinated with the oil exploration business. The money was very good and allowed me endless opportunities to travel.  But the employment is just to on/off.   So with some money in my pocket I decided to move out to Southern California and build a sailboat and take off cruising…I did.  I got a job at Todd Shipyard in San Pedro.  They had just been awarded a gigantic contract to build 19 Perry Class Missile Guided Frigates.  I got in on the ground floor and in the end completed their Shipwrights program.  So I work there in the day then work on my Sailboat at night.  I both lived and worked on the boat in a small boatyard in Torrance.  I road my bike to work through the L. A. traffic with packs of dogs chasing me in the early morning.  Sounds like fun huh?  I spent the next twenty months both working and building the boat.  She was a 30 foot long Hershoff designed Ketch with traditional lines.  I spent the next two years cruising Channel Islands off the coast of California.  We even got down to Baja California and the Sea of Cortez.  Those were some of the simplest and happiest years of my life.  Everyday a wonder, dolphins, seals, wild seas, beautiful sunsets and outrageous full moons spreading diamonds out over the water at mid night.  Towards the end of the two years we went through two major storms at sea…it was a sign that this phase of my life was coming to an end.  So I put the vessel up for sale took what remaining money I had and took off for Central America.  Six months going through all the countries was enough…didn’t make it down to Panama though.  It was time to get the formal education out of the way.  I ended up in Eugene, Oregon August 1981 where I attended the University of Oregon.  After three years of study I graduated with a degree in History/Integrated Science and a Secondary teaching credential.  My first teaching job was at the Navaho Indian Reservation at Ship Rock New Mexico.  Ground Zero for Indian Witch Craft.  This was as yet another intriguing period of my life.  No one group of Americans has been as displaced as the original Americans and their voice is ever heard.  While there I took the opportunity to explore the really remote ruins of by gone Indian cultures.  I was amazed at just how many ancient villages lie abandon in out of the way places in the four corners area of America.  After one year on the reservation I headed to Tucson.  Only got to sub there do to others having birthrights to teaching jobs.  But I stayed through the winter and continued my Indian ruins exploration of the Gila national forest and the mountainous area between Arizona and New Mexico.  Onward to Texas!  Got a teaching job on Fort Hood just up the road from Austin, Texas.  While in that position I received excellent training as a classroom teacher and was awarded several teaching recognitions.  During the summers I traveled to Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Canada going on extensive campouts, hikes and rafting expeditions.  Then my appointment to a Department of Defense teaching position in of all places…..The Republic of Panama occurred.  It was great growing up for a few years on the Atlantic Side.  But, I was assigned to Curundu Junior High School on the Pacific Side…August 1988.  Upon arrival I moved into an 11th floor apartment right on the Bay of Panama at Patilla across from the Paplnuncia.  For the next 10 years I taught school there and based out for travels to South America and Alaska.  I got to visit the Amazon Basin, Galapagos, Venezuela’s vast southern area, Peru, the Andes, the Saint Elias and Brooks Range in Alaska.  I even got to see the US invasion of Panama live on CNN from my hotel room in San Jose, Costa Rica during the Christmas break.  I got out over the break because it was so obvious what was about to happen.  January 1999 I was granted a transfer to Germany do to the transfer of the Panama Canal.  I have been working over here ever since and the travel opportunities have been endless all over Europe, Africa and Asia.  I was “Briefly” married during the mid 90’s – no kids.  I truly believe that all I have done in the past, all 24 jobs, has allowed me to be as successful as I have been in reaching my students.  Teaching has come naturally to me I have a good repoire with my students and generally like going to work.  But then again we do not have drug problems, fights are rare, no guns, we have very supportive parents, great training opportunities and the salaries are outstanding.  Currently I teach High School Biology and I am the girl’s softball coach.  My hobbies include traveling and woodworking.  I make furniture from the rather large stock of tropical hardwoods I brought with me from Panama.  The style I stick closest to is Shaker.  I have a complete woodshop in my garage.  I’ll be here for a while living in Europe.  I have lived over seas now a total of 15 years.  If any of you are passing through be sure to give me some notice and you and yours are more then welcomed to stay at my home.  I am about 1.5 hours south of the Frankfurt airport and 25 miles from the French border.   Biggest regret so far is that I missed my 30th class reunion with all of you. Robert_Careless@eu.odedodea.edu 

Jerry Coffin - Lieutenant with the FDNY, Lives in Brooklyn NY, Single.  Likes to vacation in the Cayman Islands where he still holds the record for most dives (SCUBA not Places) in a week!

Guy Damiani - Telecommunications Mgr with AT&T, Lives and works in Alpharetta, GA.  Married for 21 years to Becky who is a Marketing & Training Director for a Property Management Company.  We have one Daughter, Erin, who is 18.  She Graduated in 2002 and is currently teaching Gymnastics and Cheerleading. 

