Dr John Viren:
CLASS OF 1967
Alleman High SchoolClass of 1967
Rock island, IL
Dr John's Story
I had fun at Alleman. My passion then was art and music. It still is. I played guitar and sang lead in a rock band called the Majestics with Chuck Mulkey. It was fun. After HS I earned an AA from BHC. I married Cathy Lievens in 1970. She passed away in November 2020 shortly afer our 50th wedding anniversary. We went through under-grad and grad school together focusing on Computer Graphics and Computer Science earning a BS and MS respectively. Left the QC area in 1988 and hired on with an aerospace company at Cape Canaveral, FL. I worked at the Cape for a year or so and transferred to southern CA. Cathy and I spent the next 20 years in Southern California. Quite an amazing place to live.
I headed up the company's computer-based training (CBT) effort in support of the Trident Nuclear Submarine Fleet. While in California I earned a Ph.D. from the School of Computer and Information Science at Nova Southeastern University. Eventually the CBT effort dried up so I moved into other creative efforts within the company: webmaster, 3D modeling & animation, graphic design, photography, videography, proposal writing, etc. It was an exciting and challenging time.
We had a daughter in 1994. Her passion is dance (like her mother). In California she joined Anaheim Ballet (AB) and performed a...Expand for more
ll across southern CA. Cathy and I supported her art every way we could. I was on AB's board of directors f0r a while and, eventually, joined their performing group as a "character dancer". A Character Dancer is critical to the story but does not necessarily do much dancing. I did perform often with my daughter which, in my opinion, was really cool and one of the highlights of my life.
I never thought I would dance on stage under any circumstances let alone in a full blown ballet. I danced with them for about 7 years in big venues all across the Southwest. This, of course, was concurrent with my job at the aerospace company.
A year before I retired we bought a historic home on Rock Island (my retirement project!). I was Principle Multimedia Design Engineer with the aerospace company and retired after 20+ years returning to the QC a few years ago. California was really nice but a bit to crowded for me. It's good to be home and we love the seasons (well I do anyway).
So, as of today, June 22, 2022, I moved to Moline. My daughter moved back to California with her 4 year old son and I joined a "soft rock". So that's my life, in 441 words or less.
Nothing can compare to my four years of fun and excitement at Alleman HS or my wonderful classmates! Thank you all for the memories.
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