After high school, I attended Oberlin College where I initially studied French horn, but gave that up for what I thought was a more practical choice: English literature. Well, hardly even that; essentially, I just took all the history, philosophy, religion, art history, and literature courses that interested me and it added up to a 19^th century studies major in the English department. Upon graduation, I was dismayed to learn that we were in the 20^th century and much of what I’d studied was outdated. So I followed my college girlfriend to California, married her, and trimmed trees for eight years. This afforded ample time to read more history, philosophy, and literature, and come to the conclusion that barring a more practical degree I would probably continue to trim trees. I completed a Masters in Public Administration and landed a job assisting a municipal Public Works Director whom everyone thought was a curmudgeon. He didn’t particularly want an assistant and suggested that I should just go figure out what to do and keep him posted on my progress. Then, the city ran out of water. Suddenly there was a lot to do. Since I wasn’t particularly busy with anything else, I got to do a lot of it. I wrote water conservation ordinances, negotiated with water agencies, designed a toilet rebate program, investigated water supplies, and helped the City Council figure out what to do. Pretty soon people forgot about my tree trimming days and assumed I was a water expert. I took another job as a Water Resource Manager and managed a $16 million surface water diversion construction project, negotiated a few really complicated water deals, and doubled the water resources available to the water district. When my boss, a fellow English major, retired, I moved to my current position as Manager of Special Projects for our county’s wholesale water district.  I still get to sort out water problems that send most people running screaming out of the room. Unfortunately, this includes implementation of the Clean Water Act which involves way too much chemistry for my taste. I’m still married to my college girlfriend, Anne, and we have a lovely 15-year-old daughter, Eliza. I write light verse, play jazz on vintage trumpets, go to the opera, and am a partner in a corporation developing a secret invention that we hope will transform sewage collection systems and make us all rich. I’m commonly mistaken for a lawyer, geologist, or engineer; but no one ever guesses that I spent my formative years just reading novels. Sorry to be missing the reunion, but would enjoy hearing from any of you. Regards, Henry