John Walker:
CLASS OF 1973
Concord High SchoolClass of 1973
Concord, CA
University of Texas - EngineeringClass of 1978
Austin, TX
King High SchoolClass of 1973
Corpus christi, TX
John's Story
7-10-2011 Home since December, time to go back to work. 4 job postings and two interviews later I had two job offers. Fluor in Houston got me with money (two in college and another on the way), position and the specific project. I will be a Process Manger on the Exxon Northern Iraq oil concession upgrades. Mustang Engineering offered too late, but a good 8 to 12 year project in Mozambique, a grass roots LNG facility. Mustang told me to keep them as a fall back if I did not care for Fluor. Cool. Start work July 25th.
8-22-2010 Looking forward to be coming home for Christmas. Dashing through the sand, in a big old super-ban, over the dunes we go, laughing ho, ho, ho. Seat belts snug and tight, the speed is such a fright, air born up we go, oh, oh, oh, oh. ..... It's Ramadan time in the city.
(Written while living in KSA) And life goes on. Met my wife in Dallas Love Field in 1985, a Midland Tx girl. Married 8 months later. Lived in Saudi Arabia for 18 years (1992) working for Saudi Aramco. Two of my three kids were born here. But with the problems in Khobar in 2004, I got the family out. We built a house in San Antonio Texas. After 7 years of getting home three time a year, I took early retirement November 30, 2010. When the kids went to the US to live, they had to learn to live in a foreign country, but with the advantage that every one spoke english (& no, we don't speak arabic).
Here for the money, the ability to save money is mostly due to the fact that there is little to spent it on. I think that my prospective of the world is nothing like what I had while living in the US. And I find that the things that were once important to me there are of little importance in the bigger picture. I no longer care about who won the superbowl (going to be another one next year, eh ?), or what the big hits are on the TV, or the current pop music act. I was home for the Rose Bowl (10-4 UT) though.
My kids have grown up the same as we did in a lot of ways. Living in an Aramco compound (~6 sq miles) they can roam on their bikes like we did as kids. One of the things that I am proud of is that they are all color blind having grown up with 35 diff...Expand for more
erent nationalities as friends and school mates. And they never missed out on Little league baseball, cub and boy scouts, and Friday go to church meetings (weekends here are thur & fri). They can navigate through all the major Middle Eastern and European airports on their own.
A little about me. My career has never been static. I have had the opportunity to work in gas/oil separation plants, refineries, pipelines, offshore production platforms and gas plants. I have been a process engineer, a projects engineer and an EHS (environmental, health and safety coordinator) and a Best In Class management program developer. Worked as a grunt on the day-to-day production side, all the way up through the various levels to VP staff positions, living and worked in Abqaiq, Ras Tanura, Jeddah, Riyadh, Qatif and Tanajib.
I survived my 50 year flood last year. I had an aneurysm in my left lung, life or death, but here I am with a little less left lung as before.
I'm sorry to say that I have never been able to make it to one of my high school reunions, and have lost complete touch with old mates from Concord High (El Dorado and Westwood) in CA, but keep up with a few from King HS in Corpus Christi TX, no one from Christina HS in Newark Del.
It was a real bummer after spending 10 years searching for Ralph Gary Lennartz (my Concord kick around buddy) to find out he ended his life in 1980 in Sac. I was 8 years late in finding him. I would love to hear from Paula Cunningham, his wife at the time, and share some pictures of Ralph from our pre-teens. I keep a yah-com address under walkerjh, feel free to e-me, put either Concord or KHS in the subject so I will not auto delete.
When I'm home my wife usually screws up at least once by sending me to the grocery store. I can spend hours walking around just looking at all the variety. Simply incredible. Chicken comes in flavors ? Who would have thought. The kids and I spent two hours just picking out TV dinners one year.
That's about all, have to go change out Grateful Dead CDs now. Yea, big Grateful Dead fan. Have ~600 concerts down loaded. Trying to find Van Morrison as well. Anybody have any live Van the Man ?
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Reunions
Register for Free to view all events!
Photos
