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Today's Featured Biography

 
Steve Fiedler

Wow, some great bios, got to get this done, it's 3 am and losing sleep thinking about it.
After High School graduation, I became a little more serious with my life and went to Cal Poly to be an aerospace engineer except the gov cut the funding. I found myself lacking in a few subjects, so I transfered to Rio Hondo College and completed an A.S. degree in Quality Control Technology. I enrolled at Cal State Univ. at L.A to continue for B.S in Bus. Mgmt. but my job got transfered to Garden Grove, Orange County, Ca. and the commute got to me. I was working full time during the day and going to college at night taking a full load. I tried several colleges close by, but finally decided I was burned out after 6 years of working days and school at night. Along with all the above, I was trying to start my own bus. I took many SBA courses, tried several attempts but to no avail. I was stressed, got an ulcer and my Doc said to take a month off. So I took a roadtrip to Fl. to visit my Grandmother and passed through Denver, CO and found my first wife. I moved and we married in Jan. 1977 and spent a year working for another machine shop. Then a chance came along to start my own bus. in Landscape Maint. of Commercial Properties. I had the bus. knowledge but needed the landscape, so I did what one professor taugh me, He said "if you don't learn anything else from this class, you will learn where to look it up". So I did and grew the bus. for 5 years and sold it. In the mean time, we started our family and decided we wanted to raise them in a smaller community, so we moved south about 100 miles to Penrose, Co., a small farm town and bought a apple orchard on 20 acres. As everybody hears, you can't make a living on a farm, so after the first year, I started another Landscape bus. in Co. Springs, Co. which was about 35 miles away. I grew the company and did well. In the mean time, we found out the small county we lived in wasn't as good a spot to raise kids as we thought, too many small town backward attitudes, so we moved to Co. Springs in 1991.
About this time, I had a mid-life crisis at 40 wondering how long I would have to keep up this pace. Though my wife was the one who did the cheating, I have to admit to 50% of the blame. So for the next 5 years, things were a mess for the kids who suffer the most. After a couple of years, I was given custody and proceded to raise my two boys, my daughter was already 17 and stayed with her Mom. Things settled down a bit, kids went to school and I continued operating and growing my bus. On Aug. 1, 1998, I met my current wife through a local dating service. She was an officer in the Air Force. We dated for 1.5 years till she was transfered to Minot, N.D to be a commander and put on the rank of Lt. Colonel. I proposed before she had to leave, talked everyday and met every month while she was away. Lenore was reassigned to Co. Springs and we were married at the Air Force Academy on June 15, 2002. My youngest son, David, graduated in 2005 and moved to the mtns. to work for Keystone ski area as a maintenance tech. and loves it. My oldest boy, Adam, has his own bus. similar to mine. My daughter works and has 5 children. In 2003 we took a vacation to visit my family in Garden Grove, Ca. for Christmas and stopped in Sedona, AZ. I had mentioned to Lenore that when I retire, I wanted to move to warmer climate west of the Continental Devide, and she loved Sedona. I fell in love with the area also, so we found a lot and bought it on Jan 1, 2004. We worked on house plans, prepared the bus. for sale and sold it in 2006. Lenore retired in 2004 after 27 years in the Air Force. We moved onto our lot in a 5th wheel and proceded to personally build our dream home for the next 15 months. It is an energy efficient green home made out of insulated foam blocks and filled with concrete and covered with stucco. We back up to the National Forest and have a view of a large red rock mountain and an outcropping called Rabbit Ears. We get to view deer, cayotes, javalinas, bobcats along with many types of birds. I also was able to build my dream garage all 1200 sq ft. We are both semi-retired. Lenore runs daily for exercise and does art projects and helps take care of our elderly neighbor, Bev along with other community projects. I like riding my bicycle to town daily, 3 miles, volunteering at a local state park fixing the equip and bldgs, camping, fishing, driving my 56 ford p/u and 1972 corvette, visiting the local Indian casino monthly and socializing with our neighbors. I'm currently installing drip irrigation systems for two neighbors and developing a hydrogen generator for my vehicles for better gas mileage. We visit relatives yearly in upstate N.Y. where Lenore was born and her Mother in the winter in Fl. We go to Colorado to visit the boys every year and my Sister's family in Garden Grove. I stay in touch and see Paul and Eva Fehrensen and his family and Will Heavelin. Life is good. Hope to see everyone at the reunion.

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