Classmate Profiles
Instructions: Hello, Classmate! Our once-in-a-lifetime GOLDEN class reunion is coming soon, and your classmates hope to see you in August! Even if you aren't able to join us, please share below about your after-high school life (~350 words), favorite high school memory/ies, and include a current photo of just you, with your face and hair - or lack thereof. And although your contact information won't be visible on this website, your classmates can contact you via email by clicking on "send [name] a message" link at the bottom of each classmate's profile. Enjoy reading the profiles!
One classmate per profile. To change your profile click Log in. Username = your email.
Brad Meyer
| State / Province: | IA |
|---|---|
| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 7 |
| Occupation: | Professor of Operations Management and Business Analytics |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | Two days before high school graduation, I was sitting in a car with Brita Swenson. Throughout my senior year, I became increasingly impressed with her but unsure how she felt about me. I wanted to tell her what I thought, but I was very timid. I had tried to talk to her several days earlier while taking her for a walk. A long quiet walk. Quiet because I couldn’t get up the nerve to say anything. But here we were, together again, and my anger at myself from the previous encounter was enough to give me the courage I needed. I told her how much I admired her and that I would be open to a long-term relationship. As I waited for her response, I braced myself for the worst, but it wasn’t the worst. It was the best, and from then on, we knew we would become husband and wife, which happened 30 months later. College ensued, and as Brita and I began our life together, I earned a BS, MS, and PhD in Industrial Engineering. By Providence, I was asked to teach at ISU while I earned my doctoral degree which more than met the needs of our growing family. By 1989 when I graduated, we had six children. I took a job at Drake University as a professor in operations management and in 1996, we had our final child. I gladly spent a lot of my time with my three daughters and four sons as they were growing up. I grew up loving music, though I have to admit that KIOA distorted my brain, pushing out interest in anything classical. I learned guitar my senior year at AHS and have played for church and small groups over the years. Besides that, I like to fix inanimate objects (not pets or people) and bring order to my environment. I love to study science and the Scriptures, looking for insights about the One who made me. Right now, I am fascinated with entropy (Mr. Windsor would be happy). Plus, I have this lingering ambition to write a book someday. |
| Share a high school memory: | How I was taken back on the first day of class to find that I had Dennis the Menace’s dad as my math teacher. (Mr. Hilmer) Determining my blood type in Mr. Trump’s class. I was okay when I lanced the finger, but then almost passed out walking down the hall after class. Doing experiments in Mr. Windsor’s physics class. |
Brita Meyer (Swenson)
| State / Province: | IA |
|---|---|
| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 7 |
| Occupation: | Progeny Mentor |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | After high school, I went to Iowa State University majoring in elementary education. 2 1/2 years into college I married our classmate, Brad Meyer. Another year and a half later, I graduated and birthed the first of our seven children. Much of my life has revolved around being a wife and mother. I had the privilege of staying home with our growing family. I homeschooled all the children into middle school thus utilizing my college degree. Many hours were spent on household tasks, gardening, music lessons 4-H projects, canning and preserving garden produce. I loved cheering on the basketball and soccer players in our family. 15 years into marriage we moved our family of eight to Des Moines as Brad was teaching at Drake University. It was after we moved to Des Moines that our seventh child was born. Five of our seven sang in Des Moines Children’s Chorus (later called Iowa Youth Chorus) and had great experiences singing locally and even internationally. Between chorus, school, church, and club sports, I served as choir parent, uniform parent, costume designer, competition cheerleader parent, bus driver, camp chef, concession stand worker, Awana director, and more. All of which I loved then and would gladly do all over again. I can’t count how many knitting and crocheting projects I have completed over the years, along with a few quilts, and many clothing alterations. I don’t know if you call it a hobby, but I also bake special occasion cakes: wedding, birthday, retirement, graduation, and more. For the last 20 years, I have worked an evening or two a week as a server and banquet captain for Christiani’s VIP Catering. Through the years, tent camping has been a favorite vacation for our crew. More recently, Brad and I have been checking out national parks. We have loved life with our seven children, and now we have 13 grandchildren and one great grandson to enjoy as well. Almost all of them live within 20 minutes of our home! |
