Jerry Dannar

I joined the Army in December 60, and went to Berlin, Germany when the infamous "Wall" was built. Returned to West Germany later that year and traveled all over Europe playing football for the Army for the next three years. I was a model soldier while I was in the Army and was promoted to PFC seven times. In 64 they told me they would give me an Honorable Discharge and a free ride back to California if I would promise not to re-enlist. I took'em up on it.

I returned to Baldwin Park in 64, got married and had two daughters. Worked for Carnation Company in Los Angeles for 5 years, and got divorced in 69. I'm not really sure what I did for the next 4 or 5 years, but it had something to do with drugs, booze and motorcycles. I grew long hair and a beard and lived in rest stops and truck stops on Highway 99 somewhere between San Diego and San Francisco. Somehow during that time I managed to go to Mt SAC on the GI Bill and get an Associate Degree in Industrial Technology - go figure!

In 74 I went to work for Zacky Foods in Los Angeles, and later that same year met Tracy Ryan and her Son Paul. Tracy and I were married in 75 and a year later we moved to Massachusetts, where I went to work for a food processing company in Boston. Moved to Oklahoma in 77 and went to work on a cattle ranch. Punched cows and baled hay for a couple of years but couldn't make a living at it - almost starved to death. The cattle ate better than we did.

Went to work for an oil company in 79, and returned to the daily grind. Didn't care for the shift work as a refinery operator so I went back to school in 84, graduated with a Bachelors degree in Human Resorce Management in 88 and moved up to Personnel Manager shortly after that. Got a promotion to Manager Of Employee Training and Organizational Development in 90.

Later that same year I accepted a position with an oil company in New Orleans to manage the training and safety departments in their Mobile, Alabama refinery. In 93 I got one of those offers you just can't refuse from an oil company on the East Coast, and that's where I am now. I'm the Manager Of Refinery Training with Amerada Hess Corporation in Woodbridge, New Jersey. Check it out on the internet, we have some cool little toy trucks, and lot's of high priced gasoline for sale. Tracy is an Executive Secretary for the Chief Of Pathology at the Robert Woods Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It's the teaching hospital for Rutgers University Medicall School. Our home address is 44 Apple Street, Edison, New Jersey 08817. If you're in the neighborhood stop by and say hello.

I adopted Tracy's Son Paul in 1980, and between him and my two daughters we have 6 grandkids. Paul is a Warrant Officer in the US Army and is a Human Resource Manager at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Debbie, my oldest daughter lives in Alhambra and is an Administrative Assistant for an insurance company in Pasadena. Cyndi, my youngest daughter lives in Glendora and is a Human Resource Manager for a printing company in Pasadena.

Tracy and I are both recovering from a motorcycle vs. truck confrontation last August. The score is, truck 1 - motorcycle 0. The guy in the truck was in a hurry to get home so he ran a stop sign and t-boned us in an intersection. We both got banged up pretty bad but we made it. Tracy had a broken back, torn spleen, dislocated jaw and multiple fractures of the right leg - I had broken ribs, punctured lung, dislocated shoulder and broken right leg. Everything has healed up pretty well except my leg, it was amputated on January 5th of this year.

We are on a mission now to fully recover in time for the class reunion in September. Hope to see all of you there. Jerry