Donald Mies:  

I'm part of the winter class of '68 (Lania-Keis) which numbered less than 200 so we are a very small group within the "class of '68". Life... I've been married twice and am now enjoying life with my second wife (Debbie). I don't have any kids of my own but I have 2 step children by my first marriage marriage and 2 step children by my second. The first 2 (One boy, Michael, and one girl, Kristy.) are grown with kids of their own and I have 5 grandchildren from them. The second 2 step children (One boy, Jason, and one girl Carisa.) are in college now and mostly gone. Neither of them lives with us and neither is married or has children. I still keep in touch with several of our classmates (Randy Adams, Andy Kratz, and Mike Vickers) who are not on the list yet. I got my degree in computer science before it was the "in thing" and have made a very good career of it. I've built the first ATM system, bunches of machines like blood analyzers for Beckman Instruments, plotters for CalComp, and have worked as a consultant most of my career at places like Western Digital and some of the big computer companies. I enjoy my work but don't fit into the "geek" category very well. Since I work with computers all day, I don't want to touch them at night or on weekends. I enjoy working on cars and collecting and restoring them. I also enjoy building furniture and keeping our houses repaired. Debbie and I have a vacation home in Big Sur that we love and have completely rebuilt that house ourselves. It's not quite finished but we go up there at lease once a month and enjoy it a lot. I have my copy of our annual if anyone wants/needs photos of anyone. Just ask and I'll be glad to scan it in and send it to you. I can be reached directly at donald dot mies at gmail dot com. Use that email address and you'll be sure to reach me. College... After high school I went directly to UCLA as a physics major. They managed to completely kill my love of physics with the huge impersonal classes and inaccessible teachers. I left after a year not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. My father had a friend that needed an automobile mechanic helper so I went to work with him. He was a German master mechanic and sent me to the BMW factory training school. I worked with him in the shop for several years while going to night school to try to figure out what I want to be in life. I took whatever class looked interesting to me but when I took a class in computer programming I was hooked. I loved it and decided that computer science was what I wanted to do with my life. I took all of the required courses at the Junior colleges at night while I applied to and was accepted at UC Irvine. UCI was ranked 2nd in the nation at the time in computer science (right behind Carnegie Mellon). I gra...Expand for more