| Share a high school memory: | In October 1971 as high school was beginning, I accepted Jesus as my savior. This decision has affected every area of my life since then. I loved our choir with Mr. Wiser directing. The Christmas record we cut was so special. Singing in the Allstate choir for two years was like a dream come true for me. Being part of the Royal Thusnelda Festival singers was great… performances, warming up in the stairwells at the Memorial Union, and Scott McCoy’s leadership was spectacular. I enjoyed assisting in several athletic events. I was a runner and a line judge at track meets. For basketball games, I worked the foul light and put up the roster on the wall letter by letter. Each player’s height was listed by his name. It was fun to put Frank Schneider 7‘0“. (No other team had a player that tall!) |
Vickie Michel Whattoff
| State / Province: | MO |
|---|---|
| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 2 |
| Occupation: | Retired |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | My husband, Don and our two children, Amy and Aaron lived in the western Chicago suburb of St. Charles from 1983 through 1995. We are all sports fans, so we are blessed to live in the area during both the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Bears championship runs. In 1995, my husband had the opportunity to relocate to the Kansas City area, so we jumped at the chance to live closer to the Ames area. Luckily, both of our adult children decided to move to Missouri and still live a short drive away. We now have three wonderful granddaughters and have enjoyed watching them grow into young adults. We have been retired for the last several years, and are enjoying our time boating, traveling and just hanging out at our acreage near Kearney. |
Toby Miller
| State / Province: | VA |
|---|---|
| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 2 |
| Occupation: | Retired |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | Aren't we, like, supposed to be really old when we write our info for a 50th high school reunion? Well, I guess that's not true! The main highlight of my last 50 years was the realization that for all of mankind, growing up in Ames, Iowa during the 1960-70's was probably the most ideal. After AHS I attended ISU and graduated in '78 with a degree in business. Upon graduation I was promoted by County Seat Stores (remember that Levi's store in the mall?) to a store manager in Minnesota and then Asst Buyer and that all lasted for about 2 years. After County Seat I worked as a travelling sales rep. for Jantzen Sportswear and Swimwear selling the ladies/junior clothing lines in territories in CO, NM, TX, OH and MS. While it was a remarkable job for young and single man, I realized that sales just wasn't for me so in the mid '80s I was hired into Air Traffic Control by the FAA and stayed in that career for 24 years. I was a controller in Dallas, Tulsa, Boston and then spent the last 7 years in various supervisory and management positions at the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Washington DC. In 2011 I retired from the FAA and was hired by American Airlines to develop and work in a Senior Manager position focusing on international ATC operations and collaboration. This 10 year experience took me around the world to multiple locations ranging from China to Europe to the Middle East. The onset of Covid-19, the grounding of all international flights and a lovely corporate buyout package opened the wonderful door of retirement...and I haven't looked back. I have been married twice and have a son from each marriage. My first son developed a very rare autoimmune disorder when he was 9 and while all is good now, it was a challenging time for 10 years. We moved from Tulsa to New England to be near his specialist because at that time auto-immune disorders weren't as well-known as they are now. After 22 years, my wife at that time and I amicably split and went our ways. I moved to DC and it was there I met my present wife of 18 years, Zain. She was born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq and had recently come to the USA to be the TV news anchor for a satellite TV station the US Govt started to broadcast news and programming to the Middle East. I like to refer to her as the Diane Sawyer of Iraq. Zain, among other things, is a great travel partner as she is fluent in 5 languages. We have a 16 year-old son, Eli who is now giving me first-hand knowledge of just how radically different things are in high school when comparing 1974 to 2023!! He is off to college in two years and shortly around that time Zain and I hope to be finalizing a second home on the Aegean seashore of Turkey (current political and military uncertainties in the region have caused the "pause" button to be pushed, however). Life goes on and other than being a dad, a husband, a friend and a kind human being... it's all about Yoga, Pilates, Tabata and Pickleball. Everything else is just noise. |
