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L DeAne Lagerquist (Lagerquist)

Marital status: Married
Children: 1
Occupation: College Professor (now retired)

Jerry Lane

Marital status: Married
Children: 1
Occupation: Seed Technician Bayer Crop Science/Farmer Spe
So, what have you been doing for the last 50 years?: Spent 17 years after college at ISU, in Southern Arkansas, at first farming conventional crops and then producing farm raised catfish. Met my wife, who is from there, along the way and we have one daughter and now three grandchildren. Moved back to Iowa in 1995 and currently still working producing hybrid seed corn for Bayer Crop Science. We have a family farm at Sigourney Ia. and it is the glue that keeps our family together as we all enjoy spending time there working together. Retirement is probably not far off don’t have any plans set yet. I am ready to spend more time with family.

Cindy Ambroson (Larson)

Marital status: Married
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired teacher
So, what have you been doing for the last 50 years?: Fifty years is a long time. What have I been doing?My husband John and I have been married for forty two years. We have two daughters, Amy and Laurie, two son-in laws , Taylor and Austin, and four grandchildren, Logan, Emilia, Brayden and Olivia. We love spending time with family and have enjoyed traveling with the whole gang. John and I have also done some Viking cruises traveling abroad. One of our favorite places is Norway where we both have family to visit. My career was teaching. We raised our two daughters and I taught third grade, kindergarten and before retirement twenty two years of pre-kindergarten part time. I enjoy volunteering during my retirement and spending time with family and friends. We live in West Des Moines and are enjoying life.

Jackie Fullenkamp (Latta)

Marital status: Married
Children: 3
Occupation: Retired
So, what have you been doing for the last 50 years?: After graduating from ISU in Business, I was a state bank examiner till I married in 1982. We then moved to the Detroit area and remained there for 35 years. After my husband's retirement in 2017, we moved back to Iowa, settling in West Des Moines so we could help out my aging parents in Ames.
Comment: Hope everyone has a great time reconnecting, sorry we are out of town that weekend helping our daughter move and celebrating grandkids' birthdays. Go Little Cyclones!

Mary Brandt (Lesan)

Marital status: Divorced
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired
So, what have you been doing for the last 50 years?: Lived in MN for 10 years, MA for 5 years, been in Ames since then. Worked for Iowa State University Bookstore in the accounting office for 25 years.

David Loseke (Loseke)

Marital status: Married
Children: 4
So, what have you been doing for the last 50 years?: Went form working an airline job to a Masters in Computer Engineering and off to Oregon!

Michael Maroney

Marital status: Married
Children: 2
Occupation: Chemistry Professor (emeritus)
So, what have you been doing for the last 50 years?: What have I been doing for the last 50 years?

The short answer: trying to stay out of trouble while being productive and having as much fun as possible.

The Reader’s Digest condensed version: The summer after graduation I hit a cement truck that turned in front of me at 70 mph. I survived, but it changed a lot of plans. Despite this, I graduated from Iowa State in 1977 with a B.S. in chemistry and moved on to graduate school at the U. of Washington in Seattle. I got my Ph.D. in 1981 and joined Chevron Research Co. in the SF Bay Area. I did not like this work (too Edisonian), and being young, I quit in less than 2 years and did postdoctoral research, first at Northwestern U. and then at the U. of Minnesota. In 1985 I was appointed assistant professor at the U. of Massachusetts (Amherst) and stayed there for 34 years before becoming emeritus in 2019. My research is focused on the roles of metal ions in biology (bioinorganic chemistry), particularly the biochemistry of nickel (there is more to it than it sounds like). It was a good ride. Along the way, I met many very smart people and befriended some, got married (twice, the second has stuck for 38 years so far) and had two daughters, and traveled the world in the quest to advance science. I am slowly sliding into retirement, where the plan is to travel the world in pursuit of my own interests.

Jerry Matchett

Marital status: Married
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired
So, what have you been doing for the last 50 years?: I have been blessed for the last 50 years. After graduation, I went off to Northern Iowa (UNI) and graduated with a degree in Management, Psychology and Communication.
My career actually started at Sears and the DECA program and an inspirational teacher Mr. Abel. He was also influential in where I went to college—his Alma mater UNI.
After Graduation, I accepted a management position with Target which was opening a new store in Waterloo. I was later transferred to Cedar Rapids; I spent the next 28 years. After several years in retail at Target, I realized that retail was not conducive to great family life since I now had two young daughters.
I left Target and took a position as an Operations Manager at a local car dealership. The next 18 years were primarily spent building the new Saturn franchise from the beginning to its dissolution.
By now both of my daughters had settled in the Twin Cities northern suburb of Blaine. My oldest daughter followed my footsteps and completed her undergraduate degree at UNI. She completed her master's degree in psychology at the University of Minnesota and now is a school Psychologist. My youngest daughter completed her ungraduated degree at ISU in International business and later a Law degree from Michigan State. She now practices in the Twin Cities. We all live within 15 minutes of each other.
Lynn and I moved to the Twin Cities in 2016 since both daughters were here and we now have two grandsons that are very active in baseball, basketball, hockey, flag football, and tackle football (they start tackle in 2nd grade here, much too young but a discussion for another time).
After moving to the Cities, Lynn and I were not quite ready to retire, so Lynn took a job as a medical office professional, and I bought a Real Estate franchise. Lynn retired in 2021, and now works occasionally as a fill-in. I sold the franchise in 2021 and drive School bus part-time.
Lynn and I will celebrate being married 43 years this year. Our time is now devoted to attending all of our grandson’s sporting events, the pro sports the Cities have to offer and traveling.
Our favorite place to travel is Mexico, especially in the winter.
God has been very good to us all.
The most famous author, Anonymous, once said “LIife is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end the faster it goes”. So Enjoy every minute.

