Wisconsin High School

60^th  Reunion – September 17, 2020 – Via ZOOM

BIO:       Al Felt

Received:  8/8/20

The following is from a phone interview conducted and written by Judy Siebecker

Al is living in Sun Prairie, Wis. Enjoys his home, the neighbors are friendly and “look after him”. He has a big yard which he enjoys as gardening is a passion for him. He feels this way despite the fact that fairly recently he was trimming a tree and the branch fell on him breaking his right arm (his dominate side). The yard has a swimming pool and a hot tub.  He is not sure if he wants to keep that maintenance up.

Al is the only one of the 5 siblings still living.  He is joyful about his 5 children. The oldest is retired from a career on the Madison Police Force and now lives on the main island of Hawaii.

His next son is a Professor at Stanford’s Veterinary Science Dept. Al also has a daughter living in Hudson, Wisconsin.  Another daughter lives in Alaska and his youngest son lives in Madison. His tenth grandchild is on the way.

I wonder if that is a record for our classmates?

He likes to socialize so the pandemic has taken some of that opportunity away.  When asked how long he thought he might live as a teenager he said with one of his great laughs “maybe til I am 50″.

Al doesn’t like airplane travel anymore as during his long career he traveled a lot. He is grateful to have had a career that he loved. He did not mind the 60- to 80-hour work weeks because he enjoyed what he was doing. He was in the Insurance business overseeing many offices in many places. He retired at age 72.

His favorite teacher was Coach Hal Metzen…..”no question about it”. ” I learned so much from Metzen and I have the greatest respect for him,” Al said.

Al and Pete Pauley were the only Letterman Senior Year in 4 different sports. Al was Captain of both the football and volleyball team. He told a story of being so angry at his Dad who insisted Al be at his sister Sally’s wedding despite the fact he then missed going to the State Tournament with the team. He hoped his sister would change the wedding date but that didn’t happen.

During Elementary School at Lowell School and 6th grade at Herbert Shenk Elementary everyday Al played sports. He loved sports. He got excellent grades during Elementary school but once at Wisconsin High “it was all sports and girls”. He felt Miss. Weightman was a sweetheart.

Another favorite teacher was Mr. Johnson in Industrial Arts. The most fun teacher was Mrs. Patton “because Stafford and I competed to see which one of us was really her pet”.

Currently he has no pets although he has always had a dog before. His last dog was a Standard Poodle who was extremely smart. That dog now lives in Hawaii with his son.

Al’s father had attended Wisconsin High and played tackle. Of his 5 siblings, Al and his sister Pat attended Wisconsin High. Pat also worked for Al the last ten years of his career.  Al feels WHS was a wonderful school and how lucky we were to go there.

A big concern he has now is the Public School Systems…..it’s gone to hell.  Although his Dad was staunch Democrat, he is a Republican.  Al feels this coming election is the most important of our lifetime.

Two years ago, Al was diagnosed with non-Hodgekins Lymphoma. The Chemo he went through “was vicious “.  He is now cancer free which he is grateful for.

Al says “as you know Patty Reis and I lived together 3 years and it was a great three years”.

Editorial Note by Judy:  The telephone interview was such fun…lots of laughter. Probably Al and I are two of the chattiest members of our class. I missed getting one of Al’s big hugs……if you ever got one you know what I mean.