Rich East High School
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Walter Stemmler*
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Greetings! Looking forward to seeing you all in June.

I've been living in California since shortly after we all graduated from Rich, first in Berkeley for nearly 30 years, and now in neighboring Oakland (having grown out of the Berkeley mind set).

I did a twenty+ year stint in the trades (mostly auto repair, with many of the building trades mixed in), and am now 14 years into a second career, in law.

My wife Mary and I have been married for almost 19 years. She put me through law school during the first 4 years of our marriage, while helping to raise my two kids from an earlier marriage (candidate for sainthood).

I work as a legal research attorney for the Alameda County Superior Court, in one of the two "Complex Litigation" departments. Yes, I ended up as a civil servant! After eschewing the academic life for many years (never did make it to undergraduate school), I am now in a job that is as purely academic as you can find outside of an institution of higher learning. I am, in essence, a judge's ghost writer, and I love it!

In my spare time I am completely rebuilding our home in Oakland, with Mary's help (more points towards her sainthood). We plan to retire here, and have even incorporated a place for a wheelchair lift in the remodeling plan. We also have great retirement travel plans ... now all we need to do is figure out how to pay for it all.

Mary and I managed to get our two kids through puberty and on into adulthood. Our son, Rhett (now age 28) is a seasonal wildlands firefighter for the State of California, hoping to parley his several seasons of experience and many firefighting classes into a full time position in due time. Our daughter, Erika (age 24) is an emergency medical technician ("EMT"), married to a career firefight/paramedic with the Sacramento City Fire Department. Erika just gave birth to our first grandchild on April 21, 2008, and we couldn't be more excited! He is definitely the most beautiful baby ever born!

Life is good ... really good.