After 37 years and 7 months, I have made the decision to retire from my law enforcement career. The official date of my retirement will be August 1, 2014, which happens to fall on a Friday so that works out great.

For the most part I have enjoyed my career choice, but if I had it to do it all over again I wished I had worked for what is now CSX Transportation aka the Chessie System aka the B&O railroad. My uncle now deceased offered to help me in my job search (he worked for the B&O for over forty years) and I wish I had taken him up on his offer.

I regret not keeping in touch with more of my school classmates, but moving out of the area to Virginia took me "out of the loop," and I lost track of a lot of folks who meant so much to me during my school years.

I hope that my appearance at the reunion will bring me back into the "fold" and the friends that I treasured so much will seek me out if just to say hello.

I am about to celebrate twenty-five years of marriage to my second wife Michele and hope that all of you will pass along a warm welcome as I'm sure she will feel like the "odd person out" when we arrive to greet my old friends.

Still an amateur radio operator (call sign W3MV) so I won't loose my title of "geek," but my true love is 19th Century American history. My wife and I have been civil war reenactors for almost twenty years having been swept into the hobby by another BCC alumnus Ken Obenland, Class of 1971. I hope those of you still living in the Washington area will make the trek to the northern Shenandoah Valley this fall for the 149th reenactment of the battle of Cedar Creek just south of Winchester right off of I-66 and I-81. Not only will I be there (I'm the acting chief of staff for the overall confederate commander), but you will be treated to the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley during the "fall colors." Information may be found by simply searching "Cedar Creek Battlefield" in any of the great search engines and you'll find all of the information about the battle and the reenactment.

Thanks for taking the time to read this diatribe and if I don't see you at the reenactment (I'll be at confederate headquarters) I'll see you on November 9th.

Take care-Bob Cooley

Sorry I won't be able to make the reunion. I have work on the Sunday right after. But I'll be in the DC area for a memorial on Nov 3 so if you want to go out for a drink on Nov 2 in the evening give me a shout. 

Best,

David Chack

My email if you want to be in touch chack@iglou.com

Forty years is a long time to reflect on but, even despite the short-term memory loss prevelant during our brief stay at B-CC, good memories live on.

Sadly I will be 'stuck' in Ft. Lauderdale at an architectural conference for technical specialists that weekend (hey, all expenses paid isn't a bad way to travel to Florida in November).

My wife, Elizabeth Sadacca (B-CC Class of 1978), and I have a 10-year old daughter and live in Charlotte, NC where the summers are much like Maryland but the winters are a lot milder (you don't have to shovel rain!). After many years of designing hospitals, universities, government and military facilities, hospitality, retail, and commercial spaces I have moved on to pushing the sustainability envelope a little further. My current project is the extension of the light rail system here in Charlotte. Hoping to reduce the number of cars on the road. Considering most drivers here think they're on the NASCAR circuit, that can only be a good thing.

Hope the reunion is a big success. Wish we could be there for it. We do hope to be in Maryland for Thanksgiving weekend.

All the best,

Ken

Sadly I received a message from the sister of our classmate Beverly Isis that Beverly passed away ten days ago. Her obituary can be found at www.legacy.com.