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.
Rick Phillips
| State / Province: | IA |
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| Marital status: | Committed Relationship |
| Children: | 2 |
| Occupation: | Retired |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | After graduating AHS, I really didn't know what kind of career I wanted to pursue. But I enjoyed writing, so I gravitated to Iowa State University and the excellent Greenlee School of Journalism. Although I thought I might want to be a reporter at first, I quickly shifted my attention to a public relations and corporate communications focus, and I remained in that space for my entire career. My first job was in community promotion, where I helped attract business and conventions to Des Moines. After about a decade, I moved to Meredith Corporation (now Dotdash Meredith) where I led a team doing public relations for its magazine division. After a few great years my team was downsized and I was looking for work. I found a home at United Way of Central Iowa as the head of marketing. Although this was going to be just a stopover on the way back to corporate life, I found this to be fulfilling work helping those in the community who needed everything from food to shelter. And I ended up staying in this line of work for about half a decade because I loved it so much. Then, back to corporate life, first at GuideOne Insurance overseeing corporate PR and the GuideOne Foundation, then on to Allied Insurance overseeing its Corporate Communications programming. Allied had just been acquired by Nationwide Insurance, and my first task was rebranding the company. I kept moving up in the communications ranks at Nationwide until I was named Chief Communications Officer in 2008. I lived in Ohio from 2004 to 2018, when I retired to move back to Des Moines to help care for ailing family. My personal life featured a series of ups and downs with lots of high points and a few low ones. The best part was the birth of two daughters who are now grown and having families of their own. I'm now a proud grandfather who loves to spoil my three grandchildren despite not seeing them as much as I'd like. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone in August! |
| Share a high school memory: | My high school memory takes me back to a warm, spring day, in the parking lot of AHS. Dandelions were in full bloom and it was that time of spring where it was a sea of yellow for as far as you could see. Several of us realized that the marching band practiced playing and marching through the neighborhood near AHS right after school. So we took Jeff Carter's awesome Chevy Corvair to an open dandelion field and began to pick a huge amount of the yellow weeds. We made them into bouquets. We tied them on to all parts of the car. And we turned it into a parade "float" and waited for the band to march near our location. As they came closer, a couple of us hopped on the hood and we pulled slowly in front of the band. For the next hour, we threw bouquets to imaginary people, waved in every direction to invisible "parade attendees" and had a tremendous laugh. I'm not sure the band was amused, but for goofy high school kids it was an epic memory! |
Stephen Pier
| State / Province: | NY |
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| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 0 |
| Occupation: | Dancer, Choreographer, Director, Teacher |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | Took a train out to NYC 48 years ago to become a dancer (whatever that might be!). Got into The Juilliard School on scholarship. Left. Had a blast traveling the world performing with Limón Company, Hamburg Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet and PierGroupDance working with wonderful colleagues, meeting terrific people everywhere I went. Living in NYC, Hamburg Germany and Copenhagen, Denmark. Taught and worked with some amazing artists for 14 years at The Juilliard School. Left again. Met an incredible person who became, and still is, my wife. Still learning a lot. More to go. |
| Share a high school memory: | Faking my way through EVERYTHING! A few really wonderful friends who I was fortunate to share time with, trust, and try to start to figure out life with. A really creative, successful, and off-beat swim team! Started doing a crazy thing called "Dance Class" to get on stage, do something radically different, meet girls, and get myself out of Phys Ed. The rest is somewhat hazy. |
Tanya Pietron (Bogie)
| State / Province: | NE |
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| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 1 |
