Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Mystery Classmate 107

Congratulations to Colleen O’Connor Casey, Lori Haas Baccari, Tracy Schneider Rogers, Rick Mallik, Helene Bour Palmer, Christine Trinchero Haddad, Laurie Young Theademan, Deb Faskow Feller, Lisa Tarshis Galante, Kelly Sauer Mazon, Chad Calabria, and Linda Wolff, all of whom correctly identified Cheryl Mehalic (’84) as Mystery Classmate #107 (far left) and are listed in the order that their responses were received.

In case you were wondering, Cheryl reports that she recently got engaged in New York City, and the attached photo was taken at that event.

She adds, “I have a set of twins that are 17, and my daughter is the third from the left in the picture. My son is not in the photo, but for anyone that knows my brother, he looks just like him. They will graduate in 2006.

“My fiancĂ©, Keith Wynn, graduated in 1984 from Turtle Creek High School. He has two children, 13 and 11, and works at Bechtel Bettis as a Mechanical Designer. We live in Monroeville, so anyone in the area just may run into us.

“As everyone that knew me in high school knows, I was a cosmetologist for many years. After I worked as a Princess's personal stylist, but got bored with it and started in Social Science Research traveling the country studying what drugs people did. That proved to be very interesting but I wanted to be able to start a 401(k), so I started working for the City Of Pittsburgh as a property manager at the Housing Authority. Now THAT was interesting, never a dull moment.

“However, you have to live in the City to work for the City, and I moved back to Churchill when my father passed away. So now I am now working with a real estate redevelopment corporation out of DC. We specialize on Redevelopment with Tax Credits. I am a property manager for a large project in the East Hills and Helene Bour Palmer's husband's company, Repal Construction, is the General Contractor on the job. Funny how the world is such a small place.”

Several classmates had nice things to say about Cheryl. Lori Haas Baccari, Tracy Schneider Rogers, and Laurie Young Theademan thought that Cheryl looks great and/or just the same and/or has not aged. Helene Bour Palmer noted that it was probably unfair for her to guess, since Cheryl is one of her closest friends.

Rick Mallik scored bonus points by also identifying Cheryl’s mom, on the left side of the photo behind Cheryl.

Donna Andreas Copley guessed Jody Teets. Ann Broadberry Johnson guessed “Jodi something.” Jean Ward Dunnivan guessed Nancy O’Conner.

Jeff Suher wrote, cryptically, “I don’t remember him.”

Jerry Koutavas identified those pictured as, left to right, Timmie Boyle, Liz Fiano, Timmie Boyle’s sister, the Fabulous Moolah, and Mark Madden.

Mystery Classmate 106

Congratulations to Lori Haas Baccari, Helene Palmer Bour, Donna Andreas Copley, Marc Schanfarber, Colleen O’Connor Casey, Leslie Rush Cuda, Greg Markantone, Lauren Hoener Nace, Kelly Sauer Mazon, Lisa Callender Mitchell, Amy Baer Davie, and Chad Calabria, all of whom correctly identified Drew Horvath (’84) as Mystery Classmate #106 and are listed in the order that their responses were received.

In case you were wondering, Drew joined the Army in January 1985 after he got tired of delivering (and eating) Domino's pizza. He joined in the hopes of continuing his education, and subsequently accessed the Army College Fund and earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Drew has been all over the world, to places he cannot spell, visiting people whose names he cannot pronounce, but says it’s been great fun and he has enjoyed almost every minute of it.

While stationed in Alaska Drew met and married the lovely (and lively) Tiffany Dalby of Palmer, Alaska. In November 2002, Drew was promoted to Major at a big party in Pittsburgh with a bunch of family and classmates including Kelly Sauer Mazon, Chad Calabria, Lisa Callender Mitchell, Mike Topping, Mike Husak, Joe Strednak and Terri Priatko. Drew is currently stationed in Korea at Camp Casey but will rejoin his wife Tiffany, daughter Taylor (10) and son Anthony (1) in July to serve a tour in Anchorage, Alaska. Drew laments that the Army will keep him away from the Class of ‘84’s 20th reunion, but with a little luck, hopes to be around for the 30th!

Several classmates relied on unorthodox guessing strategies to identify Drew. Helene Palmer Bour thought Drew was difficult to recognize without hair, but based her guess on his eyes. Linda Wolff wrote, “I am only guessing because it looks like his lips. I never kissed them, but they look like his.” Leslie Rush Cuda had to look closely.

Kelly Sauer Mazon will miss Drew and Tiffany at the Class of ’84 reunion in two weeks. Lisa Callender Mitchell wrote that Drew is a great guy and Tiffany is so nice. Amy Baer Davie added that Drew looks great and Tiffany is beautiful! Chad Calabria wrote that Tiffany is lovely.

Milton Koutavas guessed Coleman Brennan. So did Jim Kwiecinski. Paul Rodgers guessed Danny Buerger. Jerry Koutavas guessed Jennifer Lescisin and Maneck Kapadia.