Julie is very happy on this Bahaman cruise. She went with her mother and left me with the kids.

Dana and Erica are pumped up for the first day of school last fall.

Why is this man smiling? It's because he has new sunglasses!

David Rasmussen:

After recovering from a massive hangover at the Central graduation party at Zainer's house, I went to work as an apprentice ironworker in the summer of 1977. My future father-in-law, Ron Slawson, helped me get in the union on a temporary "book". From there it was on to Northern Illinois to try and win a football scholarship. I failed at that, and after a very short stint at UWM and a 'D' in Accounting, I went back to ironwork construction for about four more years. Many of the metal buildings I built then are still standing in and around Milwaukee.

I left construction in 1982 and attained a B.S. in Industrial Education at UW--Stout in '85. Got into industrial training with Allen-Bradley in Detroit and Milwaukee, then Mercury Marine in in Fond du Lac, and now with International Paper for 13 years--eight of them in Memphis at our corporate headquarters. Before I left for Memphis, I knocked out my M.Ed. in Education at Marquette.

When I came back from Stout in 1985, I met Julie Slawson (WAC '83) in the beer tent at the St. Aloysius festival. As you all know, Wisconsin + beer + man + beer + woman = marriage. We married in October of 1986 and today have two excellent girls, Dana (12) and Erica (10). Some of you may remember my sister Ann (WAC '78). She is married, also with two girls, and lives in Franklin today.

Our big family activity and retreat is camping. We have a large Coleman pop-up and try to camp about 8 times a year. Julie works in Accounting for the Memphis metro YMCA. My hobbies include working out, computer stuff, and since 1995, vintage model cars like the ones I built as a kid. I even bought a 1973 GTO and use it on weekends to race the high school kids in their souped-up ricer cars. All that stuff is recorded on my web site at www.showrods.com. This mid-life crisis stuff is getting expensive.

Since I graduated from high school, I've spent 2/3 of my time living out of Wisconsin. I travel about 40% of the time while I work on training and quality issues at my company's 60 boxplants around the U.S. I hope to retire with International Paper, but I won't stay in Memphis. I plan to come back to Wisconsin if I can re-acclimate my wife to the cold. Although I get up there twice a year or so for deerhunting and visiting my old Fond du Lac facility, there are many things I miss. After 25 years of traveling the country, I've concluded that Wisconsin is a pretty good place.

Since life is not a dress rehearsal, I'm fixin' to have a lot of fun with 'yall Labor Day weekend. Perhaps if I spend the weekend with a bunch of good ole' Milwaukeans, I'll lose this Memphis accent.

Dave