We finished up our undergraduate careers in June of 1950. Barb left an incomplete course or two and didn't actually get her BA until 1953. Our years at Bradley were intellectually stimulating, unnecessarily intense and pretty carefree. It was a good place to spend those years: I can't imagine having a richer and more varied undergraduate experience. Barbara studied foreign languages; Dick history and philosophy.
Barbara, who's more scholarly
than I, has a master's degree, and taught high school math for 20-odd
years.
Once in a while she taught French or Spanish. She was an officer of the
Detroit Federation of Teachers and is still active with Union retirees.
She does computer databases for them and for other organizations.
Barb's father, Orville A. Oaks,
graduated from Bradley in 1915
After leaving Peoria, I
got a Master's degree and then a PhD in geology, although I hadn't studied
geology as an undergraduate. I did research at the University of Delaware from
1954 to 1958 and taught for one year at the University of New York at
Plattsburg. Much
of my life has been spent teaching mineralogy, petrology, field geology
and other courses to undergraduate and graduate students at Wayne State
University in Detroit. I did summer field work in the western US, Mexico, Brazil
and Canada
I moonlighted as an environmental
commentator for Detroit's WJR, and WXYZ-TV. For 14 years I was the host
of a weekly interview program for the Mutual Network
Sadly, we haven't been active Bradley University alumni. Perhaps that's because we live too far away and have been associated with several colleges.
We have, over the years, acquired three children and five grandchildren. Our youngest grandchild is 11 years old. The oldest is 29; that's much older than either of us was when that picture was taken.
We both gave up working in 1986 and now enjoy
traveling in the States and abroad. Our son lived in England for
more than 20 years, so we have visited his family a couple of times a year and used that
a jumping-off place for trips to the Continent. A daughter lives
in Manhattan: we stay with her as often as our conscience will allow.
Our near-by family, a daughter and two
grandsons,
have dinner with us every Monday night that we, and they, are in town.
It's a family
tradition of very long standing.
Our Children:
Lyra (PhD, Adelphi) is a clinical psychologist at a
large medical Center in New York.
Willow (BS, RN) is a medical administrator in Michigan.
Jeff (PhD, Surrey) is now (2007) vice president of the aerospace company SpaceX in
California. He was previously Managing Director of Surrey Satellite Technology.
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