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I was married for a
few years at the end of the 1970’s, but it didn’t work out. Marilyn
Maxvold gave me a second chance in 1983. Marilyn is from Huron and is as
nerdy as I am, with degrees in math and electrical engineering. She works
for the Federal Aviation Administration on engineering projects involving
communications, navigation, and radar equipment. I met her at Tech and
we married ten years later, but I first saw her, as some of you did, while
participating in the South Dakota All-State Chorus and Orchestra. She was
the tall, foxy violinist with the long blonde hair. Marilyn still plays
violin with the Longmont Symphony Orchestra and the Colorado Mahler
Festival Orchestra.
We also managed to
raise three children along the way. Elizabeth was born in 1985, and just
graduated from CSU last December with a degree in animal science. She
plans to be a large-animal vet, but also managed to letter in the CSU
marching band (Sousaphone). Her degree requires two internships, so she
helped my cousins Dwight and Duane during calving season in January. They
have a cattle operation on the Kolb homestead southwest of Bison.
Apparently she has some redneck in her genes, because she loved it. She
even loved the South Dakota prairies, which we all know are at their most
beautiful during January.
Joshua was born
between blizzards at the end of December, 1987. He is completing his
second year at St. Olaf in Northfield, Minnesota, where he is enrolled
as a chemistry major, and preparing to be a doctor. However, we hear more
about singing, dancing, and cello than we do about chemistry. Josh is one
of the few second year students in the St. Olaf Choir. (That’s the one
they call “God’s Choir.”) He is taking a ballet elective, and the dance
students and instructors keep inviting him when they need another male
dancer for jazz and classical performances. Although he dropped cello as
a second major, he still keeps up with lessons. He just got a job with
Disney to work in Orlando for a semester starting in August. They want
him to play Goofy. His friends and family are having fun with that.
Adam was born in
January of 1990. (He earned us the Youngest Child award at the 20-year
class reunion, because Shad Christman was still in the oven.) He is
graduating from Immanuel Lutheran High School in Eau
Claire, Wisconsin, this spring. He has
been attending there for the last two years, leaving us with a prematurely
empty nest. When he asked to transfer there after his sophomore year, we
suspected something diabolical like getting away from cleaning his room or
his mom’s nagging. He told us that he didn’t agree with the moral choices
his friends in Loveland were making and that he was more comfortable with
his friends from church camp, many of whom attend ILHS. What could we
say? Anyway, he has been accepted by South Dakota Tech to study
mechanical engineering this fall. Not to be outdone by his siblings, he
also inherited musical talent from his mother: He was arguably the best
high school double-bass player in
Colorado coming into his junior
year, because he was seated fifth in the Colorado All-State Orchestra as a
sophomore, behind four seniors.
All in all, I have to
say it’s been a grand ride, so far. What I learned at LHS has served me
well, both at Tech and in my job and life since then. I figured that no
one would want to hear much about the tough bits, so I left most of them
out. In fact, I promised Jeanette that I would make some stuff up, just
to make my bio interesting. However, since our class has been ravaged so
badly by cancer, I want to go on record as a survivor. I
wasdiagnosedwithandtreatedfor testicular cancer in 1977. That’s not a
typo: I ran the words together, because it all happened about that fast.
I have been cancer-free since then, and in fact my life insurance rates
are the same as the general population of old farts. Pardon me for being
indelicate, but I know some of you are wondering but afraid to ask: My
right one was surgically removed, and I went through a few months of
radiation treatment after that. For those of you struggling with the
dates, this all happened before Marilyn and I were married. I told her
that I could only father girls as a result, and Elizabeth came along as if
she was in on the joke. However, two boys after her proved me a liar.
I’ve never been a good liar, despite a lot of practice, and I don’t mind
being caught. I’m just very thankful that I got this second chance.
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