Mark Stidham:  

Life Married '79, grad. UCI '75 & UCR '80 Ph.D. in biochem. 3 children born in '80, '83, & 88. Lived in the Princeton, NJ area from '83 to '02, and then moved to San Diego. I am a research director in a small biotech firm. I am in contact with Scott Endsley, Don Paige, Michele Sarlat, Brian West, and Lee Engdahl. I have good memories of the high school years, even though I felt invisible for the most part. What about me would surprise everyone at a reunion is...that I married well. My social development lagged in high school and even in college, and it was not until I was 23 that I began to feel confident. I married when I was 25, but even with the late blooming, I understood that a good marriage required total acceptance and support on both parties along with an interest in learning and continual growth. Perhaps the other aspect that would surprise certain people who knew me is my complete rejection of the church. In high school, I felt in a small minority of people who were active in churches. Soon after high school, I awakened to the truth in my view and left religion. I have noticed that many classmates have gone the other way and have become centered on religion. I can only say I am at peace and 'believe' society would benefit from a focus on behavior rather than on the premise of behavior. This is pretty heavy stuff for a Classmates column I guess. Not surprising to anyone would be my career in science. I did not get my first real job until I was 29, but I have made a good living as a biochemist. The children are almost grown, and though the career is in hyperdrive at the moment, I am looking forward to starting a new chapter somehow. Don't know what it will be, but it will include more writing, music, and volunteer work. In high school and college, I had a job opening up Mesa High gym at night for recreational activities. I ran a few basketball leagues and kept the score books, feeding them in the summer time to a news-starved Daily Pilot. A guy named Jim Erwin was head of Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation, and I figured he had the best job possible. I thought maybe that I would work in a job like that, but at UC Irvine in my junior year, I had my first biochemistry class, and I was hooked. A short 7 years later, I had a Ph.D. in the subject. After high school, Dennis Ciolli and I applied for jobs at Disneyland. I started there as a bus boy at the Riverbelle Terrace (formerly, Aunt Jemimah's Pancake House) during s...Expand for more