Robert Presta:
CLASS OF 1964
Granada Hills High SchoolClass of 1964
Granada hills, CA
Robert's Story
I graduated from Granada Hills High School in 1964 and worked for two years until I joined the Marines in 1966. I was a parachute rigger and survival equipment specialist until I was selected for Officers Candidate School in February of 1968. I received my Commission as a Second Lt. in May of 1968 and after graduating from a 6-month long Officers Basic School course in Quantico, VA, I was selected for pre-flight training in Pensacola Florida, which is where I met my wife Judy. I completed training in Florida and transitioned into RIO Training for the F4-B fighter jet (Same job "Goose" had in the movie "Top Gun") in Georgia and joined a squadron first in North Carolina and then in South Carolina. I married Judy in May of 1969 who brought 2-year old Kimberly into my life. Our second Daughter Alisha was born in October of 1970 while I was attached to VMFA-251 before getting orders to WESTPAC (Vietnam). I never actually made it to Vietnam as the squadron I was to join had moved to Japan, which is where I spent my combat tour. Judy was able to visit for a short time. I left the service in September of 1972.
I went to a community college (Moorpark College) for two years, picked up an Associates degree and transferred to the University of Houston and received a 5-Year bachelor of Architecture degree in 1978. I got my license to practice Architecture in California in 1984 and it has been active ever since. In 1996 I received an MBA from Pepperdine University. In 2001 I started an Architectural/Engineering Consulting business (AES Due Diligence, Inc.) with a partner and fortunately we are still going strong. Our oldest daughter Kimberly has a painting business with her husband Kim. Our youngest daughter Alisha is an Attorney in the East Bay region of San Francisco. Kim has two boys and Alisha has two boys and a girl. Grandkids are so much fun I should have had them first! LOL
Judy is retired from teaching now but still works part time teaching reading. She works with a classmate of ours Ann Rosevear Schraner. We live in La Jolla, California not too far from the ocean and enjoy our life here very much.
In 2012 we took a trip to Italy for a one week c...Expand for more
ooking school and retreat south of Rome and ended up staying a month driving on our own down south to discover my fathers home as a child and my mothers parents hometown, both in Calabria, Italy. On the way down south we climbed Mt. Vesuvius, visited Pompeii twice, Sorrento, Ana Capri (Isle of Capri), Naples, Paestum, Salerno, Paola and Caserta. Lots of wine, pasta, canolies and gelato along the way. Truly the trip of a lifetime! We booked a trip to China in2014. We ate some REAL Chinese food while we toured! We toured Beijing, took a 4-day cruise on the Yangtze River and ended up in Shanghai. It was a great tour and we experienced many new things. (Even tried acupuncture on the cruise ship). It was good to get home of course. We plan on taking other trips in the future.
In 2017 we took a wonderful trip to France with a stop in Germany. Our daughter Alisha rented a beautiful home overlooking Nice which we used as a base of operations. We took an older train to Entrevaux, a medieval city north of Nice, We also toured Monte Carlo, Cannes and finally Grasse, the perfume capital of France (and world??) I had a great 71st Birthday Dinner in a lovely restaurant in Monte Carlo, Monaco, with a very funny Italian waiter who really made the meal and party memorable. Our 50th wedding anniversary was in May of 2019. We rented a beautiful beach front home in Costa Rica with an infinity pool and discovered a new tropical drink; Coco Loco, drunk right our of a whole coconut We swam in the ocean and pool a lot. A local Chef cooked our fantastic 50th Anniversary dinner in the home. We took a four mile hike around a volcano park and saw a couple of mini volcanoes as the big one was currently active and no close access was allowed (or desired on our part!) Wonderful trip! We may have to put off the UK one more time as the consensus seems to be a trip to South Africa next. Maybe someday the UK will be next on the list!
Needless to say all trips trips have been cancelled for at least the remainder of this year with the Coronavirus lurking around every corner. Always best to be safe. We are working from home and hopefully it will only be for a short time.
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Register for Free to view all yearbooks!
Reunions
Register for Free to view all events!
Photos
Register for Free to view all photos!