David Beck

I met Barb Korth (Brown) from our class at our 40th reunion. With our similar backgrounds we hit it off and got married in 2013. We will both attend 50+1.
After working for 3M and then in the paper industry as a Chemical Engineer, I switched to a new field: corn ethanol. I helped start up the largest ethanol plant in Wisconsin and now I work as Process Engineering Manager for a plant in Oshkosh WI. I really enjoy being the process engineering manager. Before when I managed a research department I learned a lot, and now I get to apply it. Since writing the above, I finished my career by switching back to the paper industry. I worked for Georgia Pacific for 44 years before retiring in July 2017. However I am pursuing a paper making invention so keep busy with that.

For fun, I like to travel and vacation with my kids and they like going too. We camp, snow ski, hike and even get to Europe together. Both have lived in Germany, so they have friend there and their German is pretty good.

The 70's was a unique period of time. With the Vietnam war going on, there was a lot of anti-war activity. Shortly after registering for the draft, I was personally touched by that activity. I received a letter telling me that the Evanston draft board was broken into and my records were removed and destroyed. I still have the letter stating that the Planetary Peoples Liberation Front had done this and advising me what to do. But a few weeks later, I got my draft card so I guess they didn't get all of my records.

Remember how during senior year the school clocks at east sped up and then the bells rang signalling classes to change? Well I know how that was done and who did it..
I had a great time in highschool doing things I wouldn't be happy about my kids doing now. But it gave me an inquisitive mind that served me well over the years and brought me a lot of enjoyment out of life. As the song Cherry Bomb says: "If we've done any harm, I hope we're forgiven"

One of my favorite stories or rather amazements is how I was found after all these years. Betsy Kimmel somehow found me after 40 years of moving. I first heard she was looking for me from a farming neighbor who I hadn't met. She somehow tracked me down from an old patent I had, starting with my co-inventor who I hadn't talked to in about 10 years. Somehow, that led to contacting me via my neighbor. So in the process of finding me, she re-acquainted me my an old colleague and introduced to my neighbor as well as herself! I told her I'd have to buy her a drink at the reunion and I think there are a lot of other people that need to buy her one as well. Her finding me was quite a feat because I know a Google search of my name gives about 2800 hits.

East

Locust