Class News

Today's Featured Biography

 
Mary Belden Laughlin

From 40 year: Basics - Current
Where are you living? South OP
What you are you doing? Work part-time for Cerner
Tell about your family and friends: Jim and I have been married for 33 years, we have two children. Jim has been teaching Special Ed at Blue Valley High School for over 20 years, where he has coached various sports over the years. He also teaches drivers ed during the summer. We have two children, Allison is 27. She is an assistant manager of two Chik-fil-A franchises in the Atlanta area. Logan, her husband of 2 weeks, works for Norfolk Southern Railroad, they just moved to Atlanta in January. Our son, Sean, is 24, he is currently working as a special ed para while he finishes his Masters in Special Ed from KU, following in his fathers footsteps. He played baseball in college and after two decades of going to watch him play we now go to watch him coach, he coaches the freshman team at Fayetteville High School and a summer team. He and his wife, Megan, live in Fayetteville, AR, where she is working on her Ph.D in Biomedical Engineering. They have two wonderful dogs. We don’t get to see them nearly as often as we’d like, but keep up a lively connection via a group text and have a family fantasy football league each year. Jim has a daughter, Jennie, SMW ‘97, who is the Director of the Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site. She and her wife Meghan have two children, Connor, 9 and Edyth, 5.

The Extras
What do you like to do when you're not working? Read, Pilates, crafts, Netflix, travel, genealogy
Have you changed cities since High School? We spent 4 years in Lansing, MI for my OB/GYN residency, otherwise have lived in KCK and Johnson County. Last 27 years in South OP
Have you had career changes? Yes, I was in a private practice OB/GYN group at Shawnee Mission Medical Center for 11 years. When health problems forced me to leave that I stayed home with the kids for several years, then taught part-time at several schools around the area including JCCC. For the past 3 years have worked part-time for Cerner.
Are your parents still around and do you see them often? My father passed away in 2011, my mother is still alive and is 85, she lives at Tallgrass Creek, along with my mother-in-law, 89, we have brunch with them pretty much every Sunday.
If you have children or grandchildren, what would you like others to know about them? Connor attends the Academie Lafayette, a French Emersion charter school in KCMO. Two years ago Jim took him to work with him on take your child to work day, he sat in on the AP French class and the high school kids were blown away by his conversational skills. Also, at my son’s wedding 2 years ago he stunned us all, including his mothers, by having amazing dance skills, which he showed off again, at my daughters wedding last month. We don’t get to see the kids as often as we’d like, living in the same metro area doesn’t always make it easy.
Do you know who lives in your old home or on your old street? No, it has been sold many times since my parents moved out about 25 years ago.
Which classmates, if any, do you see regularly? I see Susan Yates Klotz occasionally at Tallgrass, where I see her parents nearly every week. My kids went to school with Mary Bins’ kids, playing on sports teams and dance teams together throughout the years and I’m still in touch with her via FB. Brian Hofbauer was my son’s football coach for several years in elementary and middle school.
Anything good/hard that you'd like others to know about? Life doesn’t always go the way you plan, a couple of times I’ve had health issues change the direction of our lives. Most recently I’ve undergone treatment for breast cancer during the past year. All is good, it was not aggressive. Thankfully I’ve had the support of my wonderful husband and family during these difficult times. I’m fast approaching the point where the last baby I delivered will be 18, many people ask if I miss it, but I’m just thankful for being able to spend more time with my children and be more involved in their lives because I was unable to continue practicing.
What's a fun fact/something unique that you can tell us about? While I was practicing the TLC show about high risk pregnancies came and did a segment at St. Luke’s Hospital, whose perinatologists also worked at SMMC. I had a patient with a heart problem that was featured, so there I was on this TV show doing a c-section - not something I was very comfortable with.


From 30 year reunion: Okay, so I'm sitting at work (supervising a lab class) and I check my e-mail and decide to look through the class book. I got inspired to write a little more (there are 45 minutes of class left). It was great to see what everyone has been doing for the past 30 years, some of us staying close to home while others of you, well have seen the world!
After graduation I went to Ottawa University where I played volleyball for 4 years while I got my degree in biology. Then went to KUMC for my MD. During my years there I met my husband Jim (married 23 years I think). He came with a 4 year old daughter (SMW class of '97) who will make us grandparents early next year!!
After graduation we went to Lansing,MI for my OB/GYN residency for 4 years. Came back to OP in 1991 where I went into private practice at SMMC. I practiced for 11 years before retiring due to some health problems, during my time in practice ran into quite a few classmates as coworkers, patients or husbands of patients!! Last year I decided that rather than stay home and do such I bad job as homemaker -- my taxi services weren't needed as much with Allison getting her license. So I went to work part-time teaching Anatomy and Physiology at Colorado Technical University. It's nice and low-key with out the politics of a medical center. And leaves me time for the kids activities.
We have two children and live in South OP. Remember the old YMCA football and softball fields, we live about 5 minutes from them and for those of you who haven't been back in awhile -- well it's wall-to-wall suburbia.
My husband was in the Country Club/
Hotel management business when I met him, but has been teaching for the past 11 years, he is currently the Behavior Disorders (special ed.) teacher at Blue Valley High, where he has also coached baseball, softball and girls golf. He started teaching driver's ed this summer for one of the private companies in town.
My daughter Allison will be a senior at BV Northwest this fall. She has danced since she was little -- since second grade with Mary Wells (Bins) daughter and they are currently on drill team together.
Sean will start high school this fall. He is obsessed with sports -- did anyone else hear of Michael Jackson's death on Sportscenter? Has tried most of them -- and can you believe his football coach for 3 years was none other than Brian Hofbauer!! But he only plans to play baseball in high school (and if I'm lucky study a little!!)
I am always amazed at how many people we run into who went to West (more and more though they are getting younger!). And you know it is a small world when your parents move into a retirement community and at least two of your high school classmates have parents living there too! I guess that's the next stage of our lives. Look forward to seeing everyone -- but there are alot of you out there who never come to the reunions who I would love to catch up with! Drop me an e-mail.

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