Alan Campbell:
CLASS OF 1956
Independence High SchoolClass of 1956
Independence, KS
University of New Mexico - EngineeringClass of 1973
Albuquerque, NM
University of Nebraska - EngineeringClass of 1964
Lincoln, NE
Kansas State University - EngineeringClass of 1960
Manhattan, KS
Alan's Story
Life
1956-60: After graduation in 1956, Jerry McDill and I drove to California in his Rambler. That didn't pan out; we returned to Independence in time for me to enroll at K-State, where I was an electrical engineering (EE) student from 1956 to '60. In 1959 I met a young woman who was interested in ideas (a new experience for me in Kansas in the 1950s), and realized immediately that she was the love of my life. Patsy and I married in September 1959. Marrying Patsy improved both my sex life and my grades.
1960-61: After graduation we moved to NJ where I worked for RCA. I hated the eastern US. Our first daughter, Heather, was born in Philadelphia in 1961.
1961-65: In September we moved to Lincoln, NE, where I pursued an MS in EE while teaching. I received my MS in 1964, and began an MA in philosophy. Within a year I had half an MA and also the realization that philosophy in 1965 was not for me. Patsy received her BA in English Lit. Our second daughter, Meg, was born in 1963.
1965-69: We moved to Livermore, CA in September, where I worked at Sandia Labs.
1969-75: In October I transferred to Sandia in Albuquerque to pursue a PhD in EE at the Univ. of NM. Patsy received her MA in English in 1972, her PhD in 1975. I finished my PhD in 1974, but we walked across the stage together to get our degrees. I received my degree just before she received hers- I tarried on the stage until she caught up with me, and gave her a big kiss right there in front of everybody. At that point we were a true paradox (get it?).
1975-77: In 1975 we moved to Fresno, CA, so that I could teach at Cal State Fresno. Patsy taught at Reedley. In 1977 I realized that I didn't enjoy teaching.
1977-2001: Patsy and I decided that we wanted to live in San Diego. I applied for and got a job, and we moved in the summer. We have been here ever since. Our graduate school and teaching must have marked our daughters-- each earned a PhD, and both are tenured professors, Heather at Arizona State, Meg at Colorado.
Moving to the place we wanted instead of finding the best job did produce the best place, but not the best work. Patsy and I worked at various jobs for various companies in San Diego, with me doing engineering, management, and marketing, and Patsy doing technical writing and marketing and management. We retired in 2001, the year Mom died in Norfolk, NE. Dad is still there, living alone and doing well, and he is now 95. My sister, Joan, and I visit him four times per year; she goes at the solstices, I go at the equinoxes. Joan is married to Dale Bowersock. They live in Los Altos, CA. Joan and Dale have two daughters and four grandchildren, two boys and two girls.
2001-05: I can't imagine a better life for somebody like me than the one I live now, and I feel extremely lucky to be in this situation, and extremely grateful for all the people who made this possible, from Gutenberg to Newton to Jefferson to Lincoln to Roosevelt (both of them) to Steinmetz and Maxwell and Reagan, to the servicemen and women who are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq and so many other places, and to many more than can be named. I am tempted to modify something said by Newton: If I have lived comfortably, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
So what kind of life is it? A low-key kind of life. We live in a tract house built in 1958 and we have two old cars: Patsy has a 2000 Toyota, I have a red 1984 Dodge convertible! We don't watch TV. My hobbies are cooking, eating, and reading; also walking, boogie-boarding, cuddling with Patsy, running on the beach...Expand for more
, bicycling, and expeditions, local and foreign. This summer Patsy and I went to England, and last year we rented a villa in Tuscany, where we were met by our daughters and their families-- each daughter has a husband and two children: Heather has two daughters, Meg has two sons. We are planning more such trips.
Now I hope other members of the Class of '56 will please bring me up to date with YOUR lives!
NEW PROFILE, 4 July 15
Periodically Classmates tells me that somebody has looked at my profile, so I decided that I should update it. Itâs been ten years (!) since I wrote the existing profile.
2005-2015: Really, not much has changed. Being retired has really suited me; I donât suffer as some retirees do from having too much time on oneâs hands. I take a quiet satisfaction from doing what I want when I want to, without having to worry about some schedule being imposed on me. My âhobbies,â such as they are, remain the same. We still live in the same tract house built in 1958 and now we have just ONE car: My new car, an Acura TL/S, is now seven years old.
The biggest event in this time has been the death of my father. He died in 2011, a little over 100 years old. He was pretty fine up until the end, living by himself in his house in Norfolk, Nebraska. But finally his heart failed, and he died in a few days. Fortunately Patsy and I were able to get there and to attend him the last few days of his life. I miss him, and I am grateful that he was my father.
Our main preoccupations now are our descendants; our elder daughter, Heather, now lives in Claremont, CA (only 120 miles from us) where she is a professor and chair of her public policy department at Claremont Graduate University. Her husband, Mike, works at a software company named ESRI, which does mapping software. He loves the company and the job; the only fly in that ointment is that he has to commute to Redlands from Claremont, about 33 miles. Their elder daughter, Clara, is married to a really nice man and is enjoying a 6-year-old stepdaughter, Anna (so think of it! I now have a great-granddaughter). Clara is working on a PhD in English Literature at UC/Davis. Heatherâs younger daughter, Lily, was just graduated from Macalester in St. Paul, MN. She is staying in St. Paul to work on an MFA in childrenâs literature at Hamline University. It is her goal to write childrenâs books.
Our younger daughter, Meg, lives in Boulder, CO, where she is a professor of consumer marketing at the Univ. of Colorado. Her husband, Mark, is a design consultant. Their elder son, Adam, was just graduated from UC/San Diego in political science. Next year he is going to get a masterâs degree in education, also at UCSD. Megâs younger son, Nick, is going to attend Stanford next year. Planned major is biochemistry.
Note that we had three graduations this year, which sent us scurrying to St. Paul, then to Boulder (for Nickâs H.S. graduation), then back to San Diego for Adamâs graduation.
We typically take one trip to Europe every other year or so. Last year we went to Alsace-Lorraine and Burgundy.The year before we went to France: Paris, Provence, then to Italy, along the Alps (I wanted to see where Hannibal crossed the Alps), then across to France to Briancon, Grenoble, then back to Paris and home. Before that, Italy. We have been to the UK, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, and Greece. I feel so lucky to live at a time when ordinary people with ordinary resources can afford to travel. Bless the Wright Brothers.
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