What are we doing now??

.

Rose Byrd Henderson

Debbie Lawson Lawson

Went to College and became a successful business person in the Banking/Facilities/Construction industry, met and married my husband Doug when I was 34 and was blessed to gain a 5 year old stepdaughter.  Doug is a Real Estate Appraiser, (M.A.I) having owned his own business now for 14 years, and I have now gone back into full time work in the Non-Profit Organization in Operations and Accounting for the local Children’s Hospital.  Our oldest daughter, Chelsea, is now a senior at the University of South Florida and is a Alpha Delta Phi, working towards her degree in Mass Communications.  Our youngest daughter Savannah, is 12, entering 7th grade in a small Christian private school with the highest GPA in her class.  They both obviously received their intelligence from their father, and their spirited personalities from their mom!  Ironically, I coached and mentored high school, middle school, and 6th grade cheerleaders for 4 years, and I still continue to volunteer as a stunt coach, even though I have endured a painful double fusion surgery on my back and will more than likely need the same type of surgery on my neck.     My most difficult challenges and heartbreak was losing my oldest sister at age 46 to a heart disease she fought all of her life, and watching both my mother and my fathers heath decline quickly since her death.  I currently care full time for my father in a nursing home near me as he has Alzheimer’s.  My mother, whom many of you knew also had a stroke and has dementia and is in very poor health.   Though through all of this my "Pop" (my step dad) along with my husband are still die hard Gator fans, and we still have the same season tickets that my parents held for 44 years!  We are a split home....Go Gators....Go Wyoming Cowboys!

Tracy Hoskins Dixon

I worked on the air at BJ 105 and Magic 107 for many years.  7 years each.

I am married to someone I met in the business...Ken Dixon.  He is an Addy winning ad and comedy writer.  I also worked with and am friends with Darrell Hammond of Saturday Night Live.   I spent 20 years on the air in radio and am now doing computer graphics and publications for a construction association, and also working part-time at BullFish Gourmet Food and Doggie Boutique on Park Avenue in Winter Park.  I have pursued singing recently and am in the local Orlando group known as the "Orlando Chorale".  If you like to sing, you would love this group of professionals and semi-professionals

Mark Thomas
Mark left high school after earning an athletic and academic scholarship to Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia; he later transferred to, and graduated from, Georgia State University where he earned a BS degree in Public and Urban Affairs with a concentration in Community Development from Georgia State University ( Atlanta, Georgia). Later he earned a MBA from Nova Southeastern University.  

Mark has worked in the economic and community development arena in both urban and rural settings.   His career has principally been in the urban environment (population of 200,000 or more). As a Director of housing and community development programs, Mark has held positions with the Atlanta Housing Authority, City of Jacksonville's Department of Housing and Urban Development, Polk County Board of County Commissioners, the City of Jacksonville's Community Relations Commission, the Polk Workforce Development Board, and the Indian River Housing Authority. Presently he is the Executive Director of the Winter Haven Housing Authority.

During Mark's public service career he has leveraged and coordinated over $30 million in grant-funded programs with other organizations. Mark has been married (to Patricia) for 22 years. They have two grown children, Adontai (son) and Gia-Amari (daughter). 

Bill Ritzi

After graduation, I received a two year scholarship to study theater in Dallas, TX.  I decided the stage was not calling my name, so I returned to rmond to attend DBCC.  Soon after, I met the love of my life in 1980 and we moved to South FL.  Jon Buchanan and I built a house on a dirt road in Stuart and I worked as a boat builder while finishing my undergrad.
degree. I received a BS in Art Education in 1981 from FAU and began teaching Elementary School Art at a low income school in West Palm Beach. After a noble two year battle with AIDS, Jon died in January 1988.   The following summer I met Rick Siclari while on vacation in Provincetown, MA. He would later became the second love of my life... who'd a thought!  I
went back to school to do grad. work in Art Education and received an MS in Art Education at Florida International University in Miami in 1991.  I  was invited to be on the Education faculty of FIU upon graduation.  I also began painting again during grad. school and have been showing my landscapes in exhibitions and galleries for the past 15 years.  Rick and I moved to Ft Lauderdale for four years and then bought a home in Coconut Grove the week before Hurricane Andrew hit South FL. (that's another
saga!)  Rick is the Executive Director of Care Resource, the largest HIV/AIDS social service, research and primary care agency in South FL.  We
now reside in a loft apt on South Beach, which includes an art studio.  We also have a small summer cottage in Provincetown, MA (Cape Cod) where I
spend summers painting.  With the fall semester, I begin my 17th year of teaching at FIU.  Life is good!

Rob Ross

I went to Cornell University, studying Mechanical Engineering and attending AFROTC.  Here I met my future wife, Thana Connell, also in AFROTC.  Upon graduation, I was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force.  I went to pilot training in Del Rio, Texas, and got my wings and got married in December 1982.  My first assignment in the Air Force was in Biloxi, Mississippi, flying WC-130 weather reconnaissance aircraft into hurricanes and typhoons.  In 1987, we moved to Homburg, Germany, where I flew C-23 cargo aircraft, a military version of a Shorts 330 commuter plane.  I flew all over Europe, and after the Berlin Wall came down, our squadron shut down, so we flew our planes back to the US, getting gas in Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, and northern Canada.  My first son Pat was born in Landstuhl, Germany in 1990.  My wife got out of the Air Force, and we moved to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1991.  There I flew C-130 cargo aircraft, deploying to Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf War, and to Kenya to fly famine relief into Somalia.  

My second son Mike was born in 1994, and I got out of the active duty Air Force and moved to Apple Valley, Minnesota (just south of Minneapolis) to join the Air Force Reserve C-130 squadron there.  I flew all over, deploying to Panama, Puerto Rico, Yellowknife in Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Germany.   In 1998, I was hired by Northwest Airlines as a DC-10 flight engineer.  After 9/11, airline life went backward, and Air Force life went fast forward.  In Northwest, I slipped back to Airbus 320 copilot, and then to DC-9 copilot.  At that point, I deployed as a volunteer to Oman and Kuwait as a tactics officer and aircraft commander, flying missions into Iraq.  Upon return to the states, I was activated, and deployed to Kyrgyzstan, for C-130 missions into Afghanistan.  After that, I was made commander of my stateside squadron, and promptly redeployed back to Kuwait to command the expeditionary C-130 squadron in Kuwait.  After deactivation, I finished my tour as commander, and retired with 24 years of Air Force service.  

Now I just an airline pilot, doing the grocery shopping, cooking dinner, walking the dog, and tending the garden.  I'm very proud of my sons, Pat playing sax and guitar, Mike playing piano and drums.  Both are boy scouts, and Pat just made Eagle.  We enjoy life in the Northland, and attend lots of concerts and shows in Minneapolis and St. Paul. 

Pam Dixon Brotsky