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Today's Featured Biography

 
Jim Begg

It is hard to believe that the Edina Class of 57 will be having it's 50-year class reunion in a few months. After coming together to celebrate our 25th in July 1982 and our 40th in October 1997, another ten years have gone by. Thanks to a very dedicated team of classmates who have given a lot of time and effort to organizing our Fifieth Reunion, we'll all be coming togehter on the weekend of September 28-30 to renew acquaintances and share our different experiences.

Thinking back to the spring of 1957 when we graduated from Edina-Morningside High School, I have many fond memories. I could go on for several pages reminiscing about our final year in high school and the classmates, the teachers, the parents and the many memorable events that took place during 1956-57 and left such a positive impression on me all these years.

Graduating from Edina was the beginning of a new chapter in my life. The first of many. I went to Drake University and spent four wonderful years getting an education at the same time as I competed in track and field events all over the United States as a member of the Drake track team. It was during the time of segregation in the US and the sudden realization that a white suburban kid from the protected, leafy suburban environment of Edina, could not stay in the same hotel or eat in the same restaurant as my new black friends and teamamtes from Chicago, Kansas City, New York, St. Louis, etc. This was a real eye-opener for me.

Following graduation from Drake, I decided to go to Europe in February 1962. This was yet another chapter in my book of life - one that continues on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. I have lived and worked in Europe for more than 45 years. I was fortunate to have worked in only two companies during my professional career: Culligan International and Dentsu BLD Europe, a pan-European advertising agency in Brussels I managed 15 out of the 26 years I was a integral part of the agency. Both companies have given me tremedous personnal satisfaction, endless enriching experiences, a chance to grow and assume senior management responsibilities and the opportunity to work with so many wonderful people from different countries and diverse cultures. I retired from the agency two years ago in the position of Chairman and CEO.

For the past 14 years, I have been the President of the American Overseas Memorial Day Association (AOMDA), an all-volunteer, non-profit organization that ensures we will never forget the sacrifice of the 14.000 servicemen and women from WWI and WWII who are buried in the three American military cemeteries in Belgium. In the position, I have the privilege and honor to work closely with our US Ambassador, America's 3-star General and US Military Representative to NATO as well as other American and Belgium dignitaries and veteran organizations. Visit our website: www.aomda.org. We should never forget the sacrifice of those who died for the freedom we enjoy today.

My Dutch wife, Ineke, and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in March of this year in Cape Town,South Africa. We have two children. Our daughter, Jennifer, is married to a Belgian. After living in Oregon, California and Paris for a number of years, she and her husband returned to Brussels and live very close to us with their two children, Ethan (10) and Milla (8). David, our son, is married to a lovely girl from Des Monnies who he met while attending the University of Minnesota. They live in Minneapolis and are expecting their first child in November of this year.

Now that my wife and I are fully retired, we try to balance out time betweeen Brussels and Villefranche-sur-Mer. When we're not in the Capital of Europe or on the Côte d' Azur, we're either visitng family, friends or discovering new and exciting places we've never been to before. We are fortunate to both be in good health and super active.

I am looking forward to meeting all of my classmates again and having the opportunity to share the different vignettes of life we have all had during the past fifty years.

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