McPartland,
Jeff
* Home
1965(Vestal Central HS) 2005, Gettysburg, PA (Dick McCoy with Joan and Jeff McPartland)
Jeff can be reached at:
jdmpski@aol.com
The
Summer of ’65 found me working at IBM Endicott as a “temp” to earn
money
for college and I decided to stay on by the end of the summer even
though
guys were getting drafted around age 19.
Sometime in the next few
months
I decided to enlist in the Air Force and also to get married so I
did
both.
The
very best thing I’ve done since high school was to marry my wife, Joan
(formerly
Joan Hradisky). We fell in love
in the 10th or 11th grade and
like
the saying goes ‘I’d do it again’.
Together we raised 4 children to
adulthood,
all boys - Chris, Pat, Scott and Brian and so far we’ve been
blessed
with 4 grandchildren - Alex, Zack and Christopher.
Our
granddaughter,
Rachel, was born in 1999 and lived only 8 months but taught
us
a lot in the short time she was with us.
We celebrated our 39th
anniversary
April 16.
Joan
and I were married in April 1966 and I left for basic training 3 weeks
later. We spent the next 4 years in San Antonio, Texas where our
first two
children
were born and I learned to write news stories.
After the Air
Force
I returned to IBM for a short time and next headed off to college;,
first
to Broome Technical Community College for a year to get the grades I
never
earned in high school, and then to SUNY Binghamton where I graduated
in
1975. We had the opportunity to move a couple more times after that
...
Wilmington,
Delaware and San Francisco, California for a short assignment
and
finally settled in Camp Hill, PA right after the “Three Mile Island”
notoriety
in 1979. We thought this would be
another 4-5 year assignment
but
it became our permanent home as the kids got older and our inclination
to
move declined.
I
retired from IBM 3 years ago but went to work immediately as a consultant
doing
essentially the same project management work in the “parts” business.
I
had a variety of careers all with the same company ... manufacturing,
education,
management, marketing, distribution and project management.
Joan
helped put me through college by working for ‘Ma’ Bell and then took
time
away from work to spend more time with our boys and later returned to
work
in the medical claims field and now pursues the ‘bad guys’ committing
Medicare
fraud.
My
main interests over the years outside of family and work have been
bicycling,
traveling and skiing and Joan likes the last two but decided no
one
of sound mind likes riding on two wheels in traffic and if God had
wanted
her to do this then he’s have built her more in the shape of a
bicycle
seat ... or something like this. She
is also a fabulous cook,
mother
and grandmother. I got into
bicycle camping and traveling when our
kids
were young and more easily motivated to go with me and while they grew
out
of it I never did. Fortunately,
God must have wanted Joan to ski
because
this is one sport we came late to that we both enjoy.
And the
grandchildren
- we both enjoy spending time with our grandchildren.
The
nice
thing we’ve found about the grandchildren is that it’s not a full time
job
and you can give them back.
go
to next classmate: next
classmate