Bruce Simonton:
CLASS OF 1966
John Marshall High SchoolClass of 1966
Rochester, MN
Clark UniversityClass of 1971
Worcester, MA
Central Junior High SchoolClass of 1963
Rochester, MN
Edison Elementary SchoolClass of 1959
Rochester, MN
Bruce's Story
Hi Gang -
Linda and I are still married, no kids, 44 years in Des Moines living on THE FABULOUS south side. Still tell the Iowa/Minnesota jokes from the Minnesota perspective, though.
Traveled quite a bit. India, the Himalayas - Ladakh and Bhutan, Thailand, Egypt, Morocco, Bali, Micronesia, New Guinea, Inca Trail up to Machu Picchu in Peru. Europe a few times. Czech Republic and eastern Germany, Cuba and then rural Siberia with a Russian friend and her family. We visited Cambodia and the Angkor Wat temple. I can really recommend Cambodia. Very peaceful, respectful Buddhist society. Easy to see how Pol Pot had his way with them. My dream trip is Tibet. I want to stand in the street in Lhasa and touch the Potala Palace then wander part way up Everest on the Chinese side. Probably Fall 2013. Didn’t make that one. Since added Myanmar (another magic place if you’re not Rohingya), a trip through old (olde?) Europe in the Baltic states among others. Next up Sri Lanka and maybe Mongolia for the tribesmen who hunt with trained eagles.
Retired from corporate jail April 27, 2012 (but who is counting). Found a proverb that covers that event:
Do not mourn the death of the caterpiller.
Celebrate the birth of the Butterfly!
We enjoy anything outside, summer or winter. Sailing, canoeing, kayaking, biking, hiking, backpack camping, skiing, ice skating, snow shoing. All the stuff you learn at "Y" camp in northern Minnesota.
So, life is good. Hope it is for you, too!
Be groovy and eat your spinach!...Expand for more
-- Bruce
School
Remember Bob McNish? There was a neat guy.
College
Hey, college was the best five and a half years of my life!
Workplace
In 1986 I gave up all the glory (and pain) of middle management, my office, 3 supervisors and 40 worker bees to become the first Resident Computer Nerd in the Des Moines office of Aetna Life and Casualty. I helped drag them, kicking and screaming, into the twentieth century by automating all the processes that once depended on paper. Now I do the same thing for General Casualty. I look after our folks in Des Moines, Kansas City Lincoln, Nebraska and Minneapolis.
Linda started as an MSW social worker. She moved on to build and run the Older Adult Services department at the Iowa Health System. For the past ten years she and a business partner have operated a market research company. Hill Simonton Bell. The World Headquarters is in our back bedroom 'cuz that's where the fax machine lives.
Military
I never was in the military, but I have a huge interest in big gun capital ships. I've touched USS Iowa, walked the deck of USS Des Moines and toured the first USS The Sullivans DD among many. I've also wreck dived in Truk lagoon, a major Japanese naval base until the day in February, 1945 when Halsey showed up with Task Force 38 and left 60 sunken ships in his wake. Bikini Lagoon is also on my dive list. If you ever have the opportunity to visit a museum ship, DO IT! Google my battlehship buddy Steve's site. You can see many of them there. taskforce1 dot org
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Register for Free to view all yearbooks!
Reunions
Photos