| Occupation: | Recreation Therapist/retired |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | Hi classmates! How do you cover 50 years? That is a loooong time! Makes me feel old???? I worked for a few years in Ames after high school and then started at DMACC in 1980. I graduated from there in 1982 with an AA degree in Recreation Leadership. I transferred to ISU and graduated with a BA degree in Leisure Studies with a therapeutic emphasis. I loved working in Psychiatry and got my first job as a CTRS in Omaha at Richard Young Hospital. So I packed up and moved from Ames in 1986 and have been here ever since. I met my husband Tony in 1989 and we married in 1991. Neither of us had been married before so we were both late bloomers. We had our son Jared in 1994. Yes, I was 38! A late bloomer for that too! Those were busy years for us. Working, raising our son, keeping the house up and lots of activities with Jared and friends. I went to part time work in 2013 after I had both hips replaced. All those years of gymn activities with patients wore my body down. lol I started working for Ollie Webb Center and taught art classes for students with intellectual disabilities. That experience really got me back in to the artwork that I dabbled in off and on throughout the years. I really enjoyed teaching the art classes and had some very talented students. I also started displaying my art in town and have sold some pieces at galas, restaurants and to some of our classmates. It makes me happy to know they have good homes. As some of you know I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019 and since treatment everything has been good so far. Experiences like that make it easier for me to take things one day at a time. I am retired but stay very busy with my family and friends. I can’t say that I am bored! I love going to aquatic exercise, listening to music, reading, road trips and vacations. It’s a good life. I can’t complain! |
| Share a high school memory: | For the woman that loves water exercise now this memory makes me laugh. I really don’t know how I did it but I never took swimming class. I used to spend hours on my hair every night or morning and I wasn’t about to get it wet. Mr. Ritland called me in to his office before I graduated and told me that he noticed I hadn’t taken the required swimming course. I acted all innocent and said “I didn’t?” I think he was tired of looking at my face because he let me graduate anyway. God bless him! |
David Pohm
| State / Province: | CO |
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| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 3 |
| Occupation: | Electrical Engineer |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | I went straight from high school to ISU where I graduated with a B.S. in electrical engineering. Michelle Shorten and I were married during college in 1977. I went to work for Control Data (CDC) in Minneapolis working in storage. We were moved by CDC to Colorado Springs in 1984. We were subsequently moved to Windsor, CO in 1996 by Philips (who acquired our development group) where I continued working in CDs and DVDs. I currently work for Micron Technology (in storage as well) doing security firmware for SSDs. Michelle and I have three daughters who are all now married. We are also the proud grandparents of 4 grandchildren. All of our kids live in Colorado. One of my son-in-law's got me into my only real hobby (with three daughters I never had time before) which is target shooting and reloading. I have also gone on a number of elk hunts with him as well. |
| Share a high school memory: | My wife (Michelle Shorten) is watching over my shoulder, and I have decided the best high school memory for me to mention is, "Meeting my future wife". |
Michelle Pohm (Shorten)
| Marital status: | Married |
|---|---|
| Children: | 3 |
| Occupation: | Chiropractic Assistant/front and back office |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | After graduation I attended the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State. In 1977, Dave Pohm and I married. In 1978 we moved to St. Louis Park, MN, where I took a course in medical/clerical training. This led me to a job at a hospital located in St. Louis Park. In 1984, Dave and I and our first daughter (Kelsey) moved to Colorado Springs, CO. where I first started working in chiropractic offices. Along came daughter #2, Hayley in 1985, then daughter #3, Alyssa in 1988. The family moved to rural Windsor, Colorado in 1996 where we built a house (and currently reside). I first worked at the National Board of Chiropractic examiners (working in the testing department) and am currently working at Stine Chiropractic. I work about 35 hours a week which keeps me busy and well adjusted (Ha-Ha!) Our worldly travels consist of travels back to Ames, family reunions in South Dakota, a few trips to Hawaii and an Alaskan cruise. We don’t travel very often or far because we have 5 little demanding dogs, which make it difficult to find doggy sitters. All 3 daughters are married and two out of the three daughters each have a boy and a girl. They all live in Colorado, so a lot of our travels take us to soccer games, dance recitals, and all the other grandparent stuff we get to be involved in. Our weekends are full of home improvement projects that keep Dave and I shuffling 50 years of stuff while we update the house, we built 27 years ago. Dave and I also exercise a lot in our basement gym. While exercising we binge on series and movies to keep us motivated for our daily workouts. Dave and I are looking forward to our trip back to Ames for what looks like another awesome high school reunion. We also will spend time visiting Dave’s parents who are now living at Northridge Village in independent living. |
daryl popelka
| State / Province: | IA |
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Linda Rathje (Kolb)
| State / Province: | IA |
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| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 4 |
