My Apologies

For whatever reason, I missed this important news item from about a year ago.  I ran into Peggy Christie recently.  Although our paths crossed very little in high school, it was great to get reacquainted and catch up on some news.  Much of her married life was spent in Philip, SD, but she, her husband and children recently moved back home, and have settled in the Volga area.  Coincidentally, Peggy's youngest sister Melissa was a student of mine in the mid-80's.  She obtained an electrical engineering degree from SDSU, supplemented later by a Master's, and is presently employed at Medtronics in the Twin Cities area (http://www.medtronic.com/).  She told me a little about her work there.  It was rather complex, and was involved with defibrillation.  She has two daughters, both of whom seem to be quite accomplished soccer players.  To my astonishment, she informed that her father had passed away about a year ago.  For some reason, I was completely unaware of his passing.  My sincere apologies for failing to catch this in the local papers.  My personal contact with Mr. Christie was virtually non-existent.  When we had parent-teacher conferences, he was probably so busy on the farm that he could not afford to take time off from his busy schedule to attend, so his wife came and I was fortunate to get to know her somewhat.  At that time, homerooms were comprised of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.  The students stayed with the same homeroom teacher for all three years, so I was fortunate to be Melissa's homeroom teacher  for that stretch.  Hence, I was able to get rather well acquainted with Mrs. Christie during those three years. Her daughter's academic success speaks for itself, and indicates the influence that her parents and her sisters had on her. 

Mr. Christie's obituary can be found at http://eidsnessfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/Eidsne1/obit.cgi?user=1001114Christie#.  It is easy to see and to appreciate the wonderful qualities that he possessed and later passed on to his children.  Note that he maarried Elizabeth Gene Buller.  Would this be a relative (an aunt perhaps) of David and Diane Buller of our class? 

Our belated thoughts and prayers go out to the Christie family, and my apologies for overlooking his passing.