Thomas Vorpahl:
CLASS OF 1965
Lakes High SchoolClass of 1965
Tacoma, WA
Thomas's Story
Following h.s. graduation I went to Seattle Pacific and graduated with a degree in English Literature. I am not sure I had actually considered what I was going to do with that degree - of course, be a writer! But I gave up on that fantasy fairly quickly. I met my ex-wife at college and we got married our senior year. Prior to graduating I took my draft physical and consequently spent 3 years in the Army, the last two as a Military Intelligence officer at Ft. Carson, Colorado where I helped keep the slopes of Vail free from Communist aggression. Our son, Arrin, was born with Spina Bifida in 1971; in 1978 we adopted our daughter, Melissa.
Following the military soiree I moved to Los Angeles and started my corporate career in Human Resources (called personnel back then) with American Can Company. We moved with the Company to manufacturing facility assignments in Memphis, Tampa, Toledo, and Chicago. My main responsibilities at those facilities centered on daily labor relations, arbitration, and labor negotiations with subtle union groups, most notably United Steelworkers of America and Teamsters.
While in Chicago I attended Loyola University of Chicago and received a Master's Degree in Industrial Relations.
In 1990 I was recruited to Tropicana Products (processor and sales of premium orange juice) in Bradenton, Florida. With this move I gained the "divorce" t-shirt. That was the best thing that ever happened to me up to that point . . . because had it not happened I would never have met my wife, Susan. Susan was born and raised in Sheffield, England, moved to the Caribbean to work in the hotel industry for a couple of years following school, then to New York, and eventually to Sarasota, FL. Susan made a business call on my office and one of the people who reported to me said I needed to meet this "hot, blonde babe". Although I had no interest in a relationship at that particular time, the rest is history - and a very wonderful one! Susan had been a single mother for 14 years when we married in March, 1992. Her (our) daughter, Jennifer, has blessed us with two incredible granddaughters, Sierra (b.1998) and Alexandra, or Lexi w...Expand for more
e call her (b.2003).
My career with Tropicana and the two parent companies we were part of during my time there - first Joseph E. Seagram & Sons and later, PepsiCo - was nothing short of simply incredible! I was entrusted with several senior human resource management roles including that for global hr for a number of years, and for which I was based in Brussels, Belgium for a year. Although I can look back and realize I was functioning on pure adrenaline much of the time and it was often very stressful, I can truly say I loved my work! In 2004 I retired but like so many other professionals I started my own consulting business which I dabbled with for a few years but have now completely left behind.
Susan and I are blessed to live on a large river (the Manatee) which from our house there are no bridges to the Inter-coastal Waterway or Gulf of Mexico. So, for several years we were boaters and enjoyed weekends or longer taking trips to various locations along the west coast of Florida. We sold our last boat in 2007.
Since we first met Susan and I have enjoyed traveling even though my job had me in an airplane just about every week. Regardless, we used vacation time to get away and re-charge the batteries. Now we enjoy trips even more because we only have self-imposed deadlines which are very flexible. A couple of favorite trips: (1) In 2007 we did a road trip from Florida to Tacoma and back over a 9 week time period. (2) In 2010 we spent 6 weeks in Europe and Great Britain. With very few exceptions we have cruised on the big ships at least once every year and we plan to continue those adventures.
When we married, Susan and I vowed that we were on the same team. And it has remained that way ever since. It was probably very important in the early years of our relationship since we had two teenage daughters - each from a different first household - living under our roof. It has taken on a different perspective but is even more important since I retired and now am home most of the time - we love to be together but we can do our own thing without the other getting their nickers in a twist.
Life is good, if you don't weaken -
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