Tom Watson:
CLASS OF 1971
Fruita Monument High SchoolClass of 1971
Fruita, CO
Tom's Story
After graduating from FMHS, I worked summers as a laborer to earn money for college. I attended Colorado School of Mines and graduated in 1975 with a major in Mining Engineering and a minor in Mineral Economics. My first job as an engineer was in Grants, New Mexico, where I worked for two years in underground uranium mining. My next job was in oil shale back in Grand Junction. I got married in 1981 but she left and the divorce was final in less than one year. I worked for Occidental Oil Shale until '84 when the bottom fell out of the industry and I lost my job and my home. After almost a year without work (financial disaster) I got a job in Washington state and worked for three years on the Basalt Waste Isolation Project, a proposed nuclear waste repository. During that time I met and married my current wife Terri and we then moved to Las Vegas when that project ended. I adopted her infant daughter Brandi, and we had two daughters Kirsten and Trisha, which were both born in Vegas. I worked for three years on the Yucca Mountain Project (another nucle...Expand for more
ar repository program). I accepted a job with Kaiser Engineers and we moved back to Pasco, Washington, in 1991. In 1996, the Hanford contract was won by Fluor, my current employer. We bought a fixer-upper on 1 1/2 acres just out of the city limits and very near to the Columbia River. I have been working on the place ever since (yes, I'm slow). I also have been building a 40'x60'x14' shop so I will have a place to work on my cars and antique tractors. I am currently working on restoring the Shelby I bought last century from my brother-in-law Terry Chesney, who some of you might remember(class of '70). My three girls are all in college and doing very well. The next couple months will be a little dicey as I wait to see if my employment continues or if I need to start hunting for a job again. Well, that is my life in a nutshell. I hope to see you at our next reunion (assuming someone in Colorado will take the initiative to arrange one). At a minimum, you should post some details of your life in your profile to share with me and with other classmates.
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