Pat Henkel Update

 
Fridley High School! Seems like an age ago. Oh, wait, it was an age ago! Maybe two ages. So – what’s been happening?
A major in astronomy turned out to be not possible at the University. The math did me in. Mrs. Ogren would have been so disappointed in me. So, thinking I had to have a practical major, I chose social work and worked for a year and a half with Girl Scouts in South Dakota before realizing this was totally the wrong track in jobs and locale for me. I joined a number of drop-outs from a first career in turning to computer programming, a job which has been very good to me. I worked for Lutheran Brotherhood for 10 years before joining a public accounting firm, Coopers and Lybrand as a computer auditor. They transferred me to Cleveland, another two dark years, where the job ended but some contacts with the firm recommended me to MCI, the other telephone company, in Washington, DC. This was way before Bernie Ebbers took over and destroyed the company. I was with them for 17 years, 9 in Washington and 8 in Dallas where they moved the engineering area. My brother, Gary, who was a year behind us, lives there and I was able to watch my niece and nephew graduate from college, marry, and get established, as well as watch Gary’s twin baby boys grow up. I very much enjoyed being closer to him and his family.

In 1999, just as the afore-mentioned Mr. Ebbers was taking over the company, I retired and moved back to Washington. I started volunteering at the Smithsonian, in the conservation area of the Museum of Natural History. That involved making pillows and boxes to house objects in the anthropology collection, mainly American Indian objects. The work itself was not greatly interesting – it was the joy of holding all the wonderful objects and communing with the makers and users of the objects. The department asked me to contract with them for specific jobs like taking down some of the displays at the museum (old, dusty displays that had been up for 50 years), and recently to help photograph some of the collection. I’ve enjoyed working with my hands, although computer skills have also been very useful.
All along this time I’ve enjoyed traveling, especially to historical areas, and have been active in my church and with the University alumni groups in various areas. Washington is a great place to live – so much to do and see and relatively easy to get many places.
So that’s my 50 years.