Charles Watkins:  

50 years is a long time. I left Santa Maria shortly after graduation and only returned once for the 20th reunion. I intended to attend for the 50th, but had a friend come from Germany that same week. I spent 2 years at San Jose State and then transfered to University of New Mexico. My family is from northern New Mexico. I married at age 22 and have one son. We divorced when he was nearly 4 and I ended up raising him by myself. I never remarried. I spent 17 years working for a large financial services company. In 1987 I left and opened my own financial services company. It was headquartered in Santa Fe and grew to 13 offices in 3 states. I sold the company. 5 years ago I moved to Albuquerque to help my elderly parents. My father has since passed and I am now my mother's primary caregiver. Over the years I had done various martial arts and finally settled on Aikido. When I moved to ABQ i did not find a good fit in any of the local dojos so I opened my own school. I now have two locations and over 100 students. I have multiple black belts and am what is called a dojo jo (chief instructor). I get to travel out of state several t...Expand for more