| Share a high school memory: | Winning the DECA Iowa Student of the Year award and was so surprised and excited that I called Mark Allen, Mary. |
Timothy Moody (Moody)
| State / Province: | MN |
|---|---|
| Marital status: | Committed Relationship |
| Children: | 2 |
| Occupation: | Physician/Retired |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | It has been my honor and a privilage to work as a physician the past 40 years. My area of interest was public health, but I also did private practice, college health, rural health, and hospice care. Much of my time was spent in SE Washington State, chasing after diseases like meningitis, tuberculosis, swine flu, etc. I concluded my career in California working at a university (CalPoly Pomona). Along the way, I had two wonderful children (one now lives in NYC, the other in Seattle), climbed many mountains, floated many rivers, paddled many lakes, and biked along the west coast and through the Canadian Rockies. Somewhere in there I also survived a brain tumor. Since 2005, I have been living with Mary Stevens (our classmate). We have been on uncountable adventures together. In 2020, the pandemic forced an early retirement for both of us. We now live in a log home on a little lake in central Minnesota. The adventure continues. |
| Share a high school memory: | My most vivid memories are the performance of the play, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the final recital of the modern dance students our senior year. |
JAMES MOORHEAD
| State / Province: | WI |
|---|---|
| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 3 |
| Occupation: | Retired |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | I have lived in Wisconsin for the last 43 years of the 50 since AHS. Barb and I married in 1980 and have three married daughters and three granddaughters. I graduated from Luther College in 1979, taught high school biology parttime and then for two years ran a residential Young Adult Conservation Corps camp (YACC) in Red Haw State Park near Chariton, IA. I then worked five years seasonal and about 30 years permanent as a park ranger for the Wisconsin DNR. My office was at Wildcat Mountain State Park and I worked primarily on three railroad grade bike trails. Barb and I were both able to retire about nine years ago. We have enjoyed retirement with the freedom to set ones own schedule. I enjoy traveling, both in the U.S. and abroad and especially to our children and grandchildren. I enjoy many activities to keep me fulfilled in retirement. I fish both locally and an annual trip to Canada. I volunteer both at my church and with a local service club. There are great folks involved in both of these organizations. I was able to attend the 10th and 20th reunions and plan to attend the 50th. I hope all is well with you reading this and I look forward to seeing folks at the reunion. |
| Share a high school memory: | Taking photos of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "MacBeth". Camping with Project ECO, Environmental Curriculum Opportunities. Speaking at graduation referencing Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game" |
Laura Morton
| State / Province: | MN |
|---|---|
| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 0 |
| Occupation: | retired physical therapist |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | I remember doing this review at length ten years ago, so I'll be more brief and maybe more revelatory this time. In my 20s, I graduated in psychology from ISU, dropped out of two Ph.D. programs, battled depression and substance abuse, and dabbled in one of my loves (liberal politics), helping to elect U.S. Senator Tom Harkin and working for one session of the Iowa legislature before leaving Iowa for Texas. In my 30s, I followed my soul's urging and took up the serious practice of Paramahansa Yogananda's Kriya yoga meditation (seriously, read his "Autobiography of a Yogi"!), moving to the San Francisco Bay Area and then to Los Angeles. In Berkeley and Oakland, I worked for the University of California in human resources, and then for Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship in LA for ten years. The next decade, my 40s, I returned to school to become a physical therapist. In my 50s, I adjusted to working in healthcare and hospitals, moved briefly to the Pacific Northwest, met my now-husband, and returned to the Midwest to live and marry in Minnesota shortly before our 40th reunion. Tom (Moldenhauer) and I connected on Facebook, first met at ISU's Memorial Union, and shared growing up in Ames, playing clarinet at Central Junior High School, and never having married previously. We love both our independence and shared adventures. He's the perfect husband (for me!). I moved away from working full-time in my 60s, and the pandemic sealed my retirement, at which time I finally rededicated myself to the spiritual practice that centers, grounds and uplifts me. I'm worried about our country and our planet, but trust that God has it all under control. |
