Janet McLaughlin McLaughlin-Williams

I can't wait to see everybody who is able to attend our 50th Reunion!
I started off College at San Jose State in 1962, and after a few years, transferred to the University of Oregon. After U of O graduation, I returned to the Bay Area to teach in Oakland. In 1969, my former husband, Gregg Skuce (SLHS Class of 1963) and I moved to Eugene where I taught elementary school while Gregg attended the U of O. He earned his BA and MS from the U of O. I earned my MS from the U of Oregon in Special Educ. and Curr. Dev.
I loved Eugene with its incredible University, people, and scenery. I left Eugene in 1974 to begin working on my PhD at the Univ. Michigan Chuck and I were married in 1976 while I was in the midst of writing my dissertation working as an Organizational Development Analyst in Michigan. We added our son, Justin to our family in 1978 and then Drew in 1981.
I finished up my PhD in the spring of 1983 - not the speediest candidate in the world! - and in 1984 we moved to Reston, VA because
Chuck went to work for the National Education Association in Washington, DC as Director of Human and Civil Rights.
I was pregnant with our third son, Douglass.
While living in Reston, I worked a an Assistant at a Montessori Pre School, and then as an Elementary School Guidance Counselor in the Prince William County Public Schools. Working, helping to raise two daughters, and raising three fellas, filled just about every moment of those busy days!
I always requested to be placed in schools with students who were challenged by struggling family economics, and I remain committed to helping support national policies and educational goals that deal positively with issues such as differences in race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, poverty, class, special educational/physical needs, etc. (Those were the same issues that existed at our SLHS, and I think we all got along quite well - most of the time - while we were trying pretty hard to learn about, understand, and accept a variety of differences between/among each other. I believe that is one of the main reasons why lots of us really value the opportunity to continue to get together every five years for a Reunion. It is also the reason we appreciate the hours and hours that our Reunion Committees have spent to make that happen through the years.) Those issues continue to exist everywhere, and I still believe that strong and effective public schools, and excellent and appropriate curriculum hold one of the "keys" to our future.
I would like to believe that I remain a reasonable political Liberal . . . and I think that philosophy continues to influence most things that I think or say or do, or become.
Chuck and I retired in 2007 and moved back to East Lansing, MI, the home of the Michigan State Spartans. (We probably take our lives in our hands everyday, as we walk about in our Maize and Blue items of clothing because, of course, we live in sea of Green and White inhabited by the former "MSU Arch Rivals" from our U of M college years.) I miss Virginia and Washington, DC and the neighbors, friends and colleagues there who we knew for 26 years. However, I am trying to "bloom where I am planted" and enjoy East Lansing, MI including its amazing Springs and Falls and beautiful snowy winters!
Life continues to move on! I still cherish the friendships and memories from our years at SLHS, and know I always will.

This is a POST SCHOOL story:
In 1980, when Chuck and I were attending the last session of our La Maze Childbirth Review Classes, it was time to take a break before the childbirth movies were shown. As the audience began to get up and move about, I remained in my chair. I became aware of a tall, shadowy "presence" standing just in back of me. A deep voice said, "Big Red". I was shocked! When I turned to see who belonged to the comment, it was Noel Doran! He and Carol (Brown SLHS Class of 1963) were attending the same session, and our two families were expecting our second babies within a week or two of each other. The Dorans had lived in East Lansing for several years while Noel was working on his PhD at Michigan State, and none of us had known that we were neighbors!
We saw each other quite often during those years before Carol/Noel, and their two sons, Alex and Nick moved to another part of Michigan, and Chuck and our two fellas moved to Reston, Virginia.
When I called Carol to tell her that we had returned to Michigan to retire, we were so saddened to learn about Noel's passing.