Denny Kolb:
CLASS OF 1976
Booker T. Washington High SchoolClass of 1976
Tulsa, OK
Colorado State UniversityClass of 1989
Ft. collins, CO
University of OklahomaClass of 1980
Norman, OK
Clinton Middle SchoolClass of 1973
Tulsa, OK
Taft Elementary SchoolClass of 1970
Tulsa, OK
Denny's Story
It is October of 2008 as I write this and I'm 50 years old which means that I've been out of high school almost twice as long as the time it took me to get from birth to graduation day in 1976. It's been a long and somewhat strange journey and had you asked me where I would be today back in 1976 I can guarantee that I'd never have guessed how things have turned out.
After graduation I attended the University of Oklahoma, finally graduating, after 5-1/2 years, in 1982 with a double major in Math and Chemistry (to paraphrase Zonker Harris: "my Senior year was the best 2-and-a-half years of my life"). Actually, that's not quite true; the best years of my life are still in front of me.
Getting out of school in early 1982 I wound up getting a job as a computer programmer with Conoco Oil in Ponca City, Oklahoma (city motto - it's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here) and stayed there for just over 4 years until I was deemed to be "excess" when the price of oil dove from $20/barrel to about $10/barrel in January of 1986 " how quaint that all seems today, eh". Getting laid off forced my hand to get me back to graduate school somewhat sooner than expected and I wound up in the computer science dept. at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins Colorado where I spent an enjoyable 2-1/2 years and wound up with my Masters in Computer Science.
The only down-side to graduate school was that I'd blown out my ACL in May of '86 and wound up having reconstruction surgery in October and spent all of ski season my first year in Colorado either on crutches or in physical therapy - major bummer.
Somehow, I've managed to always have the foresight to graduate from college during an economic downturn - just a gift I guess - but I earned my MS in Computer Science in early 1989 and wound up going to work for TRW in San Diego and working on the Advanced Tactical Fighter program. I worked for TRW for a few years and then for a series of other Defense contractors in San Diego for a total of about 10 years. In the interim I got to work on aircraft avionics systems, anti-submarine warfare tracking systems, aircraft range control systems, command and control systems and shipboard missile guidance systems and self defense systems.
Meanwhile, in early 1990 I wound up meeting my wife Krista through some m...Expand for more
utual friends. After dating for about a year we moved in together in January of 1991; I asked Krista to marry me in Dec. of 1991 and we were married in November of 1992. We'll be celebrating our 16th anniversary in just a couple of weeks. Our first child, a daughter named Harper, was born in January of 1998 and our second child, a son named Dashiell, was born in July of 2002.
In early 1999, I wound up forming a company with a few other associates which lasted until 2002 when I formed my own company and struck off on my own. I've been independent ever since. My new company has had slow but steady growth and I now have 3 people working for me with the decent prospect of needing to hire a 4th in the very near future.
Living in San Diego has been absolutely wonderful. It is a great place to raise a family. We have the advantage of having all of the tourist attractions here in San Diego and SoCal in general and we make use of them - genearlly in the off season when the "touristas" have gone home for the winter. We have annual passes to the Zoo, LegoLand and a number of the museums and other attractions here so there's no shortage of things to do with the kids. The weather is first rate with that great Southern California Sunshine year round. For Christmas every year we always do a brunch at the Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island and except for the rare year when it's been raining the kids get to run on the beach on Christmas day. When I first moved here from Colorado back in 1989 I thought I'd stay for a few years and then move back to Colorado; now, you couldn't drag me away with a team of wild horses.
There is the occasional problem like the wild-fires that we had here in 2003 and last year. We were evacuated from our house in 2007 but the fires never truly threatened our neighborhood. I've felt a few earthquakes while living here, but none have been centered anywhere near us. The San Andreas Fault runs north about 80 miles to our east so we can always get something bigger, but so far so good.
On a more personal note, for anyone who remembers my brother Richard who was in the BTW class of '78, I'm sorry to say that he died in July of 2007 at the far too young age of 47. He is burried in my Mother's home town of Oolagah, OK in her family plot next to where my parents will be burried.
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Reunions
Photos
