Mary (Mary Moody - CFHS class '62) and I have been married since 1966. We both graduated from Ohio State University in 1966. After spending 2 years in Charlottesville, VA at the University of Virginia for grad school for me, we moved to Spokane, WA. Mary had miscellaneous jobs in addition to being a superb stay-at-home Mom during preschool years with our daughter, Shanna, and son, Aaron, born respectively in '72 and '74. My career, building upon my OSU Bachelor of Architecture and Masters in urban, regional and environmental planning, was entirely in planning, mostly city and county employers, but also a VP and owner of an environmental planning consulting firm for a few years. We both are 52 year members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane and strong political and social progressives.
Our son, wife and 3 granddaughters live in Portland, OR, about 350 miles away. Our daughter and her partner recently moved from Seattle to Spokane and now live about 10 minutes from us. James has 2 children by former marriages, with a high schooler living here in Spokane. Shanna opted to not have children in her earlier marriage.
Mary and I were active in sports car rallying for about 10 years after marriage. Following my years on the CFHS rifle team and later on the ROTC team at University of Michigan, I enjoyed many years of hunting in eastern WA. Mary and I both downhill skied in nearby WA and ID mountains. I and the kids later transitioned to cross country skiing, including throughout the NW and Canada. We did a lot of family traveling and camping in our tent camper for nearly 20 years. During the '80s, we shared a 5-family houseboat ownership on a fairly remote lake in nearby northern ID. We also biked and barged for 2 weeks in Holland. I have always cycled, including road and mountain biking, and continue to do so. I took up tennis at about 65 years of age and continue to play regularly.
We both were fortunately able to retire in 1997 and spent about the next 15 years RVing 6-9 months of the year, mostly throughout the USA but also a lot in Canada and some in Mexico, while all the time home-based in Spokane. We had several motorhomes and several 4-wheel rigs, allowing us broad travel opportunities both on and off road. I mountain biked in 20+ states, Canada and Mexico. In 2008 we transitioned to a seasonal small home in a 55+ active retirement community in Mesa, AZ, eventually selling our last motorhome. We have done about 18 Road Scholar trips, including many in the USA, and others in Sweden, Norway, Slovakia, and many Central and South America countries, including the Galapagos.
We are now residents of Rockwood South Hill continuing care retirement community in Spokane, along with 25+ long-time friends and fellow church members. We are for the foreseeable future in a single family detached home. We consider ourselves very fortunate!
Mary has early-stage Alzheimer's Disease and I am slowly taking on increasing care-partner responsibilities as we negotiate this journey. We both are involved with numerous cognitive research studies and clinical drug trials, contributing to the research and medical solutions to overcome this devastating disease in hopes of relief of and eventually cure for AD to the benefit of the generations behind us.
Pic is from about 2014