Mike Surber:
CLASS OF 1980
Baker High SchoolClass of 1980
Baker city, OR
Goose Elementary SchoolClass of 1971
Goose bay, labrador, NF
Mike's Story
Met my future wife in June of 1982 and knew instantly that it was my soul mate Started planning a wedding in August, and got married in October of '82. Graduated from Eastern Oregon University in 1984 with a Psychology degree, and joined the Air Force.
Son number 1 (Justin) was born in 1984 at Andrews AFB, MD, as I was stationed in Washington D.C. at the HQ Air Force Intelligence Service, HQ Air Force Special Activities Center. (Human intelligence collection - GREAT job...lousy location.)
Twin sons (Andrew & Erich) were born at Ft. Belvoir, VA in 1986 (still in the D.C. area). Left active-duty service and entered the Air Force Reserve, and eventually received training as a Medical Technologist. Served tours of duty in Denver, Omaha, and Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Landed in the civilian world in 1990 back in the great Northwest in Ontario, working at the hospital there while my wife (Gretchen) started her teaching career.
Called to active duty for Desert Storm in 1991 and went overseas for a few months to do my part to "Smoke some camels" with the coalition. Thankfully, it was a quick and relatively painless war.
We moved to Central Oregon in 1996 for Gretchen's career, and I continued to train and perform various missions for the Air Force off and on. I eventually began working at the hospital in Prineville, and was often recalled to active-duty for the Air Force. My last mission sent me to Bosnia to work at the NATO Multinational Joint Logistic Center in Sarajevo. Exciting mission and quite enjoyable at times, but I missed my family a lot. Upon my return to the states, we decided that I would resign my commission as a Captain, and stop playing "military hero" and "spy vs. spy" , since my boys were teenagers and very much needed to have dad around more consistently. Gretchen completed her Master's Degree and taught in the little town of Mitchell, 53 miles from Prineville.
I tried my hand as a Human Resources Administrator for a while, but couldn't stand the boredom of being "chair-borne", so I spent a year as a Wildland Firefighter in Bend. (Awesome job, but physically punishing for an old guy like me...I was almost 40!) I eventually went back to the medical field and worked at the hospital in Redmond, 18 miles from Prineville.
I was offered a transfer to work at the hospital in Bend under th...Expand for more
e direction of the State of Oregon as a Regional Bioterrorism Preparedness Coordinator. We eventually expanded the role to include all disaster and preparedness ops for all fire, hospital, health department, law enforcement, and other government and civilian agencies involved with planning and execution of emergency responses. My region included the counties of Grant, Wheeler, Jefferson, Crook, Deschutes, Harney, Lake, and Klamath.
All three boys had graduated from Crook County High School and were attending various colleges, when we convinced them all to transfer to Western Oregon University in Monmouth. We bought two homes there, Gretchen accepted a position at the Farm Home School in Corvallis, and I opened my own business as a Consultant for preparedness and emergency response planning. Nice job, good pay, but I discovered I could never become a politician, as I had no patience with "sucking up" to State officials - sacrificing integrity and efficiency simply to get more contracts for work. After a couple of years of work preparing & conducting drills and writing response plans for almost every hospital and health department between the Cascade Mountains and the Coast, I decided to move back to patient-contact healthcare once again.
Spent a few years as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist and Lab Director at a medical clinic in Dallas, Oregon and Gretchen taught in Corvallis, All three sons have since graduated from college...Our oldest is a lawyer in Salem, Oregon, the first twin is a Paralegal in the Portland area, and the second twin works in IT for a Nike subsidiary in Portland.
In 2012, Gretchen & I made a leap of faith and purchased a diner in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho - called "Jimmy's Down The Street." We have been very successful and are having a great experience - although days off are few and very far between! In 2015 we were voted as the best diner in Idaho by MSN.com! Quite an honor...and having been featured on the Food Network in the past we are staying quite busy.
We have now been married for over 32 years, and live comfortably in Coeur d'Alene with our two little dogs.
E-mail me at oregonsurbs(at)yahoo(dot)com
UPDATE: Sold the diner and (semi)-retired in 2019! Moved to Post Falls, Idaho and trying to learn to enjoy retirement. 40-year marriage anniversary coming up this year!
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