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The Story of Mike and Sandy Heller
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After working 41 years in the telecommunications industry, Mike retired from Cisco Systems in June of 2004.
Mike is now spending lots of time building houses
for Habitat for Humanity and traveling, but still does a little bit of consulting for
various financial institutions and technology companies. Mike was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but when he was 3, his mother's asthma prompted his parents to pack up and move to El Paso, Texas -- hence it's hard to guess his birth place from his accent. Mike grew up in a warm and sunny climate, where rain was infrequent and it practically never snowed. Mike's full name is actually John Michael Heller, but he is known by different names in different circles. As a child, he was always Mickey or Mike, and later gravitated to Mike or Michael. The U.S. Air Force insisted that everyone be known by "first name, middle initial, and last name," so John M. Heller came into some use. Now a days, due to security, Mike usually buys airline tickets exactly like his passport, John Michael Heller. After graduating from Burges High School in El Paso, he went off to college in Las Cruces, New Mexico, earning a degree in Electrical Engineering. Also during his years in college, he found time to get married to Kathy, a fellow student, and to have his first child. That marriage spanned 18 years, 3 children, and lots of experiences and household moves. After a divorce, he spend a coule of years on his own before venturing out into the singles scene again (a bit scary when approaching 40 years of age!). It didn't turn out so bad, and after meeting lots of nice people, when Sandy introduced herself one day, he knew he had to try marriage again. Mike and Sandy have now been married over 30 years. On the work front, after receiving his EE degree on Friday evening, he started work as an engineer with Pacific Telephone in Los Angeles the next Monday. Five promotions, many transfers, and some graduate school classes rounded out his time as a "telephone man," which increasingly over the years was more focused on managing computer systems rather than pure engineering work. Mike has lived in lots of places around California over the years, broken up by two work transfers, one to New Jersey (4 years) and one to Europe (2 years). When people ask "Where are you from?" the answer might be Alabama (birth), Texas (growing up), New Mexico (college), or California (most years), depending on the context. And now, Mike thinks he just might move to Nevada someday, if the politicians in Sacramento don't quit doing crazy things while taxing him more! Of course you can see elsewhere on this web site that Mike now spends lots of time helping Habitat for Humanity build houses for deserving needy folks - he has now personally worked on over 100 houses. He also does volunteer work with his church. Mike's work has taken him all over the world, but unlike some who get tired of travel, he and Sandy do lots on their vacations, be it a driving trip, a cruise around the horn of South America, a photo safari in Africa, a bus tour of European capitals, or whatever. (See the Travel News section of this web site for pictures, planned travel, etc.) Children wise, Mike has 2 daughters and a son from his first marriage: Ginger, Patty, and Chris. All live in the San Francisco Bay area. Sandy is one of those rare people who was actually born in San Francisco. She grew up and went to school in San Mateo. A blind date led to her first marriage and three children, all boys: Mark, Mike, and Rick. Sandy's three are more spread out - one in the Bay Area, and the other two in Southern California (Bakersfield; Physician Assistant, and Palm Springs; Marketing Manager at McCallum Theater). Sandy's three are slightly older than Mike's three, with the six ranging in age from 47 to 52, and there are now five grandchildren and two great-grand kids. Many of the kids, grand-kids, etc. are pictured in the Family News section. Sandy's work has been more varied than Mike's, as she has been a full-charge book-keeper, a real estate agent, a traveling sales person, and an office manager for a shopping center and for a heart pace-maker company. Sandy has lived in the Bay Area her whole life, other than two brief husband-triggered stints, a year in southern Maryland with first husband Bob, and 2 years in London, England, with Mike. (Guess which she enjoyed more!!) Sandy is retired as well, and spends considerable time running the family investment portfolio (which is really important, considering neither of them have a pension to rely on). She also is very active with the Assistance League of Diablo Valley. There she works at the Thrift Shop, helps clothe needy school kids each fall, is in a group of performers that travel around to Senior Centers and Assisted Living homes, and works on a program to assist foster children in making the transition to living on their own as they turn 18. | |
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