Photo

Photo

Photo

 

 

First Name

Jon

Last Name At Graduation

Deex

Current Last Name (if different)

Deex

E-mail address

jpdeex@msn.com

Website(s)

n/a

Telephone Number(s) h – w - c

h: 425-687-1607  w: 206-694-8004  c: 425-518-0023

Street Address

13528 SE 83rd Street  

City, State, Zip Code

Newcastle,  WA  98059

Country

USA

 

Family

wife: Amy, married since 1988; sons: Russell, 12 years old and Roland, 9 years old; dog “Pete” 7 years old

 

 

 

CHS Memories (Friends, Funniest story, Teachers, Events, Activities, Sports, Songs, Would like to forget…, etc.)

Only the good memories are left.  Great friends who still keep in touch with me, even though I’m not very good at keeping in touch with them.  Old friends who have made the effort to get back in touch – thanks!  Teachers that helped me prepare for higher education. I loved history with Morrison, chemistry (yes!), Waterpolo, CHS radio station, Grateful Dead, 20th reunion, going to the prom with Dori Donnell, a great place to grow up and come back to. But I never could get the hang of high school English – I’m probably the only person who never figured out what was going on in “Catcher in the Rye”.  

 

 

After High School (Career, Accomplishments, Favorite Activities, Message to classmates…, etc.)

I spent the first year after high school working on tow boats on the Mississippi River and reading Mark Twain.  I then attended Pomona College in Claremont, CA and graduated in 1979 with a BA in History (thanks Jeff Morrison). Claremont is about 30 miles east of Los Angeles.  In fact, my wife and I are attending our 25th Pomona reunion at the end of April.

After Pomona I lived in San Francisco and Palo Alto, CA from 1979 to 1986, with the exception of 1982 when I lived in Mexico City and part of 1984 that I spent in Atlanta.  I worked in the international shipping business during that time. I then decided to go back to school and get an MBA. I know MBAs are old hat now, but in the mid-80s it was the hot ticket.  Fortunately I stayed in touch with Bob Moog and with his help, I was accepted at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  Bob and I shared a house in Palo Alto for two years – I was in school and he was getting his company off the ground.  I will always be grateful to Bob for his good friendship during that time.

I graduated from the Stanford in 1986 and returned to the Los Angeles area and worked in marketing from 1986 to 1992.  Amy and I were married in 1988. Our first date was a St. Louis Cardinals/Los Angeles Dodgers game.  In 1990 I was involved in starting a business, which was a modest success. We sold the business to 3M Company and they asked me to move to Austin, TX to work for them.

It was a good time to get out of LA, so we moved to Texas.  We lived in Austin for over 7 years while I was at 3M.  I worked in product marketing and market development.  I finally realized it would take 20 years to get another promotion at 3M and we also decided we wanted to be closer to Amy’s family. 

We moved to the Seattle area in 2000 and I worked for an interesting service company as VP of Operations.  That company was eventually purchased by the largest public utility in Washington in 2002.  The utility company made 3M look like a start up, and I also wound up with a boss I couldn’t stand.  I quit in the spring of 2002 and spent the spring and summer going to Little League games, tying flies and working in the yard.

Towards the end of 2002 I hooked up with a small company that franchises home inspection services, where I work now.  So far, so good.  I like being in a small business and my job has a broad scope and a great deal of flexibility.  I hardly ever travel on business any more, I seem to get things done instead of attending meetings.  I’m starting to look at some other opportunities I can do on my own, so we’ll see where that goes.

 

The Seattle area suits us pretty well and I don’t think we’ll move again. I still like to fish, which I’ve been doing since I was 12 years old.  As Andy Eidelman says, I’m addicted.  Living in the Northwest provides lots of opportunities for fishing, hiking and camping.  My two kids are involved in Scouts and I have involved as an adult leader. One is still in Little League, his first year of “kid pitch”.  We went to the Yucatan for 8 days this February, visited 3 major Mayan ruins and spent quality time at the beach.  Mexico was an eye opener for our two boys.  I managed to spend a day fishing the salt water flats of Ascension Bay for bonefish, I recommend it to my fellow addicts. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone at the reunion.