| Share a high school memory: | It's hard to pick just one AHS memory! Recording and performing our memorable Christmas album in a cappella choir under Al Wiser, and travels on the junior year UN trip and to Spain with Terri Mickelson after our senior year all stand out. |
Charles Murphy
| State / Province: | TX |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Retired Aerospace Industry Manager |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | I have just recently retired from over 40 years in the aerospace industry. The majority of my career was with Lockheed Martin AF Plant #4, in Ft. Worth, Texas, and Safran Group, which is a renowned global leader and provider of aerospace parts/assemblies. I spent the last 27 years as a sales manager for Safran for the electrical wiring interconnect systems sold to the military and commercial customers. I have included my last profile picture from ten years ago and a recent picture from a breakfast outing!" |
| Share a high school memory: | I have great memories of the track team (discus) and my involvement in choir (we made an album if I remember correctly!). |
Linda Murray (Cowles)
| State / Province: | CO |
|---|---|
| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 2 |
| Occupation: | School Administrator / Retired |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | Wow, 50 years just flew by! I graduated with a degree in Education from Iowa State University, then a Master's degree in Special Education from University of Colorado in Greeley. I taught Special Education for almost 20 years, then became a Special Education Director and spent the last 18 years as an Assistant Superintendent of Schools with the last year as Interim Superintendent. I retired two years ago. I married Scott Murray in 1979 and we have lived in Woodland Park, CO ever since. We have two kids, Kristen (1986) and Jay (1989). We spent our free time skiing, jeeping, camping, hiking, motorcycling, biking, scuba diving, and riding our horses. Both of our kids (and two grandkids) now live in Alaska (they were looking for Colorado on steroids), so we spend a lot of time in Alaska with them throughout the year enjoying the outdoors and exploring. With retirement, we travel quite a bit in our motorhome and I rekindled my leather working hobby making purses, computer bags, wallets, earrings, etc. |
| Share a high school memory: | My best high school memory was the ski trip to Aspen. There was a lot of sunburn, drinking beer (the bus driver bought us Coors), and some pretty good skiing! |
Glenn Norton
| State / Province: | IA |
|---|---|
| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 2 |
| Occupation: | Retired |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | I obtained B.S. and M.S. degrees in the geological and environmental sciences at Iowa State University. While working on my B.S. degree, I had a summer job working for ISU, and I was hired for a permanent position after I graduated. I subsequently worked as a scientist at Ames Laboratory/ISU for 40 years before retiring. The nature of my work was very diverse and included studying emissions from the Ames power plant while burning refuse with coal, using chemicals to remove toxic trace elements from coal, and investigating mercury chemistry in coal combustion flue gas. Other projects involved analyzing effluents from biomass gasification, overseeing carbon isotope analyses on biobased products, and growing biomass in waste streams from corn ethanol plants to produce value-added products. After retirement I did some on-site consulting at an ethanol plant in Hungary, served as a technical editor for scientific papers written by researchers in South Korea, worked extensively on my family’s genealogy, and focused on numerous house projects. I enjoy cross-country skiing, bicycling, traveling, gardening, photography, and hiking and camping in the mountains. I really enjoy traveling in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah, and will be on a three-week trip to the San Juan mountains in southwestern Colorado during the 50-year reunion. After the college years, I married classmate Paula Dunham. We have been married for 35 years and have two sons. Paula and I have enjoyed our travels together, both foreign and domestic, and are looking forward to expanding our travels now that we are both retired. After recent trips to Hungary, Austria, Germany, Yosemite National Park, and Alaska, our next trip will be traveling to the Hawaiian islands of Oahu, Kauai, and the Big Island. Don’t expect me to learn how to hula dance though. |