Deeya McClurkin

Marital status: Single
Children: 0
Occupation: Mortgage Underwriter
So, what have you been doing for the last 50 years?: Like many of us, I headed to Iowa State the fall of ‘73, but getting a full time job at KCCQ made it easy to justify dropping out in ‘76. I eventually left Ames the summer of ‘78 on a 12 month road trip with Cindy (Sansgaard) Kingsbury(RIP.) After I ended up at my brother’s in CA, I landed an overnight gig at a Top 40 AM station in Merced. It was pretty awful so I jumped at the chance to get back to Iowa in Aug ‘79 at album rock station KFMH in Muscatine, Aug ‘79. I’m not sure why I thought all towns in Iowa would be like Ames - they are most definitely not! It was the format I loved, in a town I did not. I started at album rock WTKX in Pensacola Mar ‘81. Right format, right town, but not the right money - you can’t survive on free t-shirts & concert tickets forever! From there it was rocker WAPI in Birmingham, AL, Aug of ‘83, with more $$ and a brand new car, but they changed formats 14 months later and fired everyone. I told my parents I’d return, finish at ISU and find a real job… unless I could land a decent radio gig. Hello WONE, Akron, OH! Brand new station with a brand new air staff! I did mornings, signing the station on at 6 am, Jan 1, 1985. Bought my first house that summer, switched to middays in ‘87 and in ‘88 filled the house with a fiancé and his 2 kids, officially becoming a wife and step-mom to a 1st and 2nd grader, Aug ‘89. Life was perfect. I was set … until my boss got a job in Denver and took our best friends (the morning team,) with him. This time it was the hubs who got the job that allowed us to join them in Denver in Jan ‘91, where I ended up as morning show producer at KAZY. Deregulation in the 90’s meant the birth of Mega Media Chains and the death of mom & pop stations. Poor little KAZY was gobbled up, format flipped and everyone fired that August. Since I’d always been intrigued with the gold jacket, I made a wide pivot into real estate in ‘92. I actually did pretty good, but the summer ‘96 my dream station, KBCO in Boulder, had a part time opening and I was sucked back into radio, eventually going full time. Unfortunately, the marriage went kaput in ‘98, but it gave me the flexibility to join KPEK, Albuquerque, as music director/afternoons Jan 2000. I never thought I’d move back to Iowa, but I couldn’t pass up the chance in July ‘06 to flip the format and become program director at KPTL in Des Moines. I thought coming full circle would be a nice way to wrap up my career. The economic crash of ‘08 ended that dream - I was laid off on Inauguration Day 2009 with 400 fellow Clear Channel folks (the date was chosen as they didn’t want it making headlines.) Layoffs throughout the industry continued through 2010 as the radio door slammed firmly shut, but what a wild ride it had been! The window that opened was at Wells Fargo. My previous real estate gig was enough to get me into the Loss Mitigation Dept. After a transfer to Minneapolis in Aug 2015 and an improving economy I started mortgage underwriting. Ha - I never imagined MATH would be central to my career! I also bought the house across the alley from childhood friend Vicki (Tamashunas) Syslo, ironically a foreclosure flip. I’m still working and hope to be until 70. I’ll miss the AHS reunion as I’ll be attending the “all grade” reunion in Estes Park, CO, for the American high school I attended in Pakistan during 9th & 10th grade. I hope a grand time will be had by all. I think about it every time I’m back and you probably do too. We were so lucky to grow up in Ames. A small town with the swagger of a city, thanks to the university. It shaped me and gave me an incredible foundation upon which to build my life. I’ll always be grateful.

Jeff McCullough

Marital status: Committed Relationship
Children: 3
Occupation: Happily Retired; former AVP at ACT, Inc.
So, what have you been doing for the last 50 years?: Iowa State grad 1977; Univ. of Iowa Law School grad 1985; Johnson County government (Elections and Voter registration); Married in 1986, 3 children; 1990 - Univ of Iowa Academic Administration; 2000 - ACT, Inc. Director of Test Administration, AVP Operations, Chief Accessibility Officer; divorced in 2016; retired 2018. Now - various volunteer activities and serve on the board of a local non-profit. I love to hike and travel as much as I can.