John Engstrom

Well folks, we have our first (but not last!) European respondent. John Engstrom writes:

It is fun to read up on everyone. What great stories and what a group of talented and successful people. Seeing the pictures reminded me that the reunion was far too short and hurried. There was absolutely no way I could talk to, let alone see, all the people I wanted to. Let me be the first to register a vote for a reunion weekend for the 30th.

Your e-mail finds me just finishing up my first year in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Yup, you read correctly. Aside from the usual vampire jokes...people are just dying to be here... it is a beautiful country. I am here with my wife Kathy and our three small children Cole, Callan, and Luke (8, 5, and 19 months). I re-upped (sounds very military doesn't it?) with Bechtel and am currently the field engineering manager for the Autostrada Transilvania. You can check it out at www.autostradatransilvania.ro if you are at all interested. It is a basic highway project made very difficult by the mess of local politics and 60 years of communist thinking. A local town just re-elected the dead incumbent...what more is there to say?

After Northgate I went to Arizona State University where I eventually got a degree in civil engineering after first getting one in English Lit. I think it took a few years to shake Mr. Friss' influence. In any case, with that I went to work in Boston for a few years where I met my lovely wife and then promptly dragged her back to San Francisco where I went to Stanford [go Cardinal! -ed.] for an MS in civil engineering. We settled in the City for a few years and then moved out to Pleasant Hill. I worked for a local general engineering contractor until last August when the opportunity to work in overseas came up.

We were both looking for a change in venue and figured that there could be worse places to take your family so we packed everything up, sold the house, and moved to Romania. Our home is always open to anyone who happens to find a need to wander through. engstroms AT hotmail.com