Bill Amend:
CLASS OF 1957
Tomahawk High SchoolClass of 1957
Tomahawk, WI
University of California - EngineeringClass of 1968
Berkeley, CA
University of WisconsinClass of 1962
Madison, WI
St. Thomas CollegeClass of 1961
St. paul, MN
Bill's Story
Married with two children,two step-children, 4 grandchildren and 1 African Grey parrot.
Moved from Tomahawk when I began college in '57.
BS in Engineering from UW-Madison.
Played 2 years of baseball at UW (pitcher). Hurt my arm in my sophomore year (rotator cuff) and concentrated on my studies after that. Played on a team with Joe Black (former Dodger rookie of the year) in Plainfield, NJ during summer of 1962.
Matriculated to CAL-Berkely where I earned MS & Phd. plus a post Doc in Engineering.
I moved to Hinsdale, IL after school and worked at Argonne National Laboratory from '68 to '77.
Moved to Rolling Hills Estates, CA in '77 and worked for a variety of small, hi-tech companies. Most of my efforts were devoted to developing computer programs and designing turbomachinery.
The most unique job I had was working for a company that designed and installed hi-tech water features (such as the one at the Bellagio in Vegas). I traveled all over the world starting up these water features which were computer controlled. I worked in Japan, South Korea, Australia and France (Euro Disneyland), as well as the US.
I got deeply involved in tennis while in graduate school. Played many tournaments and ended up coaching 4 National champions.
My Son, who I coached, was ranked Number 1 in the country in his age group in '79 and #8 in the world juniors (18 and under) in '83. He was on the US Olympic team in '84. Played 4 years at USC and won the NCAA Doubles title once and was ranked No. 1 in NCAA doubles twice. He was ranked as high as 234 in the world and currently is an assistant coach at USC.
My Daughter, who I also coached, played No.1 singles for 4 years at ASU and was the assistant coach there for 2 years.
My biggest failure was that I turned down Pete Sampras' Father when he asked me to coach him when Pete was 10 years old.
In all I coached 4 National champions.
I Retired in '02. After Living in Southern Calif for 30 years, I moved to Prescott, AZ in Sept., '07. Started building my dream home in Aug of 08. (I designed it, drew up all plans and honchoed the build).
I worked full time on this house for almost 4 years so this will be the end of a marathon. We moved into house at the end of Aug., 09.
We live on the edge of a National forest and do a little ATVing over the many trails.
I Plan to buy a pontoon boat and do some fishing in the Spring of '10.
My favorite way to relax is to go out for dinner with my wife.
My obsession is any project that I am working on. I am a driven person...driven to finish anything I start.
I have learned to temper my drive from my kids, but on a scale of 1 to 10 I sti...Expand for more
ll have a drive level of 8 or 9 (I used to be off the scale).
I am currently in the happiest period of my life. I am married to my best friend and soulmate. She has given me solace beyond belief. We enjoy doing many things together, from the mundane to the unusual. We built our dream house together and had fun doing it.
I have one trophy on my mantel. The baseball I got from the game I pitched for THS in 1957 that won the Lumberjack Conference title.
My oldest and best friend is my wife, Sonya. We met in a disco at the Princeton Hyatt in New Jersey. We had a 5 year long distance relationship (CA to NJ). She moved to CA in '88, we were married in '89.
Lust turned into love because we enjoy each others company and yet each have our own interests, and give each other time alone.
We both love visiting Tomahawk and my friends that still live there. Tomahawk is a unique place and always holds a place in my heart, even though I moved away in 1957.
I did consulting for one of my old colleagues (turbine design for a small, hi-tech company in Irvine, CA) for the first 8 years of my retirement. Now I spend most of my time on hobbies.
My hobbies include stock market investing, growing tomatoes and herbs in my greenhouse (which I built a little over a year ago), working crossword puzzles (I just started doing the NY Times Sunday puzzle), attending classes at the local college and cooking (I cook most of our meals). I have taken classes on Complexity, Chaos and Thinking Outside of the Box. I also do some reading, mostly about our economy and what has caused the "great recession". I did also read "Money Ball" and "Outliers".
I love trying new recipes, my specialties are Cajun and Italian. I also do a lot of barbecuing and smoking. I bought a "Big Green Egg" about 1-1/2 years ago which is the best outdoor cooker in the world. With it I can smoke salmon, barbeque steaks and roasts and other meats and you would not believe the results.
I also enjoy spending time with my African Gray Parrot, Chiquita. She has a vocabulary of about 300 words and interacts with us on an intelligent basis. When i get up in the morning she says "it's coffee time" and asks to come out of the cage. She also asks for her breakfast. When we leave the house she says "I'll be back"...when we return she asks to come out of the cage.
We workout in our workout room every evening between 5 and 6 pm. When we come back from our workout she says "open the bar", as we always have a glass or three of wine before dinner. Then she asks for her peanut, which we always give her when we have our wine.
All in all, life is wonderful.
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