Jerry Rife:  

The older I get the less I feel the need to describe the travelogue of my life; rather, the more I am trying to figure out what it has all meant. I know I'm unique, just as you are, and that our uniqueness is more than just the sum total of where we've been, who we've met, and what we've done. All of these elements and more are essential, yet not definitive. That said, what are salient aspects that appear as milestones since I graduated? Married at nineteen with first child, daughter, just before my twentieth birthday. My daughter Michelle has developed her own marketing business in St. Louis that reaches around the world. Next month she'll be Beijing (our Peking). I became a grandfather at 38 while working in Spain and my oldest grandson has served in Iraq, South Korea, and returned this year from a tour in Afghanistan. He's married and I'm hoping for a great-grandchild before I turn 65 - so far just a hope. Besides Jared, I have three other grandchildren from oldest to youngest, Alex, Peter, and Gwen. A few years after my divorce from Michelle's mother I joined the Peace Corps and spent nearly two years as a volunteer in the Shah's Iran. I met my wife, Roseman, during my second year and we were married in Tehran in June of 1976. We lived and worked in three different cities until we were evacuated from Iran on the last official Pan-Am flight in late February 1979. I like to describe it as "the Shah left, Khomeini arrived, and we escaped." When asked about my time there during the revolution, I like to comment that "if I'm ever in a revolution again, I'll either get out or get a gun - I'll never put up with the boredom again." Although there were moments of drama and fear, for the most part we were stuck in our homes without electricity for most of six months. Deadly dull. On return from Iran I was off to Saudi Arabia in August. I was involved in the development of both intracity and inter-city bus service for the kingdom. When asked, I reply: "When I die I know I'm going to heaven. I've spent my two years in Saudi." While I was in Saudi Arabia my son, Dan, was...Expand for more