Brian DeRaps   1954-2007  - Service manager for Bright House Networks (formerly Time Warner Cable).  Married to Stacy Parker from the zone.  Three children,  Breanne 21, Meagan 18 and Derek 16.

Judy (Dohle) Rajotte - Own my own company, Miller Wireless www.millerwireless.com since 1994.  Wireless Communication, for Broadcast/News Film production and Security/Surveillance.  Received BA., Phy. Ed.  Recently married to Roger,  a French Canadian. Owns a camera business downtown Vancouver, BC.  'Leo's Camera's'.  We live in Langley BC, Canada and also still in Birchbay Washington.  Two wonderful children Dennis Joseph, 24,  Jonna Irene , 20, who just returned from Iraq, she is a Medic in the Army.  Also Grandson, Jason Calub, 4 years old.  

Nina (Gercich) Nelson -  Since high school, I lived with Viana in Ft. Lauderdale and worked for the Ft. Lauderdale Newspaper for about 4 to 5 years.  I then moved to California and have been here since.  I am married to John Nelson, and have 2 kids, Ashley who is 17 and going to be a senior next year and Adam who is going to be 11 soon and going to 6th grade.  We keep busy with their sports, activities, schoolwork, etc.  I work as a legal secretary for 21st Century Insurance Company and have been there 10 years.  It is nice as I don't have to drive the freeway (close to home), work with nice people, and get off on Fridays at 1:15 p.m.  John is an attorney.  We live in Yorba Linda, CA (which is close to Disneyland)

Debbie (Jaketic) Burton - I work for Guidant Corp. a medical device company.  I work for clinicals & do research with devices (pacemakers & implantable defibrillators) that we are trying to get FDA approval.  I have a BSN from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.  I am married to Eric.  We live in Kittanning, PA which is 50 miles north east of Pgh. PA.  We have a little house that sits on 50 acres of land (we have no neighbors).  No kids, but we have 2 dogs & 2 cats.

* Jose M. Johnson - AKA Rooster - I left the land of rum and fun in late 1974. I had an open ticket all the way to Denver; I chose to make my departure from Panama a memorable one. I was fortunate to be amongst the few that sailed from Cristobal on the U.S. Cristobal on one of its last voyages before being decommissioned. I arrived in New Orleans three days later and spent a week trying to figure out if this was where I wanted to settle. Since I had the open ticket I chose to continue on to Denver. I flew into Denver and began the process of assimilation into a new phase of my life. I had the support and company of my father’s family here. I had met most of them during prior visits and they were extremely happy that at last a representative of the long departed had returned to Colorado. My grandfather was a railroad engineer that worked on the construction of the canal. When Panama became livable my grandmother brought my dad and his sister the late Jeanne Bensen to live and grow up in the Canal Zone. My dad graduated from Balboa, served in the Army returned to Panama where he took an apprenticeship as a refrigeration mechanic. As you can figure white guys like hot-blooded Latin women the rest is history. I spent the first couple of years going to school and working. I got into the commercial construction industry and spent more time working than going to school. I helped build quite a few of the tall buildings in downtown Denver.  I was a carpenter on a slip-form crew, which was a commodity that was in high demand at the time. I eventually finished school and got my degree in computer information systems and accounting. Do you think Mr. Howell would be impressed?? HAHAHA   In 1977 I met the girl that would become the new Mrs. Johnson. Originally from Beaver falls PA. she like me was new to Denver and was trying to get on with life. Our friendship grew into love and we have been together for the past 27 years. We have two kids that are now both in college. My son named after me is a sophomore at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado and my daughter is a freshmen at Front Range college in Fort Collins, Colorado. Jose Miguel and Andrea Theresa respectfully. In 1988 I began work with the U.S. Customs Service where I have been for the last 15 years. My wife Donna is a bank executive for a medium size commercial bank in Denver. We live in Littleton a suburb southwest of downtown Denver, where the foothills to the Rockies are visible from our back yard.  When I first got here in 74 I didn’t think I would stay. I missed the ocean and it took a long time to get over it, but now I’ve grown to love it here. I don’t see a move in the future. The weather here keeps you young and invigorates the senses. There is nothing like sunrise or sunset on a mountain top. ~ 2004

