Greetings from Melinda Soroka

Dear Class of '66:

I am glad to hear of plans for our 40th reunion. Rich and I have lived overseas for 22 of the past 24 years - in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and now Taiwan. After seven years in Taipei, we are returning to the US for retirement in the Hilton Head, SC area this month. We took up golf about 10 years ago and look forward to playing more now. I only wish I had learned sooner.

I caught up with Southwest classmates at the 20th reunion. At that time we were posted in Singapore. While in Singapore, I set-up a print communications company and handled publications and marketing media for clients such as Asian Home Gourmet, APEC, American Chamber of Commerce, etc. I missed the 30th reunion due to our move to Australia. In Australia, Rich was Army attache at our US embassy and I was the embassy's community liaison officer.

We moved to Taipei in 1999. Here, I was founding editor of a magazine for the expatriate community and was English language consultant to the Taipei mayor's protocol office. It was the mayor's goal to establish a bilingual environment within the city to make the city more international. I also had time for some volunteer work and golf.

During recent years, I have kept up with Brenda Nelson Szydlowski, met up with David Conner and his wife, Selina, in Singapore, met Virginia Jung Koenig at a dinner in Hong Kong, and met Frank Zilm on his way through Hong Kong to a computer modeling meeting in China. Once we are back in the US and unpacked we will decide if we can come to St Louis. It would be fun to catch up with old friends.

Many thanks to the reunion committees for organizing these events.

Best regards,
Melinda Soroka Welker

YOU CAN POST A MESSAGE TOO!

OK, What's your excuse for not posting with us? All you have to do is compose a note and send it to our blog, or just click comment on any blog and add a message. If you want to send a photo send it to dhman48@hotmail.com and I will post it (reasonably soon after) to the Southwest blog. Hey, it's starting to get warm here in Chicago, so that must mean it's getting hot in St. Louis.

See you all in July!!!!!!
Dennis Hayashi