Married to a great guy with four married grown daughters and five grandchildren.  Leads medical mission teams to Russia each year (working on #8 for January of 2011) and hasn't stopped yet.  For more than 30 years, I worked in the shopping center industry which included numerous grand openings, annual meetings, planning holiday campaigns and all the rest.  I couldn't have done a better job on this site. 

I became a registered nurse.  I retired years ago.   I have 3 grandchildren (ages 21, 17, and 12).  My son and his family live in Iowa.  My daughter lives 3 blocks away from us in Milwaukee.  I love knitting, reading and counted cross-titch.  I've entered crafts in the WI State Fair and have been fortunate enough to win a few blue ribbons.

Detroit-area resident since graduation from Northwestern University.  Formerly Ford Motor product (axles/suspensions, etc.) engineer and Detroit Symphony concert hall manager.  Enjoy second residence on shore of Saginaw Bay in northern Michigan.  Travels have included Scotland, Africa, Australia,New Zealand, Fiji, Baffin Island, and Antarctica.  A sister, Ann Wedepohl Siegl (husband was Sheboygan fireman), lives in Sheboygan.

I graduated from Ripon College and commissioned a 2^nd Lieutenant in June 1963. My college roommate in college was Gordon Meseck.  I spent the next 21 years in the Army in the Adjutant General Corps (Personnel & Administration) with two tours in Viet Nam.  Some of my other duty stations included Okinawa, Germany, Turkey, Ft Ben Harrison, IN, Ft Knox, KY, Ft Devens, MA, and Ft Sheridan, IL.  I have 3 sons and a daughter.  I met my wife, Geri, at Ft Ben Harrison, IN, Officers Club.  My children were born in:  Germany, New York, Massachusetts, and Georgia.  I retired from the Army in 1985 as a Lieutenant Colonel and then followed my wife on her assignment to Korea, where she commanded a battalion, and I was Mr. Mom to our 1 year old daughter.  After my wife retired from the Army in 1990, we permanently moved to Wausaukee, WI, where we still reside.

I am an author and I wrote a book titled "Life Does Not Come With Guarantees" and it was published by iUniverse in 2006. It is an inspirational story of love, loneliness, abuse and faith. I recently wrote a mystery novel which is being edited now and a children's book which is waiting for the artist to finish two pictures. When they become published I will let you know.  Last year, just before my sixty-ninth birthday, I walked one hundred miles in one month and swam with the stingrays. This year before my seventieth birthday I wanted to do something outrageous. Something my children would talk about after my time on this earth was up. I decided to go Tandem Skydiving. I asked my two sons to jump with me so I didn't have to go alone.  To my amazement all of my children (five) wanted to jump also.   On August 28, 2010, in East Troy, Wisconsin, my family, including grandchildren and great grandchildren gathered to watch us skydive. Three of my five children (two had medical reasons for not jumping) and I accomplished a Tandem Skydive. It was awesome! I thought I would be terrified and that my heart would be pounding, but that didn't happen. I jumped out of an airplane from two and a half miles up and it was such a rewarding experience.  My children and I together, created a legacy that we will never ever forget. After the parachute opened and I was floating in air, a sense of peace came over me that was indescribable.  I felt like an angel hovering over the earth.  My reason for writing this story; is to tell you senior citizens out there, that no matter what age you are, you can accomplish amazing things in your life yet. Get out there and enjoy your senior years. I am going to have a hard time topping that experience for my next birthday, my seventy-first. Stay tuned!

I am retired.  I have two daughters and one son.  I also have two grand-daughters and three grandsons.  I have not lived in Sheboygan for many years, but I am interested in the addresses of where the reunion committee meetings will be held.

After high school graduation, I attended Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, majoring in graphic design.  I worked in the cities of Minneapolis, Chicago, Kohler (where I started and directed the Kohler Company in-house art department in 1975) and Washington, D.C.  I was art director for many major accounts such as Amtrak, American Red Cross, Fairchild Industries, Smithsonian Institution, Chrysler Corporation, Time-Life Books, and The World Bank.  After a 35-year career in the advertising field, I embarked on new ventures in fine arts painting and photography.  I am working as a teacher/educator.  I teach in elementary schools, started and directed two after-school programs and work with at-risk children.  I have written two children's books which will soon appear on my new website (details to follow).

