Tim Lea:
CLASS OF 1970
Garfield Heights High SchoolClass of 1970
Garfield heights, OH
Tim's Story
I can't believe that 40 years has passed since high school so here's my time line.
I went to Kent State University, wrestled for several seasons with (Bob Shamakian 71,)and Brad Farmer.
Brad and I both got "A's" for varsity wrestling. Brad and I did not do as well in badminton. We both got "C's" despite winning the class doubles championship! 12:05PM was awfully early back then and the numerous tardies we accumulated just killed our letter grade. My friend's Jim Scapparotti, Bob Coyne and Phil Wrona all spent some time with me there too.
I graduated in 1976 worked as a teacher and carpenter for several years. I married Karen Bush (74) in 1977. We had two sons Tim (1979)and Mike (1982)Karen and I divorced in 1995.
Later, I met my wife Elaine, found her irresistible and we married on 7/7/07. This might be a date I can remember in the future.
I enjoyed playing flag football in the 70's & 80's with many classmates and friends, Bob Coyne, Jeff Patrick, my cousin's Dewey Smith and Dave Lea, Arnie Vedrin, Chris and Charlie Matousek. Later classmates Bob Dobies Dale Moore,John Berdysz and Charlie Matousek coached our boys in CYO football together.
I worked for many years at Blue Cross and Blue Shield as a PR Representative and later as a health care fraud investigator.
I helped investigate and prosecute physician and health care professionals for fraud and white collar crimes. My highest profile case resulted in convicting Attorney F. Lee Bailey's wealthy physician client of numerous instances of fraud, sending the Doctor to prison and seeing him lose his medic...Expand for more
al license. Seeing F. Lee Bailey fuss and splutter in court was priceless
As an investighator, I made many undercover visits to unscrupulous health care providers/physicians posing as a patient.In this context
I witnessed some pretty interesting and unusual behavior.
I'm proud of the fact that each of my cases that was presented in court resulted in one or more guilty verdicts.
There was a lot of fun times spent with my sons in and around sports as they (we)grew up. Watching and coaching them in football, wrestling and baseball was a blast.
As I coached wrestlers in Cleveland for several years in the 1990's,I truly appreciated the efforts of my coaches Jeff Lewis, Chuck Bartels, David Range and Pat Palumbo in teaching me the sport. Wrestling also helped me learn that life is hard, you better get your work in, and when you lose, no one really cares why, they just know that you lost.
Sadly, I've seen three of my "wrestling kids" buried, two from unfortunate auto accidents and one who was tragically murdered.
Since then I've been a Realtor, Teacher, Tutor and presently I'm doing mortgage fraud/white collar crime investigations for the County Prosecutor's Office.
I enjoy playing with my Black Labrador Retriever Opie, who demonstrates daily the benefits of sleeping 20 hours per day. We also enjoy our cat Rebel, and our Canary named Shakespeare.
Elaine and I enjoy comedies, gardening, hiking, bird watching, reading, word games, home improvement projects, spirituality, meditation, family and friends
It is truly amazing how quickly geezerhood sneaks up on you!
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