Paul West
Milan, IL

Update for 55th reunion – The big event for me for the past 4 years was a trip to Italy to visit my son in law, who is in the Army, daughter and three of my grandkids. After a long plane ride and losing our luggage on the way we landed in Milan in northern part of the country. Fortunately we had an Apple airtag inside one of the bags and we saw it was still at the Atlanta airport. Apparently we were supposed to transfer it ourselves instead of it happening automatically. No one told us!

Another highlight of the trip was visiting the Ferarri museums. It was several hour drive to get there but it was worth it. My grandsons tried out an F1 simulator but had little success with it. We also went on boat rides on the beautiful lakes there to visit islands with lots of local charm. One lake had an old monastery built on a cliff.

We took a side trip to Venice also. What an amazing place. My daughter was our tour guide and we saw lots of historic buildings and went on a gondola ride.

The trip home was uneventful and my daughter and family has since moved to California. We will probably be making a trip there soon.

My son and his his family live near Grand Rapids Michigan and he is currently traveling with Pearl Jam as a videographer.

I’ve been retired since 2020 and the years are flying by. I am currently keeping busy by having numerous hobbies. I heard someone say once that retirement is full of surprises, so true.

From left to right in the back row is my granddaughter Elliana, daughter Chrystal, her husband Luke, my son Nick, his wife Stacey, front row is grandson Eli, me, my wife Debbie, granddaughter Olive and grandson Joel.


Grand Canal in Venice
A lake near my daughter’s home in Italy
A cathedral in Milan

From 50+1 reunion – I haven’t been to any class reunions. So since graduation at Iowa State I have been working in the Quad Cities. I have gotten married to Debbie and had two kids Nick (upper left)and Chrystal (right). I got a Bachelors degree from a local college in computer science. I worked for a couple of small electronics companies for several years and Honeywell for a couple years. I worked for thirteen years at a local state school called Black Hawk College on the technical services staff as a technical programmer and network specialist in the Computer Services department. I retired from the US Army Rock Island Arsenal Civilian Human Resources after 23 years in December, 2019.

The picture below shows from top left my son Nick and his wife Stacie and my granddaughter Olive. They live in Michigan but he is going on tour with Blake Shelton as a videographer. Top right is my son in law Luke and my daughter Chrystal and my other 3 grandkids Elleona, Ely and Joel.T hey are currently in Arizona but will move to Italy next year as he is a Major in the Army. Bottom left is me and my wife of 42 years on vacation in Glenwood
Springs, Colorado.

Thanks.
Paul