St Paul Catholic School
SPHS Class of 1959
Classmates
Frederick Pirochta
Comments
Following high school Bob Stechschulte, Tom Mehrens and I attended and graduated from Ferris Institute. My degree was in Automotive Technology. Upon graduation I worked one year for an independent garage not far from Lansing before moving on to work for Pohl Brothers Chevy/Oldsmobile in St. Johns. It was during this time I met and later married Marilyn Parker. After three years at the dealership I was hired by Oldsmobile Division as a technical service representative and was assigned to the Philadelphia Zone. After 3 years I was reassigned to the New York Zone. It was there that I decided to leave the employment of General Motors and return to Michigan. By this time we had 4 children. Shortly thereafter we learned that Marilyn was pregnant with twins. After returning to Michigan I was hired by Story Oldsmobile to manage the service department of University Olds and later Story Oldsmobile. I remained with that organization for nearly 5 years. I left Story Oldsmobile to work for the State of Michigan, Bureau of Automotive Regulation. There I spent the last 25 years of my working career overseeing the sale of new and used cars, the service and repair of motor vehicles, the certification of mechanics, and the investigation of complaints against these businesses and individuals. I retired in January, 2001.

In April, 2013 Marilyn and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. Mentioned earlier were our six children. Actually it turned out to be seven. Our youngest, Kimberly, was born in 1980. Marilyn and I are very pleased with the success of our children and their gift to us of 12 grandchildren ranging in age from 2 to 26 years. All of our children, except two, live in the Lansing area. One of our sons lives and works in Washington D.C. and another son and his family live in Greenville, S.C.

Marilyn loves to play cards and is a Master Bridge player. My hobbies include collecting and restoring cars. We both enjoy traveling and have been to Europe four times and to Okinawa, Japan once. On our last trip to Europe we were able to visit the village our grandfather left to come to America.

In 2003 Marilyn and I bought into a park in Bradenton, Florida where we spend three or four months during the winter. It is the same park that my cousin Frank Pirochta and Betty Spaleny Pirochta have a place. So, with Frank and Betty and Bob Stechschulte relatively close by we often get together to play cards or dominoes. Marilyn usually wins.