From the Okanogan County, Washington Gazette-Tribune: "Vernon Orville Wills celebrated his 100th birthday on June 18th, 2005. He is retired from Lawrence Radiation Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley where he redesigned control circuitry from vacuum tubes to transistors." He lives in Tonasket, Washington. Some of us may remember him.

In June, Hank ( Engineering, 1991) and Marian McDonald celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by taking the whole family on a Carnival Cruise to the Western Caribbean. They were very lucky with the weather, and all (13) had a grand time. The grandchildren loved the giant waterslide. See Retirees website for photo.

Fritz Frick and his wife Regina just returned from a trip to their home town, Ulm, Germany. He sent a post card with a picture of the Munster Church, which has the tallest steeple, ~500 feet, in the world. This town is also the birth place of Albert Einstein.

Jane (Engineering, 1993) and Pat (Mechanical Engineering, 1990) Ellis just returned from a two month motor home trip to Canada. In Calgary they took a tour: parade, (sheep dogs herding sheep), rodeo, fireworks, etc. Though the fireworks were outstanding, they felt it was over priced. They saw some beautiful country, wild animals, mountains, waterfalls. Jane's favorite RV park was Revelstoke; it was totally fantastic. The Mall in Edmonton (largest in the world) is something else, 800 stores with swimming, ice ring, everything!!!

Marlys Hanson (EE, 1991) and her husband moved to Saddle Creek Golf Resort near Copperopolis about 3 years ago. Their son is near Modesto and their daughter is near Angles Camp, so this is a central location. She is doing some consulting - for BP (British Petroleum.) Her book, PASSION AND PURPOSE, is being used as the text for graduate-level career decision courses at Northwestern U, Regent University and the Harvard School of Divinity. She is doing career assessments via the Internet - so her "retirement" plan of working from her deck is shaping up! (E-mail: mhanson@caltel.com)

Ron (Mechanical Engineering, 1990) and Barbara (Mechanical Engineering, 1993) Hill. have been Trail Safety Patrol volunteers for the East Bay Regional Park District for the past ten years. Their main focus is educating the public about the fifty-five parks, observing, reporting and enjoying while walking some of the 1,000 miles of trails. Helping at special events are an added bonus and walking in the Danville Fourth of July Parade has become almost a tradition. (E-mail: BJuneHill@aol.com) (More next month)

The August Retiree luncheon will be at noon Wednesday, August 17th, at the Elks Lodge, 940 Larkspur Drive, Livermore. LLNL physicist, Curt Covey, will discuss the scientific basis for believing that global warming is caused by human activities like fossil fuel consumption. Curt works on the Lab's atmospheric sciences program to evaluate and compare leading climate models - an effort at which Livermore is an international leader.

Please send any news or input (please include the date and department from which you retired) to Jane or Gus Olson. E-Mail: Jane@LLNLRetirees.org or Gus@LLNLRetirees.org.

This article appears in the first August, 2005, issue of Newsline.