Wendy Estes:
CLASS OF 1981
East Wake High SchoolClass of 1981
Wendell, NC
Lockhart Junior High SchoolClass of 1977
Knightdale, NC
Clap Elementary SchoolClass of 1974
Dorchester, MA
Knightdale Elementary SchoolClass of 1974
Knightdale, NC
Wilburn Elementary SchoolClass of 1974
Raleigh, NC
Wendy's Story
Life
While my job is interesting, my pride and joy is my son Cory born in 1993. He is an active high school student and I am the soccer/basketball/baseball mom with the camera getting a real workout. I jokingly refer to him as my "other" retirement fund. In my spare time I still play co-ed softball and have helped coach my son's baseball team. I still live in Southern California, but am in the process of moving back to NC. My sister Lynne lives about an hour away from me.
School
For the most part, school was a walk in the park for me despite moving around so much in the early years. I attended Roger Clap in Dorchester, MA for kindergarten and first grade then moved to Raleigh for the first half of second at Vena Wilburn. After Christmas in 1970 we moved back to Boston and I attended G.F. Hoar for the rest of second grade and the first part of third. We then moved back to Raleigh where I attended the rest of third grade at Barbee and fourth grade at Sherwood Bates. My mom then bought a house in Ridge Haven and I attended fifth grade at Knightdale Elementary, junior high at Lockart and high school at East Wake before heading out to California to live with my dad and go to college.
In looking back on my school days, there are a number of teachers I remember fondly. Mr. Clay was probably the best teacher I ever had. Mr. Faulk and Ms. Carter in seventh grade were great and who could forget Mrs. Taylor, Mr. Greene and Mr. Tibbens. I enjoyed playing basketball in seventh and eighth grade and working on the yearbook.
High School was essentially a breeze but lots of fun. The best teacher in the school unfortunately left after my freshman year. Mr. Kimball was probably the most challenging teacher I ever had. No math class could even come close after freshman algebra. Mr. Dragos was good and fun to debate with over those extra two points. Ms. Williams for geometry was fun and three years with Ms. Gay for yearbook was great. Senior math wasn't much of a challenge, but Mrs. Vann was a sweetheart. It was more fun to skip math to work on Art projects with Ms. Morgan. And I had to make up for not getting Schaeffer and Burns as a sophomore by taking Advanced Biology. Burns was the only teacher who ever really figured me out an...Expand for more
d his class made college biology seem like childs' play. Four years of softball weren't enough, just wish we could have won more. I hated to see it end.
College
After graduating in 1981, I moved to California to go to college. I attended Orange Coast College (a community college) in Costa Mesa, CA, from Sept. 1981 through June 1984. I then transferred to Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA, and graduated with a B.A. in Journalism in April 1986.
I spent three years at Orange Coast College in order to save money before transferring to a four-year school. I really enjoyed college with my favorite classes being the journalism and photography classes. We spent countless hours working on the Coast Report and had a blast attending the JACC conference. Who could forget the toga party. When I transferred to Pepperdine, people I met remembered our entrance in the hotel sheets. They said dress as your favorite 50s journalist, but since we had no suitable costumes, we decided to improvise. Who knew wearing the sheets as togas would have such an impact.
I also played one year of college softball where we had a winning season. It was difficult making the transition from slow-pitch to fast-pitch especially at the collegiate level, but it was a lot of fun.
My efforts in the journalism arena paid off earning me a partial scholarship to Pepperdine University where I served a year as sports editor and then a trimester as Executive News editor and a trimester as Managing Editor for the award-winning Graphic. We spent long hours putting the paper to bed each week. I met a lot of interesting people and had a great experience perched on the hill above the Pacific Ocean in Malibu.
Workplace
I worked in community newspapers for a few years serving as Editor of two community papers covering 3 cities in Orange County, California. I later took a job with Bankers Trust, now Deutsche Bank, working in the Mortgage Custody department for 12 years coordinating daily activities between mortgage lenders and Wall Street investment firms. I recently took on the position of VP of relationship management with Treasury Bank (a division of Countrywide Bank) and moved up to Simi Valley which is just northeast of Los Angeles.
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