Mark Shepler:
CLASS OF 1978
Conneaut Valley High SchoolClass of 1978
Conneautville, PA
McArthur High SchoolClass of 1978
Hollywood, FL
Apollo Middle SchoolClass of 1978
Hollywood, FL
Pembroke Pines Elementary SchoolClass of 1978
Pembroke pines, FL
Spring Hill Elementary SchoolClass of 1978
Xenia, OH
Mark's Story
Life
Left C'ville on my motorcycle 3 weeks after graduation in 6/78 to return to S. Florida's tropical climes.
By August I had a real job, my own apartment and real bills. Met my future and present wife, Cathy, in 10/78 in my own apartment. Ask me that one sometime! We stayed together about one year after which I decided she just wasn't cool enough any more and didn't fit with the new me (see below).
For those who remember, ahhhh, I wasn't exactly college material at the time so I worked various and sundry jobs for a year or so, including a/c ductwork (one of Dante's circles of hell in summer) and warehouseman at a dairy plant. Then, in 10/79 at the wisened age of 18, I found my calling...as a bartender. First gig was the Fontainebleau on Miami Beach and my last the Miami Playboy Club in '85 which is not nearly as glamorous as it may sound. Hit a lot of branches on the way down that tree in six years. Managed to get a few years of local college under my belt along the way.
Because I was fit and (ahem) some said handsome, I made it onto Miami Vice in '84, Season 1, Episode 3, "Cool Runnin'". I'm the stiff cop guarding a Jamaican prisoner while Crokett and Tubbs question him. I then do my roboto-man imitation as I escort him out. Philip Michael Thomas was nice, Don Johnson a jerk. That was my less than 15 minutes of fame, I made about $45, the chow on on the set was great, I got to bs with Philip Michael Thomas and then I never did anything else.
In mid-'85 I'd had enough of the high life and got cleaned up while working in a marina. Got back together with Cathy. Had always worked out and stayed fit but really got into it then, spending 4-6 hours a day in the gym and going from my HS weight of 145 to 215lbs with a 33" waist in 6 months. I was big.
Cathy and I married in 3/87 while I was joining the Life and Health insurance business at the behest of my father for lack of any better ideas. I did well and built my practice until I had an id...Expand for more
ea for a product to accessorize computers in '92. That idea was "my baby" and I can still remember the instant I had it. I just had to see if I could do it so I began to design, produce and market this product and had success. Alas, in '93-'94 I made some young businessman's mistakes, dried up all my capital which in turn choked off my marketing/sales and that was that, I had to fold my tents. It's an old and very, very common story, ask Danny Bortnick.
Meanwhile, we also had our first child, Christopher, in 1/92 and were off to the races to ultimately have six. After I closed up shop in late '94 I knocked around a couple years even went back to school to pursue a law degree. By then I already had 3 kids, starting attorneys were making $25K in S. Florida and I was making way more selling computers retail but not enough for my growing family.
So I rejoined the insurance biz in '97 and have been there ever since. Have my own agency and brokerage. Am building the practice and getting to our goals one step at a time. Have had some ups and downs along the way but who hasn't that's made it this far?
Cathy and I will be married 20 years in March '07 and we have six children (see pics). Christopher 15, Julia 13, Cameron 11, Jennifer 9, Jessica 7 and Caleb 6. We live in a green, rural part of Jupiter, FL amongst neighbors with horses, chickens, you-name-it, but the cool part is we're still only 10 minutes from the ocean.
I drive a sensible car, still work out, don't drink and am otherwise the antithesis, hopefully, of what I was in HS (thank God!) in both deed and spirit. Our family vehicle is a 15 passenger Ford 350XLT with a V-10 and we need every inch of it. We're thinking of painting it like the Partridge Family bus.
I didn't make our 25th Reunion, I wish now that I had but demands didn't permit it. I will definitely be there in 6/08, my class' 30th anniversary, just to see who turns up.
Would love to hear from old C'ville friends and classmates
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