| Occupation: | Professional Photographer |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | God has blessed me in so many ways! I've been married to my amazing husband Scott for over 40 years and have 4 wonderful children and 5 beautiful grandchildren. We meet at ISU. I survived a hard fight against breast cancer in 2023. We raised our children in Ukraine (1994-2005) as missionaries introducing people to the Bible, teaching English, helping fight alcoholism and helping plant small house churches in villages. The work has continued during the war with Scott doing Zoom meetings weekly to encourage people not to give up hope. Their small churches are growing every month. Many of our closest friends are Ukrainians and have children and husbands fighting as I write. Please keep them in your prayers. I've had a boutique photography studio in Gilbert, IA for 18 years and hope to retire this year. My passion project is to create a membership to connect women with breast cancer into small personal groups that feel like a family. And also to put as many of the breast cancer support resources and links that I can find into one spot that can be easily searched. It's hard to find the emotional bandwidth to search for what you need when you're so sick from cancer treatment. We love to travel and have not only lived in Ukraine for 11 years, but we've also loved exploring Europe, Egypt, Kauai, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. |
| Share a high school memory: | I loved playing in the orchestra (or was that junior high??)and being in musicals and plays. I had such a nice group of friends. Ames High (and its wonderful teachers) was very good to me. |
Linda Reynolds (Brunsen)
| Marital status: | Married |
|---|---|
| Children: | 3 |
| Occupation: | Financial CPA Retired |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | Fifty years is a lot to look back on, but so thankful I can do so. I only attended Ames High one year and graduated, but it impacted my life since Ames is where I met my future husband, Wes Holbrook. We married and had a daughter. Tragically we lost Wes in a construction accident the following year. His family became mine and I am happy to still have his three wonderful sisters in my life as my sisters. I attended Iowa State briefly, but withdrew when my dad became ill and then passed later that same year. I grew up quickly. I worked in advertising for JCPenney and played softball for the women’s team at the Ames Tribune. Through those connections I met Dave Reynolds who was the sports editor and played softball for the men’s team. He likes to say he found me in left field. We married in 1981 and have been married for 43 years. We lived in Des Moines where I worked as a media buyer for Ardan and Dave worked for the Des Moines Register. In 1983 we moved to Peoria, Illinois where Dave continued his sports writing career and I returned to school. I received my bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Illinois Springfield and obtained my CPA license. I worked in financial reporting for an insurance company until we both retired the end of 2020. Over the years we added two boys to our family and time flew by as we kept busy with all their activities. We have loved traveling to all fifty states and several countries and spent many springs in Arizona and Florida enjoying spring training games where Dave covered games for the Cubs, Cardinals, and White Sox. Our three adult children blessed us with six grandchildren and one great. In 2022, we made the decision to leave the cold Midwest winters behind and retire to The Villages, Florida. We find ourselves enjoying a very active retirement playing golf, enjoying the beaches, hiking trails, traveling and making wonderful new friends. |
Kathy Rice (Schlunz)
| State / Province: | IA |
|---|---|
| Marital status: | Married |
| Children: | 2 |
| Occupation: | Art Teacher |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | AHS - great friends, good teachers, new fine arts wing. College - Kansas City Art Institute, ISU. At KCAI I became a Christian, ever since knowing that I live now and eternally with God and in His love! Graduated from ISU in art education. Taught art for 23 years at Gilbert Elementary School. Family - married my wonderful husband, Larry Rice. He had two children and they married and have two children each. What’s better than grandchildren?! Retirement - able to retire early at age 50! Took trips and freely visited grandchildren! We have driven to Alaska five times! Tent-camped in Denali National Park! Parents - both lived to in their 90s. Miss them. Health - blood cancer with 8 months of chemo but totally in normal numbers now! That’s right! I’m normal! (Larry wants a second opinion!) Larry has had surgery on arteries and 5 by-passes. Both of us are doing very well. God is good! |
Ron Ries
| Marital status: | Married |
|---|---|
| Children: | 2 |
| Occupation: | Retired |
| Highlights of your last 50 years: | After high school I began full time in the family biz, KD Amusement and Game Room Supply, at our branch in Waverly. Moved back to Ames in 1980 and continued working until selling the business in Aug. 2023. It was interesting (and fun!) to be involved in the first wave of arcade video games, and to see jukeboxes transition from 45rpm records, to CD's, and finally to Internet downloads. I managed to find Linda, a great gal that could put up with me and we were married in 1992. And I gained 2 kids at the same time, Chad and Tina. |
| Share a high school memory: | Senior year T&I trip to KC. If you were there you'll remember. I'm afraid we gave Mr. Faas a few gray hairs on that one. |