Friends of Class
JOE AMADO. Joe Amado was a foreign exchange student from Adana, Turkey, who lived with Doug Grina and his family and attended NPHS during our junior year. Doug and Joe consider each other brothers still, and their families are close. The Grinas visited the Amados in Turkey last summer (see photo).
Doug relates that Joe married his wife Zeren fresh out of college and entered the family business--cotton exporting and importing. In time he was leading the company after a several year hiatus working for a British cotton firm in Dallas in the eighties when Turkey had developed a difficult atmosphere for business (a form of anarchy).
Joe has two children, a daughter now 28 and son 25. His daughter went to Yale and presently works for an international organization promoting women's rights in the Muslim world. His son recently graduated with a masters in fine arts from the Chicago Institute of Arts and currently lives in London.
The last few years Joe's business has gotten big. The industry has changed because Turks manufacture cotton goods now. This increase in business volume has not lead to improved job satisfaction. Consequently, Joe has reduced his work load and is now semi-retired.
PAUL BLOCKLYN. I was a member of the Nether Providence High School class of 1967 until 8th grade, then completed high school at The Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia. I went on to receive a B.A. in American Literature from Middlebury College, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Brown University, and an M.A. in English, also from Brown University.
I moved to Stamford, Connecticut in 1975 and taught writing and literature at the University of Connecticut at Stamford, Pace University, and many other places including Bedford Hills Correctional Facility (although I never got a chance to work with Jean Harris!) I also taught business writing at The New York Times and a number of other corporations and was a drama critic at The Stamford Advocate.
In 1984 I moved to northern new Jersey and began a long career in the publishing industry in north Jersey and New York City, working at the American Management Association, Prentice-Hall, the Thompson Corporation, and finally Standard & Poor's, where I worked for ten years. I retired from full-time work at S&P in May 2006, but went back the following month to work as a consultant until retiring from S&P for good in January 2008.
Since retiring from S&P, I've gone back to teaching writing part-time at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, where I'm an Adjunct Professor of English. In addition to teaching a course in Business and Professional Writing at Kean, I've made presentations on resume writing at Manhattanville College and Western Connecticut State University. I'm also working on a series of articles designed to help graduating college seniors with the job hunting process.
I got married in 2002 for the first time and live with my wife and two cats in Hoboken, NJ.
As far as full-scale retirement is concerned, I'll just quote Red Skelton and say that I'll retire when they nail down the lid.
Please feel free to contact me at pkhobo@aol.com or pblockly@kean.edu.
JIM EWING. It is hard to sum up the last 40 years so here are the basics.
I got married after grad school. I live in the Cincinnati area. I am still with the same wife. I have 2 children; one lives in Indianapolis and the other in San Francisco. We have 2 cats and 6 dogs (3 Labs, 2 Pugs and a French Bulldog). It is not quite as bad as it sounds. Two of the dogs my wife uses in her work. At our house every night is a 3 dog night.
I have been working for the federal gov't for the last 6 years. Before that I worked for a couple of companies, did some consulting but hated the travel.
My spare time is spent working with the dogs and keeping up the house except in the winter when I ski. I am going into my 17th season as a member of the National Ski Patrol. I try to ski twice a week. I live 10 minutes from a very good and very busy small ski slope.
I can be contacted at jamesewing2000@yahoo.com.
KEITH PFEIFER. I was a member of the Class of 1967 until 9th grade, then completed high school at Germantown Academy.
I've been a life-long public educator, now with 34 years in this field. Initially a teacher, I have held positions in the central office environment for the past 20 years ranging from school administrator, special education administrator, and culminating in becoming Superintendent of School. My educational training included a BA from Hiram College, a MA from University of Northern Colorado and D.Ed. from Penn State.
Since 1973, I been a New England resident, primarily in Maine and New Hampshire, and I now reside in Andover, NH. Coincidentally, Jim Ewing went to Proctor Academy, which is located here.
I am married with three children, two daughters aged 22 and 12, and a son aged 19. My oldest daughter works for Metritech in Framingham, MA, my son is a freshman at Endicott College, and my youngest is a 7th grader. My wife is a school principal.
I enjoy reading, skiing, travel, and, most importantly, my family.
I hope to see everyone at the reunion, or please feel free to contact me at keithpfeifer@comcast.net.
HAROLD TIFFANY. I entered the Nether Providence school district in the 5th grade and remained through the 9th grade. I left Nether Providence to attend Friends' Central School. After graduating from FSC in 1963 there was college, flight school, Vietnam, married Elizabeth Sinclair, corporate pilot, high school teacher, Departmentof Defense pilot and retired in 2004 after spending 38 years in the cockpit. We have two sons, six grandchildren with number severn due in August. Jason attended the University of Delaware and is a research chemical engineer working for Johns Hopkins APL. Pryor attended the Air Force Academy and medical school. He is an ENT doctor in the Air Force. Liz and I are both retired and spend our time between our southern Delaware and Florida homes. We enjoy taking the grandkids on adverntures. Future plans are to KEEP MOVING and DON'T BLINK (from Kenny Chesney song).
BILL GORDON. I was a member of the Class of 1967 through 9th grade, then moved to New Jersey. I've been living in Newark, Delaware since 1974, visiting Wallingford for sight seeing often once I realized how close it was. I was fortunate to have a long and happy marriage with my wife Linda till she passed in 2014, and to have adopted two boys when they were young, and now have 4 grandchildren at last bount and 2 great grandkids. I had a 46 year career with Dupont IT in one form or another from programming through architect. I retired finally a few months ago, which was poor timing vs the pandemic. So I have no excuses left once the pandemic ends from getting to some event. As I recall, Keith P above was a basketball teammate in Junior High. I know my Crestview Circle friends are still around, would be cool if you could get them my contact info (or anyone else that remembers me - Kell D and Harold S. Email: williegeez@gmail.com; Phone: 302-368-2224.