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Marriage:
Marianne Matthews of the class of 63 – just celebrated our 46th anniversary. Favorite job was at Children’s Hospital in Seattle but there were many other jobs in hospitals, healthcare and schools. Especially enjoys birding which takes us all over the place, gardening (where she is right now), kayaking, swimming, singing, playing the piano, harp and now adding the Uke.
Kids:
Two boys, Scott, 45, and his wife are missionaries with International Mission Board, currently in Richland on leave going to Poland in December. Geoff, 43, and his wife own and operate Jalopy School of Music in Brooklyn, NY with old time music, lessons, instrument repair, live music nearly every night (check out their web site).
Grandkids:
Nathan has one more quarter at Central in E-burg and may end up going to Japan. Hannah is starting her 2nd year of college at Riverside Baptist College, Riverside, CA.
1978-84 moved to Friday Harbor from Richland
Carpenter/contractor. Marianne was the K7-12 school secretary. Very happy and satisfying six years of picnics on the beach, sailing, fishing and theater. Lost some hearing but didn’t cut anything off so it was time quit that business.
1984-present, Kirkland, Bothell, Angola & South Africa, Bothell, Jordan, Bothell
Work:
After Western Sintering and Westinghouse in Richland, building houses in Friday Harbor, then it was on to manufacturing engineering at Physio Control, Optiva, Intermec, Plexus, and Zetec. Work was excellent until the last year. I quit in July, 2010.
Specialized work overseas:
2003 we were asked to go to Angola by Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian NGO. That sounded a lot more interesting than regular work so we quit our jobs, rented the house and went to Angola for 1 ½ years to design and build a 60 bed hospital. We were able to do some traveling during that time going to Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana including a safari in the Kalahari ending at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
2004 Immediately following Angola we went to South Africa to work with Zulu’s for 3+ months.
2010 Started working with an NGO in Uganda, traveling there for 3 weeks. We continue to support them with finances and building design.
2010-11 After retiring? we went to Jordan for six months with Samaritan’s Purse to do maintenance of everything and to build a water system at a Hospital. Marianne did her magic taking us on many trips to almost every important sight in the country: Petra, Herald’s castle, the Dead Sea, snorkeling in the Gulf of Aqaba, the King’s Highway, the very place Christ was baptized, and many more plus a jaunt to Istanbul, Turkey. It’s pretty interesting dining in a Bedouin tent out in the desert. It’s also pretty interesting to set up a solar power in a Bedouin tent used for lighting in the evenings and of course, what else, but charging a cell phone.
Hobbies
In the past it was Minis, an Austin Healy, and ’56 Chevy’s. Currently, it’s a ‘31 Ford two door sedan, old-school rod. It’s noisy, bumpy, too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter but it is a bunch of fun. I built the entire car from raw steel and old car parts. It’s very popular at car shows and Marianne is a willing participant.
IMPORTANT: Cabin
13 years ago we built a cabin on 250’ of waterfront on Hood Head just ½ mile above the Hood Canal floating bridge. It’s a lovely place and we go often. Much of the building materials were rough sawn out of fallen trees with our Alaskan chainsaw mill. It’s rustic, artistic, cozy, no power or water, we use a generator and pack in the water; there are tons of clams, oysters, crab, fish. Thankfully, most in our immediate family love it too. Come see us!
Next:
We are probably off to Uganda and/or South Africa in the near future. Each requires some finance building and who knows where if Samaritan’s Purse needs us. Nepal?
Advice?!@#
Life is good don’t just spend it. Don’t work at a standard job any longer than you have to and pay attention to your mate at all times. If at all possible do some service project(s) as seeing how other people live will deepen your life in so many ways. Oh, and tell your kids and grandkids often how much you love them.
Ken and Marianne