St Paul Catholic School
SPHS Class of 1959
Classmates
Leslie Renkey
Comments
Including all the normal ups and downs of life it’s been a pretty good fifty years.
My Dad died shortly before my graduation from Notre Dame University in 1963, so I stayed in Owosso and attended Michigan State University for a semester in the Masters of Education program. Since I’d been in the Army ROTC at Notre Dame, I was ordered to active duty in April of 1964 and spent my two years at Ft. Benning, GA and Ft. Knox, KY, luckily avoiding any duty in Viet Nam.
I had thought about law school after my Army service, so when a friend at Ft. Knox asked me to join him in going to law school at the University of Kentucky I enrolled there in the fall of 1966. After graduating in 1969 I stayed in the Lexington area and worked for the Kentucky Crime Commission, mainly as the staff director of the committee revising Kentucky’s penal code. When the penal code was revised and enacted in 1972, I transferred to the City of Lexington Law Department for a couple of years. In November of 1973, I began a long career as civilian chief counsel at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Lexington and Richmond. In that position I handled all legal matters involving the Depot – government procurement, personnel actions, labor relations, environmental law, etc. I retired from the Depot in July of 2003, but returned to work as General Counsel for the Kentucky Department of Labor in early 2004. I retired from there in December of 2008 and have called myself a semi-retired lawyer ever since.
My life hasn’t been completely wrapped up in work. I met and married my wonderful life partner, Barbara, a native of Frankfort, Kentucky. She’s been a mostly stay at home mom when the kids were young and worked in the school system when they were school age. We have two boys, Edward and Matthew. Edward teaches Performance Studies, Theater and Film at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, about 15 miles from Lexington. He’s married to Betsy, and they have three boys, Ethan 18, Harry 13 and Ross 11. Edward recently produced, directed, etc., a full-length movie that won awards at several film festivals. Matthew works for the International Trade Administration of the Department of Commerce and lives in Washington, D.C. He has traveled extensively to the parts of the world with which we have most of our trade – China, Japan, Viet Nam. He’s not married. However, we’ve told him we’re ready for some younger grandchildren.
Barbara and I seem to be busier than ever. We’re involved with several committees in our community and in local political activities. We spend a couple of months in Florida near my snowbird brother and sister in Ft. Myers and travel several weeks the rest of the year, at least a couple of times to Washington, D.C. It will be great to see you all at the 50th reunion.