John Baptiste

Married 17 years, served 21 years in the Marine Corps (U.S.M.C. retired), acquired a BA in Criminal Justice Administration.

June 3, 2010. Hello everyone...I regret to inform everyone in the class that I will be unable to attend our beloved class reunion this year because of a recent job offer overseas (a managerial/supervisory position) in Japan. I leave this July 6th and will be there from 3-5 yrs.

It was a hard decision for me to make and for many various reasons. I had even purchased my airline ticket back in January, that's how excited I was in coming back home and seeing everyone again for the reunion.

It's a bittersweet feeling, right now, and in a sense, it's really come at a bad time. I had just got accepted into the graduate program at USC, too..it's not going to happen (back burner).....talk about bad timing. But on the flip side, when I weighed it all out, it was a big opportunity for me to get my wife back over to Japan and back to her people (near Tokyo). Additioanlly, after having been in the states for a long time now, her waiting out my time in the military, through all the deployments, raising the family, and everything else for the last two decades, I had to accept this opportunity on her behalf.

In closing , I want all my classmates to know that you will always be in my thoughts and prayers! A special shot out to Valerie Donar! I'll have to be at the next one. LOL

God Bless!!!!

I don't know what to call this one, but it certainly was not my finest hour, a less than brainiac moment. I was so excited to see the home economics teacher oneday in my junior year (Mrs. Chambers) that I kissed her right on the cheek in front of the Vice Principle (Mr. McKinley) in the hallway...she instantly took me to the side and gave me a real good reprimand...I'll never forget it! (grin)