John Harrison  
John C Harrison
Married to Carol for 39 years.
Children: Ann Marie (Harrison) Frederick, 32, Washougal, WA. Three grandchildren.
WORK: First job, U. S. Marine Corps. Twenty years in the Marine Corps, twenty-seven years in the Aerospace industry in Southern California. Retired in 2005.
INTERESTS: Enjoying the Arizona outdoors, running and hiking. Visiting my daughter and her family. Having fun with my Macintosh computer. We are active in our church.
Significant Events: Very soon after graduation from LHS, I moved to Southern California and enrolled at Pasadena City College. After a year and a half, I left school and enlisted in the Marine Corps. That started me down a path that has pretty much shaped the course of my life since. Shortly after enlisting, I was accepted into a Marine Corps scholarship program and enrolled at the University of Colorado. I graduated from CU in 1963 with degrees in engineering and an officers' commission and continued my Marine Corps career. While stationed in Long Beach, California a few years later, I met my future wife, who is a Registered Nurse and at that time was in the Navy Nurse Corps. We were married in 1967. Several years later while stationed in North Carolina, we adopted our daughter. After leaving the Marine Corps in 1978, we returned to Southern California and lived in Mission Viejo in Orange County for 27 years until retiring and moving to the Tucson area last year.
Significant World Events: An historical event that had a direct impact on my life was the Viet Nam war. I served in Viet Nam in 1968-1969, and was fortunate to return home without a scratch.
CHANGES: I've changed a lot since high school, but mostly just the normal progression from pretty irresponsible kid to college student to working to being a husband and father to growing older.
REFLECTIONS: I feel very fortunate and blessed to have the life I've had, in my work life and especially, in my marriage. We're both pretty healthy, although my wife is a breast cancer survivor of eight years. Unless some really severe economic catastrophe happens, we will be OK financially. I do worry, however, about the world my grandchildren will be living in.