10 and Lawrence Street, N.E. Washington D.C. 20017
I know I'm a bit late in responding but I was not sure how to answer
until today. I have not been to any of the reunions although I almost made
it to the one at 15 years, so I thought I would come to your party with my
wife on Monday. Its been a long time and I'm sure you know how to throw a
good party. However, it seems that my children have been looking forward to
spending Memorial day as they always have - with dad making hamburgers and
hot dogs on the grill and drinking beer. This is no small obstacle, because
I have seven children and one grand child. This year their expectations are
especially high because we recently bought a new house in northern Baltimore
county that is more like a country club than a house, with a pond to swim
in, and woods and meadows for out-door activities. I'm afraid I'm stuck
making the burgers.
I read your life story on the web and it seems only fair to tell you a
little about myself. After HS I went directly to Catholic University and
graduated in 1973 with a degree in physics. I actually went continuously
until the last 1/2 year at which time I went to France to finish. This ended
early and I returned, finishing my degree at CU with some course work also
at the University of Maryland. Through the "free university" at U of M I met
my wife Lynn in a film class. She was studying art and had a son, Chris,
then 3 years old. Chris's father had died in the service. We were married a
year later and since then have had 5 girls and another boy. Chris is now a
carpenter (he is adding a library and some other rooms to our new house) and
has a daughter Maggie. Jennifer is finishing law school, Jessica works for
the Maryland State Lottery (you will probably see her some time drawing the
numbers for the Lotto), Jocie is graduating from Towson high school next
week, Julie is in high school and is an artist like her mother, Thomas Jr is
in middle school and wants to be a software engineer like me (he wants to
write computer games like all kids until they find out how tedious it is),
and Jackie is in middle school and is a great LaCross player. I have always
worked as a software engineer and some times as an electronics engineer. I
started my own computer peripherals manufacturing company in 1981 with two
partners and some venture capital. We did well for seven years designing,
manufacturing, and marketing devices for the communications market. I
invented a tape drive that stores communications data with portions done in
software that up until that time had always been done in hardware. We could
read tapes generated on the equipment of other manufacturers and this
allowed us to sell to a large replacement market. I also designed a network
router that performed functions similar to the internet routers of today
(e.g. those from Cisco Systems), however, due to disagreements between my
partners we shipped only a handful and could not obtain funds to make it a
product that could be mass manufactured ( had I only known more about the
government network that was to become the internet...) . I eventually sold
my interest in the company and went to work for a division of Texas
Instruments in Hunt Valley Md. I worked there for about 10 years designing
systems that control oil pipe lines, water treatment plants etc. This
involved a great deal of travel in Europe and the US., especially Germany. I
enjoyed it and sometimes my wife came along and we made a short vacation out
of it. I now work work for a Danish refrigeration controls company on a
project composed of engineers from the US, and Denmark. Soon we will add a
British group. I must travel to Denmark every few months, but the culture is
gentle and pleasant to be in (the weather is terrible, probably why the
Vikings wanted to live elsewhere).
My wife, Lynn, even though a visual artist at heart and by training, decided
that she needed to do something more practical, so she went back to school
and became an English teacher. She now teaches at a high school in
Baltimore. The drive is a bit too much and hopefully she will transfer to a
school in closer to home or quit. She would like to stay home again and just
paint and write and now that she has her house in the country (actually the
woods) she is more determined to do this than ever.
The only contact I have had with anyone from St Anthonys has been with
Father Bitterman. We correspond by e-mail. Africa does not seem like a
vacation paradise. Maybe I will see him if he ever makes it back to the U.S.
Terry Hite sent me a letter at about the time we were moving. I did not
reply because I lost it in the move
and it only recently resurfaced. (please tell her this if she is at your
party)
Please let me know how your party goes. I love Italian food and if we are in
the area sometime we will stop by.
My telephone on the web is wrong. Its actually 410 343 0969. The address is
too but you know that.
Sincerely,
Thomas Gresock