Joe Somsel:
CLASS OF 1969
Woodham High SchoolClass of 1969
Pensacola, FL
Joe's Story
Update 11 January, 2023
Still living in the desert outside Abu Dhabi but bought about an acre of land near a beach on Panglao Island, Philippines. We're here for the month moving into our newly-constructed "grass shack" or kubo while on vacation. The walled and gated yard already has mangos, papayas, and bananas. We'll build a main house after I retire from the UAE while living in the kubo. Doing some pro bono work for the Republic of the Philippines as they plan their nuclear power program.
Life is pretty good!
Update June 22, 2021
Still working at my nuke plant west of Abu Dhabi, deep in the desert, but coming to visit family and friends in Pensacola first week in December then to California when my 5th and last child graduates university in Santa Cruz on the 13th. After California, we're off to the Philippines to scout future retirement locations in the Visayas before returning to work in the UAE. I have this fantasy of owning a mango plantation before too long. This will be an around the world trip and the first visit to the USA for my wife.
Update August 2016
Made a good move to Abu Dhabi and happy in my new job and in my new apartment. The summer weather is a combination of Phoenix heat and New Orleans humidity. I looked out my window one morning and said to myself "Oh goody! Fog!" But no, it wasn't cooling fog, it was a dust storm. Hack hack.
Meeting a lot of new people via Meetup from all over the planet. Last night was a camping bunch who go out into the desert to party. Weather will break by October I'm told.
Downside is the apartment rent is San Francisco price range. My place does have a nice pool at just the right temperature. The security guards greet me "Good morning Mr. Happy Guy!"
Visit to Pensacola pushed back to October 2016 at the earliest.
Update - April 2016
I've spent the last 18 months in South Korea working on new nuclear power plants in Abu Dhabi. What a fun place! Very interesting culture and very dynamic. Enough people speak English that it is not hard to get around. I've even adapted to the local cuisine. I've got a fun video of my trying LIVE octopus for the first time. It really does stick to the roof of your month.
Next month I'm moving permanently to Abu Dhabi. The UAE is one of the most modern and tolerant of the Gulf countries and my colleagues almost to a man/woman love it there. But Pensacola in August will seem chilly compared to Abu Dhabi.
For my two daughters, one is doing her doctorate in physics at Heidelberg in Germany; the other will be starting in genetics in UC Berkeley shortly. (For the 3 sons, see below.)
Thinking about visiting Pensacola late September 2016 to visit family and friends.
2011
I can't REALLY say I'm from the Woodham Class of '69 - I was expelled with 5 months to go! Seems a free education was against the law for married folk back then. I can claim a "Classic Southern Shotgun Wedding" when Melody Morton and I conceived our first child, Francis. We then had twin boys within another 18 months. Even bought a house trai...Expand for more
ler!
Sounds like a DISASTER, doesn't it? Not so, in the long run. Got a good job at the navy yard, as an apprentice power plant operator, learning to run huge, powerful machinery - lots of fun, really! Of course, I went to night school at PJC for a couple of years before we decided to move to Gainesville and attend U of F. She wanted to study "art" and I was offered a scholarship and part-time job in nuclear engineering. That fit with my joy in running big machine and my love of complicated science. Also, I had helped clean up an oil spill at the Navy Yard one day and got really interested in energy - seemed like the key to civilization to me.
She became something of a blowoff family-wise. She graduated while I had a year to go, since I was still working on and off and had been supporting the family the whole time. We agreed that she would be happier if she would go find herself - somewhere else. She moved to a commune someplace and I kept the three boys - at the time aged 5, 3, and 3.
When I finally graduated in 1977 with a BS, I had some years of experience in my field so was offered the highest starting salary in my class - in downtown San Francisco! My favorite professor sold me his yellow Porsche 912 (on credit).
June, 1977 was great! I drove to San Francisco via Route 66 then up California Route 1 along the coast. Found a nice lady from an old San Francisco family who wanted to marry me and help with the kids so had instant infrastructure. Moved to Mill Valley, in Marin County just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, and commuted to SF on the Sausalito ferry.
Well, that didn't last much over 7 years so took the kids and moved on but found myself back in Mill Valley and working in SF again within months. Remarried to a nice lady from Colorado (20 years last summer) and we have had two daughters - one's going to college in Flagstaff to study physics and astronomy this Fall. The younger starts high school this September. Both are pretty cheerleaders - who would have guessed?
My sons from the first batch are in business together. Their company is one of INC Magazine's fastest growing small companies. They all live in California - one on Russian Hill in SF, another in a suburb of SF (San Ramon) and the third in SoCal in San Clemente.
Now living in San Jose, the heart of Silicon Valley, and designing and building nuclear power plants around the world - I was in Sweden this summer, for example. This Spring, 2011, the project I'e been working on for 5 years was essentially cancelled - boo hoo. However, there were some lessons learned from the Fukushima reactors in Japan and I'm busy coming up with improvements to existing plants world-wide.
So far - 3 sons, 2 daughters, 5 grand kids, two ex-wives, one current wife. I've become quite the patriarch in spite of myself.
Do some writing and politicking on the side. I was interviewed in the New York Times in 2008, and was on Fox Business News last year.
Looking forward to a visit to Pensacola early August 2011 to visit my dad at the beach.
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Reunions
Register for Free to view all events!
Photos
Register for Free to view all photos!