John Cree:
CLASS OF 1974
Sprague High SchoolClass of 1974
Sprague, WA
John's Story
Life
While attending Washington State University, I met Margo, who is now my wife of 28 years. We married in 1978, and upon earning our degrees, moved to Lynwood Washington where we both worked for Boeing for 1 year.
Our yearning to use our degrees had us applying for and accepting positions with the Clark County School District in Las Vegas Nevada. We taught there for 2 years, before deciding that we missed our family and friends and returned to the Pacific Northwest in 1981. We settled in Federal Way, and have been living here ever since.
We started our family in May of 1982 with the arrival of our first daughter, Breanne, and 2 1/2 years later in October of 1984 our second daughter, Bethany arrived. Both are grown and living away from home by nearby.
Breanne married in March of 2006, to James Betterman. James is a terrific young man and we couldn't be happier to have him as a son-in-law. Bethany is seriously dating a young man, Josh Cook. Josh is a great young man too, and our thoughts will soon be with him as he looks to be called back to active duty, and will most likely have to return to Iraq for a second stint.
College
Attending Washington State University was a great experience for me. Not only did I earn at BA, with a major in Industrial Technology, and minor in Education, but I met the love of my life, Margo. We married in 1978 and are at 28 years and counting...
I'm still a die hard Cougar fan and I am usually humbled more than I am gratified, but hey, coming from Sprague, ...Expand for more
if you can't have a place for the underdog... I even have dental work showing my pride. I have a crown with the WSU Cougar head logo. A bit over the top, but compared to the cost of the crown, the artwork was minimal. My dentist, also a Coug, liked it so well, he had one installed too. Maybe a trend???
Workplace
Working at Boeing for the last 22 years, has been very rewarding personally and professionally. I've spent most my career working in Integrated Defense Systems (DS), with a short stint in Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) working on Aircraft Mods.
In IDS I've worked on AWACS programs (US & NATO, Royal Saudi Airforce, United Kingdom, Republic of France, and 767 AWACS for Japan), Advance Projects (closed programs), Sea Launch, and now 737 AEW&C (current customers, Australia and Turkey).
While working in IDS, I've traveled internationally to Rihyad, Saudi Arabia, and Ankara, Turkey and London England. In BCA, I spent 6 months in Dublin Ireland. This was a terrific experience as Margo made 3 visits while I was there, and one time came with the kids for a three week stay.
In IDS and BCA, I've had opportunities to travel domestically to many locations, but the ones with the longest stays were California (Sea Launch) and Florida.
I recently accepted a position as a Manufacturing Engineering Manager. I was a Manufacturing Engineer for 21 of my 22 years, so it's a unique perspective to now be managing individuals in a skill that I did for so many years. Very challenging, yet rewarding.
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