Profiles and Bios

 
If you are a member of the 1962 graduating class, or would have been if you had stayed at Wheat Ridge High, we would really like you to create a profile and tell something about yourself. You can always update your profile with current information. Your address, phone number and email address are not visible to anyone other than yourself and the website administrator. You can contact other Classmates through the 'Send This Person a Message' link below their profile.

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Jed Burnham ( )

Marital status: Married
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired
Comment:
After high school, and after a few self inflicted wounds, I began to grow up. I attended the University of Colorado Denver part time and worked at various jobs. Ultimately I was drafted in June of 1966. I proposed to Joann Stephenson whom I’d met working in the mail room of Western Federal Savings. We were married and I went off to war the following week. I was discharged shortly after basic training as a result of my bad eyesight which, unsurprisingly, was not picked up during my induction physical.


 


Joann earned her B.A. in education from the University of Colorado and easily found a teaching job which allowed me to continue my education full time. I graduated with a B.S. in business with an emphasis in finance and was given a full fellowship to graduate school where I earned an MBA, also with an emphasis in finance. During graduate school, I was also blessed with a son, Jedidiah the IX, since I’m the 8th.


 


I began my career as Assistant Treasurer with King Resources, a relatively prominent or perhaps notorious, oil and gas firm in Denver. This lasted just 2 years as it declared bankruptcy and the president, John M. King went to jail. I learned a lot about what not to do in this job. I joined our lead bank – United Bank of Denver in the Commercial Banking Division. I stayed there 22 years, ultimately managing the division as executive vice president until the bank was acquired by Norwest Bank. During this time I was again blessed with another son, Jonathan.


 


With the Norwest acquisition, I became the chief credit officer for all their banks in Colorado outside of the Denver metro area. After two years I was approached by the Coors family to join them as they split all their non-beer businesses away from the brewery to make it more of a pure stock market play. I accepted their offer and became the Chief Financial Officer of ACX Technologies, which became a separately traded NYSE Fortune 500 company, headquartered in Golden and with revenues of several billion dollars. I was surprised and impressed by how many companies Coors had developed over the last century in an attempt to diversify. 


I was with them a wonderful nine years as we bought, sold, and closed the portfolio of companies ultimately ending with two out of more than 25. We took the ceramics business private and merged the remaining packaging business with a similar sized company headquartered in Atlanta. For me Y2K came true as the company ceased to exist and I retired for the first time, but not the last.


 


I was fortunate in my business career to have traveled the world. I’ve been all over Europe, if fact to England 13 times in 1997 where ACX did the 12th largest acquisition on the London Stock Exchange. I traveled to Australia many times, as well as Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia (including Bali and Papua New Guinea). I’ve logged nearly a million miles on United Airlines alone.


 


After ACX, I was asked to take over for a good friend who was dying of cancer, as President of The Bank of Cherry Creek, a billion dollar bank specializing in the upscale Denver personal market. I accepted and stayed a full year, but found that the owner – Don Sturm and his wife Susan really wanted a chief operating officer who would take orders, rather than a CEO, and so we parted company. My employment contract included a two year non-compete clause which precluded me from taking a position at another bank for that period. It turned out to be a blessing because my wife, Joann was diagnosed with breast cancer and I was able to be home with her during her surgeries and radiation treatments. Praise the Lord; it has been 9 years with no further problems. I also took the opportunity to attend Denver Seminary as a non-degree student – a goal since I accepted Christ during the very difficult economic times in Colorado in the late 1980’s. While at school I assisted the Chief Financial Officer of the seminary in securing financing to move the school to a new campus and was asked to join the board where I currently serve as Chair – a true honor and privilege.


 


At the end of my two year non-compete I joined Vectra Bank of Colorado as Executive Vice President in charge of the 22 banks outside the Denver Metro area. Vectra is owned by Zions Bank in Utah and is the product of many separate acquisitions. Zions brought in new management to rationalize these acquisitions – essentially to get them to all work and play well together. I retired 3 years ago after an enjoyable 5 years of working with great bankers in smaller Colorado communities.


 


Today I keep busy serving on the boards of Denver Seminary, Mother’s of Preschoolers ( a national organization working through churches to make better moms and thus a better world), Development Associates International ( a group headquartered in Colorado Springs that teaches Christian leaders in 3rd world countries to be better leaders). My wife and I also enjoy spending time with our four grandsons, sailing chartered yachts, and traveling.

Edith "Edie" Buswell (Winter)

Then Then
Comment: No bio.

Arthur "Doug" Campbell

Then Then
Comment: No bio.

