Today's Featured Biography

 
Cristie Marcus

With the reunion less than a month away I cannot put this bio thing off any longer.
I will start from the beginning, or rather the end....of high school. Out of the house and as far as I could go, yet within the Cal State system, I chose Dan Diego State for my first two years of college. Taking full advantage of Southern California, I lived at Mission Beach and hitch-hiked to the campus, (that’s how it was done in those days!!). As a junior I went overseas to the University of Uppsala in Sweden. It was during that year that I was bitten by the travel bug. For the six week Christmas break, I traveled throughout Europe and as far south as Morocco where I explored the Casbah, drank mint tea and smoked keife from carved ivory pipes. I survived and so did my passion for adventure and travel. After graduating from Cal Berkeley and a brief residency in London, I pounded the San Francisco pavement looking for work – something, anything to do with music. Within a few days I talked my way into KSAN radio and a job as assistant to Program Director, Tom Donahue. (I reminded Tom that several years earlier, Terri Nugent and I, the publicity committee, had visited him at KMPX. He put us on the air to promote the First Annual Piedmont High School – Leonard J. Waxdeck Bird Calling Contest. That clinched the gig.) Tom’s Saturday night radio shows were somethin’ else and quite an education! I quickly advanced to Librarian(over 30,000 record albums) then to station Music Director. A few years later I moved from radio to the record business and began working as District Promotion Manager for EMI/Capitol Records. I continued this career while also doing a little acting in films and commercials. Burnout eventually ensued and I moved from Mill Valley to Sonoma County where the rest, as it is said, is history. I got my Real Estate license in 1986. Selling property has been a demanding yet fruitful and personally rewarding career.
My passion for travel has never waned. I’ve gone to sleep watching the moon rise over the Egyptian pyramids; swam with sharks at Rangiroa, a remote Tahitian atol. I’ve played golf on southern Thailand’s Phuket Island, avoiding water buffalo languishing on the fairways & greens, and rode elephants in the north to the opium dens of Chang Mai. I’ve skied in Switzerland; toured Tuscany and Loire Valley by bicycle, staying at castles and bed & breakfast inns in the middle of vineyards. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef was well worth the three weeks of sightseeing. My writing group spent ten days self-skippering a barge on France’s Canal du Midi – the result, a published collection of short stories. The most spectacular of trips was in 2006, sailing with six others on a yacht off the stunning southern coast of Turkey. While exploring ancient ruins on a secluded beach outside a village so remote it could only be accessed by boat, John surprised me and proposed. Amid family and friends at a ranch in Glen Ellen, we were married on 8-8-08.
Still living in beautiful Sonoma County, we recently moved to the Valley of the Moon. A State Park is just yards from our front door and we can walk or bike to a variety of wineries and terrific restaurants. Life is good.
That’s it in a nutshell....a bigger shell than you probably wanted, but the reminiscing reminded me of how fortunate I am and how blessed we all are to have roots in such a lovely town as Piedmont. I am looking forward to revisiting.

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