Last Lunch of the Year

Thursday, September 24 is your last chance for this year to meet at Arlington Park Race Track (http://www.arlingtonpark.com/) and have lunch at the Million Room (847-385-7410) with some former classmates. Modified dress code--slacks, collared shirts, jacket optional. Have a great afternoon at a beautiful facility.

Time: Gates open 11:15 a.m.
Million Room (4th floor) seating begins at 12 noon
Post Time: 1:00 p.m.

In August Ray Gondek was joined by Mike Hughes and Mike Duax (see photo above). We hope to see more of you for this last lunch of the season. You could win enough on the horses to pay for your lunch and then some.

Jim van Lauwe is well & living in St. Charles

Jim van Lauwe and his wife Joan moved in 1989 to St. Charles, MO, which is in the county directly north of St. Louis. Two of his children live also in St. Charles and one lives in Wheeling, WV. All of his children are married and have blessed Jim and Joan with 6 grandchildren.

Little known fact: Jim and Mike Van de Kerckhove went to the same grade school (Sacred Heart in Moline), high school (Alleman), college (St. Ambrose) and graduate school (University of Illinois). In fact, they were in the same graduate department at Illinois (Institute of Labor & Industrial Relations). Who was following whom??

Kudos from Michael Maloof

Michael Maloof sent his kudos for the Blog, saying, "Like the idea of a class directory and update; thank you for taking the initiative." You may remember him as Jim Maloof, but it is now J. Michael Maloof.

After graduation from St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, Michael joined Caterpillar. He spent most of the next nine years in Asia, working as a Product Support Consultant, and covered all Far East Asia Countries including being assigned to the war areas of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Returning to Peoria to join his family’s emerging real estate business, he and his father grew the company to #1 in the in the Peoria market. He then moved to Florida in 1982 and was hired by Merrill Lynch Realty Division, and stayed in Florida until 1996, when he moved back to Peoria to rejoin the family real estate company, which has grown dramatically since he returned. Also, during this time, Michael received his MBA from Bradley University, and he currently serves on the Bradley University Council Advisory Board of the Institute for Principle Leadership.

Harry Flynn Helps Out

Harry Flynn helped correct and supplement our e-mail addresses. Thank you Harry! If you received the e-mail from us about this Blog, in the address portion of the mailing you can see the names of the people for which St. Ambrose had e-mail addresses. If you have been corresponding with any of our former classmates and have their e-mail address, we would appreciate you sending them to Ray (mailto:marco@aol.com) or Mike (m.vandekerckhove@comcast.net). The University had e-mail addresses for only 40% of our class.

In addition to helping us with the e-mail list, Harry suggested an alternative site to Arlington Park Race Track for our monthly lunches—Saratoga Race Track and the Travers Stakes race on August 29. This would be a nice venue. However, Harry says that everything is booked for this year. Perhaps we can do it next year. Maybe Ray and Mike can pool their winnings from Arlington and treat everyone. Unfortunately they have no winnings.

Also Harry reported on his trip to the old campus town: "I was in the Quad cities last month. Stopped by the campus and the ‘remains’ of Marycrest. If you have not been down, the chapel is unbelievable - especially the Catich stations of the cross and the stained glass window."

Is Anyone Running in the Bix?

That is Mike Van de Kerckhove finishing the Bix 7 race in Davenport in 2004. He was the 5741st runner across the finish line out of approximately 12,000 runners. Mike has been running the Bix every year (except for 3 years) since 1993. If you are running the Bix this year on Saturday, July 25, look for him there. He will be wearing the green tank top shirt and blue shorts like in the picture. You can probably find him after the race near the spot in the refreshment area where they give out beer, and he will be looking like he is still about to die even an hour after the race. Well, I guess everyone looks like they are about to die after the race…except for the runners from Kenya, or from Nigeria, or wherever they are from. Anyway they are the ones you see getting close to the finish line just as you are beginning the race.

Carl Kiefer Reported In

Carl Keifer reported in, and this is what he said in response to the question of what he has been doing since graduating from St. Ambrose: "Since I received my accounting degree from SAC, I spent 7 years in public accounting (McGladrey) , 8 years in women's pants (Davenshire), 20 years in industrial distribution (deWco), and 6 years in the dairy business (Swiss Valley Farms). I am still working part time at Swiss Valley trying to make enough money to retire full time with my first wife, Mary (an Iowa State grad), who celebrated 39 years of putting up with me on July 11. We have 4 great children, all married and self-supporting, 7 grandchildren, with one more on the way. Two of our sons got their bachelors degrees from St. Ambrose. The other son and our daughter got their degrees from Iowa State. I have been supplementing my income by playing poker for over 25 years now in a group that includes Ed Henkhaus. Unfortunately, both Ed and I travel quite a bit now, so my monthly income from that source has diminished significantly."

We heard from Charlie Sheridan

Ray and Mike heard recently from Charlie Sheridan. A lot of you may not remember him—he was one of the "Churchies." Charlie reported, "I was only at St. Ambrose for two years. Those were good years. Left Ambrose Hall to go to a monastery. Lasted 13 days, man was that a mistake. Went back to St. Ambrose and whomever the registrar was told me that registration had closed. So I went to Loras for two years and decided that I needed to make up for lost time (socially) and transferred to University of New Mexico. Two and 1/2 years there and my father made me graduate and become a productive member of society." It looks like his father got his wish, because Charlie was very successful after that. Those of you living in Eastern Iowa probably know that Charlie was the Auditor of Clinton County for a number of years and he retired on January 1, 2009. He recommends retirement to everyone, and it looks like he has a very busy schedule. He is driving a support vehicle for those bicycling across Iowa in the RAGBRAI in July and heads to China in August.