I was born September 29, 1940...oh no, wait, I won't make you read that far back. :)  

Clarence and I are retired and live in the same house that we build in 1964. It was are starter home and now is our retirement home. Clarence retired from the Kohler Company in 2002 and I operated an interior design business out of our house for forty-three years retiring in 2008.

After graduating from highschool, I earned a degree in Human Ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1963 as Mrs. Clarence Salzwedel, as we were married on Easter Weekend of my senior year. 

We have one son, Charles (Chuck) Salzwedel who is 45 and lives in Oregon Wisconsin with his wife and three children ages 22 (Ashley a senior at UW Madison in nursing), 17(Jonathon a junior in highschool interested in bioengineering), and 10 Jacob (a fifth grader who loves soccer and football in that order).

 Allen and I were married October 14, 1961.  We will be celebrating our 50th Anniversary next year. Time flies when you are having fun! I run the gift shop at church.  I have managed it since 1987. Over the years we have met a lot of nice people and friends through the gift shop. We adopted two children and then we had a surprise package. David was 7 months old when we got him.  He turned 44 years old on November 17th.  Laura was only 1 month old when we got her on Halloween.  She was 41 years old on September 29th.  Kathleen was born on August 31st.  She is 40 years old.  We have three wonderful kids.  They all live in town. They are close enough that the grandchildren can walk over (and they do!). We have 5 grandchildren and 2 Great-grandchildren. Summer is a busy time for us.  We have a large garden and two 21 cubic foot freezers which we fill.  We have a variety of fruits and vegetables.  This year we had a bumper crop on raspberries.  We had over 31 quarts of them.  Lots to share! So, between the kids, grandchildren, and church we have a pretty busy life.  We do find time to take bus trips too. A little gambling can be lots of fun! Oneida, Meskwaki (Iowa), and the Island Resort are nice little trips.

I am Developer/President of SEED Publishers, Inc., author, TV host, lecturer, founder of Degenhardt Educationals, and Christian counselor.  I hold a Master of Science Degree in Social Work from the University of Tennessee School of Social Work and a Bachelor of Science Degree, Cum Laude from Belmont University, Nashville, TN, with a major in psychology and a minor in religion.

Currently,  I serve as a Christian counselor in the Nashville, TN area.  My objective is to provide practical Christ-centered individual, group, and family counseling and teaching services for individuals, groups, and families.  Specific areas of expertise include individual and family restoration, grief and loss, depression, boundary issues, dependency, co-dependency and addiction, changing a relationship or behavior, building  God focused self-concept, spiritual concerns, and heart healing.

The encouragement and hope that I bring to my ministry springs from my deep faith in God and my own personal experience.  I help individuals and families who feel trapped in their situations find a way through them, pointing them toward Jesus Christ as healer and deliverer.  Years ago when I, myself found Christ, I also found the ministry to which He had called me.

Long years of study and preparation in fulfilling my calling and being obedient to Christ followed. For Ten years at the Alcohol and Drug Council of Middle TN, I established a counseling program in a large inner city high school and was responsible for training school staff, students, and parents in prevention and intervention activities.  I also established student support groups, provided short-term individual and group counseling sessions and worked with area businesses, creating a supportive community for prevention.

Then, for two years at the Alcohol and Drug Council, I served as Clinical Director at 16 area schools. I assisted in the creation of a team atmosphere among clinical staff, conducted program site visits, coordinated program progress, evaluated successes and identified areas needing improvment.

In 1987 I founded Degenhardt Educationals, a non-profit 501 (c)(3) Educational, Counseling Ministry.  Out of this came the development of the Degenhardt Family Learning system, illustrating how addiction and other problem behaviors disrupt the family balance.  A poster illustrating 35 different addictions and problem behaviors was also designed.

In 1997, I established SEED Publisher, Inc., which has published four of my books.  I teach and counsel from a Biblical perspective, focusing on individuals' emotional and spiritual growth.  My years of professional experience combined with my Christian faith have given me a wise and balanced approach.  My ministry is healing and restorative.  For more information visit my web site at:  www.seedpublishers.com

Thursday April 25, 2019

Hello friends and fellow classmates,

Time to briefly reminisce. I majored in Spanish at UW-Madison and taught in California, Colorado, and the Wisconsin Northwoods.   Also taught English to Mexicans in Mexico. My love for the outdoors pervades everything I do.....I find peace there.  I’ve developed a great fondness for the West and its history, but the years in Wisconsin are never far away in thought.  I thank God for all that I am and all I have done.

Bless us all, the class of ’59.

Sincerely,

Karen Zenke Coates