* Charles (Bob) Kelley -  Updated  July 2007

Just an update. I was two weeks from the Orlando deal this month, for I was receiving training at the FAA Center for Management and Executive Leadership in Palm Springs, FL (70 miles from Orlando) during the last two weeks of June. DAMN IT!!! Well not all is lost. I have been reassigned to Oklahoma City in charge of the FAA Contractor Aircraft Maintenance for the US Marshal Service Air Ops. a.k.a. Con-Air. I was divorced a year and a half ago in Alaska, and have recently remarried, on St. Patty's Day of this year. If you would, pass along to all of my class-mates that I will be performing in a 18th reunion concert in Rome, GA fon August 3rd (Fri) or all of those who live in and around the North Georgia area. If by chance there are any of those cool ass classmates that rides motor-sickles in GA, my new bride and I will be getting into Rome on the 28th of July (Sat) and will hang out in Rome for about a week or so before moving onto North Carolina to visit my mother. I would love to see and meet some of those whom I have not EVER talked to or have not seen since the CZ. I will be passing thru the Atlanta area going to Griffen, GA to see my uncle so I am available to hook up with class-mates. The good news??? I am alot closer now to FLA than I was in Alaska, so I will make plans now for next years reunion.....what? the 35th.....Man, are we getting old or what?!! I'll take the "or what"... Naw, all in the mind. I have a nephew in Iraq as a Medic with the 82nd Airborne and I pass my prayers and well being onto all who have loved ones serving as well. No political crap here. Thanks to everyone..Bob Kelley

Chris Lasher - Mgr with Georgia Power Company, Lives in Cartersville, GA, Married to Maggie, three Daughters, Stephanie 20, twins Christa & Amy 19.

* Ede (Marsh) Marshall -  I have been living in Concord Calif. for 22 years. I work at Mt Diablo Medical Center as a Registered Nurse / Nurse Clinician in the Cardiac Step Down Unit doing bed side nursing. Work also includes working with New grads as a Preceptor/Mentor. I work part time teaching for the education department and IV therapy Dept., Single again, Divorced X (1) Married again in 1982 married 17 years widowed in 1999 I have a daughter Heidi 23 . Heidi has moved to Houghton Michigan to attend Finlandia University Nursing School. Other family include, a Dog .. Gus who is 4 yrs old (85 lb.) and a Cat Odie who is 15yrs old. As an Empty Nester I quilt, and teach quilting. Square dance. As well as travel a lot. I have for my next challenge planned to catch the last of the states I have not seen which is Maine. The Mediterranean and the Caribbean call as well. I would love to hear from any of you . I had hoped to make the Reunion this year, however: I had hand surgery  instead. (definitely not as much fun) My email address is Onthumber@aol.com 

Viana (Ostrea) Schmidl - Graduated from the  University of Florida with a BS in Occupational Therapy.  Work in a therapist-owned practice in Marietta, outpatient orthopedics.  Married to Wolfgang for 12 years, also a U of F grad (Go GATORS!) with a Ph.d in Chemical Engineering.  We have two beautiful babies, Gabriella who is 4 y/o, and Christian who is 2 y/o.  We have lived in a northern suburb of Atlanta, East Cobb for the past 10 years. 

Barbara (Stanfield) Koehler - Chris Lasher, LuAnn Ware and I left Cristobal to attend Auburn University.  After graduating with a BS in Business Administration (major: Marketing), I went to work for Armstrong World Industries (Mobile, AL, Lancaster, PA and Portland, OR).  I left Portland to take a job with Walt Disney World and helped open EPCOT Center and worked on projects like GRAD NITE.  Next, I took a job with GE as an Account Executive selling Computer Graphics, which sent me to Atlanta.  I went onto to work for a start-up company, Quadram Corp. and then onto ASK Computer Systems.  My last conventional job was with Microsoft Corporation, where I stayed until I vested in 1995.  Since then I have dabbled in real estate and the stock market. My husband, Dennis Koehler (pronounced kay-ler) is a communication consultant and we have 3 kids: my stepson Joe (19), Nikki (11) and Jacob (8).  We now live in a suburb of
Atlanta, (Dunwoody) and now I'm involved in children's sports (little league
baseball and gymnastics), school (School Board and Scholastic Book Fair
Chairman) church (BSF & VBS director ), Girl Scout Leader and President of
an Investment Club.... It keeps me on my toes!  bskoehler@earthlink.net.

Beth (Wainio) Deaton - Ted and I live in Wilmington, NC - We have been
married 26 years now. (Time flies when you're having fun!!!)  We have three
great kids: Lisa (24), Neal (22), and Lori (20).  Ted works for the US Army
Corps of Engineers and dredges the East Coast.  I am a Pediatric Nurse
Practitioner - BSN, University of Tulsa; MSN and post-masters PNP, UNC
Chapel Hill (Go Heels!).  I work for a non-profit adolescent health care
center and teach part-time at UNC-Wilmington School of Nursing. We keep busy with our family, and still enjoy golfing, the beach, and visiting relatives throughout the year.  Hope the 30th reunion is a success!!! It is great to hear about everyone!
Keep in touch.  teddeaton@charter.net

Susan (Willis) Brewer - Lives in The Colony, Texas (just outside of Dallas).  Two children, Heidi 21, and Ken 25, and one precious grandson, Tyler, 3 months old!  Married to Glenn for one year. (Third time's a charm!)  Work at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as Sr. Administrative Assistant for two urologists specializing in female urology and neurourology.  Been at UTSWMC for 11 years!  In my spare time, I hang on for dear life on the back of Glenn's Harley as we cruise around the North Texas area! 

- Click here to see pictures of the 30th Reunion

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