Archie "Robert" Campbell II

Then Then
Comment: No bio.

Mary Capra (Bohn)

Then Then
Comment: No bio.

Al Capra (Deceased)

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Single
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired
Comment: After high school I worked with my father in the family business. Spent twenty years in the trucking industry. Retired teamster. I have two daughters, one married, one single, four fabulous grandchildren. Three boys and one granddaughter. I spend very much time with them, we have fun taking out our 64' mustang to car shows and traveling.
What's a favorite high school memory: Hanging out with friends, working on our cars and racing them, teasing and nicknaming teachers.
Which faculty members do you best remember: Jerry Hammill, Harvey Moore, Maryann Blum, Principal Don Solem.
What was fun to do in Wheat Ridge during your high school years: Playing sports, gym class causing troouble, shooting bow and arrows at pigeons.

Mark Carroll

Comment: No bio.

Gisa Carter (Kothe)

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Divorced
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired
Comment:

After graduating from Wheat Ridge High School, I attended Jacksonville University in Florida and the University of Colorado in Boulder.



I, then, became an Airline Hostess for Trans World Airlines (that's what TWA called their flight attendants in the "olden" days).  I flew Internationally and lived in New York City.



I got married, lived in Connecticut and had 2 children, Geoffrey and Margot - my greatest pride and joy!



After moving to Florida, I got divorced and worked for a Florida School System as Administrative Assistant.



Then, I moved to Mississippi where my children also live.  My son is President of his own company, Hyperion Technology Group, Inc. in Tupelo and my daughter is Associate Director of Student Housing Administration at "Ole Miss" in Oxford, after having lived and worked in New York City.



I enjoy traveling (my favorite destination is always my hometown of Bremen, Germany where I'll be celebrating my 70th in 2013 - God Willing), gardening, creating new recipes and trying them out on family and friends, volunteering, taking care of 12 rescue dogs and, best of all, playing with my beautiful, precocious five-year-old granddaughter, Bremen Elizabeth Carter!
What's a favorite high school memory: Ski Club
Which faculty members do you best remember: Mr. John Curry - Spanish I - 10th grade
What was fun to do in Wheat Ridge during your high school years: I liked Wheat Ridge because of its proximity to the beautiful Rockies where many a fun-filled family outing was enjoyed, as well as places like the Red Rocks Theater, El Rancho, Lookout Mountain, etc.

Steve Case

Then Then
Comment: No bio.

Barbara Cassel (Roberts)

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Married
Children: 3
Occupation: Retired
Comment:

Hello.  Following is a quote from a book I just read -- a bit of a coincidence I read this just now.  ". . . A lot of people don't have fond memories of high school.  It's often a war of politics and personalities, set off by the cannon fire of hormones."  I'm sure each of us has our own thoughts about that.  Fifty years ago I was a young, naive high school graduate setting off in life.  Now 50 years later I'm just old.  I know a little bit about a lot and a lot about nothing -- some might even say a know-it-all (haha).  Most of what little I think I know, I forgot I knew it.  I haven't been diagnosed with dementia yet, but it is only a matter of time, and I will deny it to the end!  I am as middle class as you can get and I have come to embrace it.  After all, without a middle there is no beginning or end; no top, no bottom.  Ya gotta have a strong core. 

The first half of my working experience was in accounting for Cargill, Inc. (10 years) and Associated Grocers.  I had a brief temporary assignment as an assistant to the social workers in the Juvenile Dept. of the Adams County Dept of Social Services as it was then known (a frustrating and sad, but illuminating experience).  This was followed by 10 years as a legal secretary for an attorney in Lakewood. 

I am married to an awesome man, Jon Cassel, 36 years, who has gotten me from point A to point B in one piece.  He is my rock.  He was one of the last employees out the door at Rocky Flats and now works for a subcontractor at LANL in Los Alamos, NM.  We live next door to a fascinating man and one of the few remaining scientists who worked on The Manhattan Project and who reminisces as having sat at a board table in the presence of 4 or 5 Nobel Prize winners!  It's a strange feeling to live in a place that's only as old as we are.  It's been quite an experience!  Jon also served as a volunteer firefighter for 25 years and retired from the Arvada Volunteer Fire Department, Station 5.  I have 3 exceptional daughters -- Heather, together with husband Brian have their own business, K&Z Electric 303 503 4888, and parents of 3 treasured grandsons; Jennifer, a police officer for the City and County of Denver and mom to 1 treasured grandson; and Carrie, mom to our only beautiful treasured granddaughter and 1 treasured grandson. 

That's it in a nutshell.  See you at the Carnation Festival and dinner.