Leroy Friebel:
CLASS OF 1960
Burlingame High SchoolClass of 1960
Burlingame, CA
St. Bernard High SchoolClass of 2013
Eureka, CA
Humboldt State UniversityClass of 1991
Arcata, CA
Burlingame Intermediate SchoolClass of 1956
Burlingame, CA
McKinley Elementary SchoolClass of 1954
Burlingame, CA
Leroy's Story
The roller coaster of my life.
Life
Except for what has happened to those I loved; I have no regrets on my life. I have been loved and I have loved and I am loved. My wife was in an auto accident, comatose 9 months and had amnesia of our past 6 years before her accident, never did recall and was quadriplegic--we fell in love again but now two different people and built new memories. 18 years later lost her + my parents w/in 6-month period. Seven years after that met another woman - who disappeared for 8 weeks and was found to have been murdered by her ex-husband. Thru both these women and the Lord I am not afraid to live fully = emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, or even to die which gives me the freedom to live in the moment. It is a great peaceful grace. It is like I am a thimble and being filled by Shasta Lake fed by the snow on Mt Shasta in turn fed by the Holy Spirit. Anymore personal is fine for private discussion with anyone at all interested: life proven advice follows--love is not blind but the ego is. After all God is Love and I am not about to call God blind! Know yourself and you will know your ego and be able to tell what is real and not real much less what is important and what is not.
I have been asked what do I do. Well, I do whatever it is I do and except for Discalced Carmelite prayer I coach tennis and sometimes respond to friends in distress. The following is one of those letters but addressee is blank. "Hi --------. I am sorry you are hurting. Anytime you hurt, put yourself in God's heart and realize what He ALSO feels - He ALSO hurts. Broken trust seems the most hurtful and is the hardest to forgive because it hurts one's own dignity - given by God Himself. What is often forgotten is that Respect is the Heart of Love. W/o respect, God for an example, giving us the freedom of choice to will is abuse. Let go and let God is the better phrase - I know this thru experience. Let God deal with the broken trustee and get on with your life as well as you can. For example, when -----'s ex-husband murdered her, I realized sometime later that the killer was pushing my buttons and he didn't even know he was doing it. I prayed for him and turned him over to God hoping he would one day grow closer to God. I chose to live, not to be bitter or angry. When my wife and parents all died within 6 months of each other I too hung onto the "time heals" comment. Useless!! I realized that "as time goes by" healing happens. (What is on the mind controls the mind). You don't forget the old memories but they find a comfortable place and you grow new memories. Well, I have talked to much and gone on and on. It is your choice now as to what to do. And I know you as a heart and soul and mind who gives all to God. He will do the same to you, although it may not be recognizable as such. Love from your old Coach, Lee
School
Sort of passed thru hi-school. Mind elsewhere - studied in class (not at home), sports in pm, and reading in evening. Too bashful for girls. Must admit, 40 year class reunion reaffirmed the quality and class of two women I liked a whole lot in high school. LOL, wished I had not been so bashful at that time, but then again may not have met the other great people I have.
College
Went to COP following high school (College on the Point). Took up tennis, made the tennis team, worked two jobs, and flunked out of a junior college would you believe-lol, yes you would! Four years in Navy then returned to CSM + got straight A's AA degree in electronics. Met my wife Carol -/-/66 at a dance studio. Married June of '68 and until '70 both went parttime for further studies at JC. Moved up to Humboldt State in Arcata in '70 and st...Expand for more
arted in Wildlife Management (no, not that kind - I was very married). Carol was in a very bad auto crash (guy passing on the turn in the first rain of the year coming from the other direction) and while she was in her coma and for a couple of more years I kept going to CSHU. Was one unit short of a double major and dropped out of school because I just did not have the energy to take care of my wife and do that also. After she passed away 18 years later, I returned to Humboldt a year afterward and finished that unit (only took 31 years to get my degree). Finished it just for myself, there is much more importance to be found in life than education and even health (you heard it here and even if you disagree based on your own real-life experience, you are entitled because you earned it).
At College of San Mateo, the philosophy course on ethics was a highlight especially concerning the unexamined life is not worth living (Socrates?). Went to Humboldt because of two classes not offered anywhere else in depth (wildlife behavior and grazing influences).
Workplace
Jack of some trades. Navy 4yrs, afterwards 3yrs as a research electronic tech, summers as wildlife manager +range manager for Bureau of Land Management, fulltime caregiver 18yrs, coached hi-school tennis 40+years, hauled horses professionally, did gymnastics on horses, taught horseback riding to handicapped riders. Spiritual counselor + facilitator of a Catholic grief-support group. For fun I backpack and play tennis including tournaments - lose first round so am able to do other things around the event.
Military
If interested, please click military communities below and then scroll down for my memories of shipboard experiences. The Navy helped me to grow up in terms of responsibility, leadership, and the capacity to work through chaos. One and half years out of bootcamp I was responsible for lives and over 120 million dollar's worth of equipment. Visited Nagasaki and Hiroshima the year before the Cuban Missile Crisis and realized during that time that if OUR President could authorize the A-bomb attacks then others not friendly to us could do the same. That along with encountering the underbelly of what tourists encounter in our world has been a large influence on how I look at the world and humankind. Time spent BSing with older men about life (marriage, etc) also helped me see life as it is (both good and bad). Visiting other countries and meeting the people in private settings helped me see the individual person in others. The discipline necessary for keeping each other alive and safe to this day has helped me to lead, and yes, follow when it is right to do so. I got out of the Navy only because I was ready to meet the right woman and my particular job was going to be seagoing for most of 20 years - not exactly fair to a good marriage. However, I did notice the old-timers who were married take liberty very sedately overseas and us single men stood duty for them in the states so they could spend more time with their families.
While in the Navy my small ship was taking 70-degree rolls (for sailors reading this the inclinometer of my Destroyer was amidships on the main deck in Damage Control). The Eversole almost on its side would hesitate for what seemed a long time before recovering. This was the same general area where Halsey's Typhoon during World War Two lost three Destroyers. While over the Mariannas Trench sometime later I was contemplating a column of cube feet straight downward 30,000 feet to the bottom that unlike climbing into a half-filled bathtub thus rising the water level by our displacement that the ocean would not even know we were there.
Of such events are life.
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Yearbooks
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