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Beverly Schilb - 1963 Bio & Picture for 50th Reunion
Kewpie Reunion Memory
Book – Beverly Schilb Strom Columbia was my
hometown.
After graduating from Hickman, I
attended, what was then, Christian College.
I graduated from Christian (Columbia
College) in 1965 and transferred to MIZZOU, where I graduated in 1967
with a BS in Ed.
My best friend (Linda Page Thornsberry)
and I were both hired to teach in the Hickman Mills School District just
south of Kansas City, Mo.
We had a great year being on our own
and a memorable first year teaching.
We are still close friends today.
Our husbands are golfing buddies.
Long-term friendships are so rare in
today’s world, I feel very blessed to have remained friends since our
kindergarten days. During my senior year
at MIZZOU, I took a class taught by John G. Neihardt (Gail Petri’s
grandfather).
It was in this class (Twilight of the
Sioux) that I met my future husband, Pete Strom,
who was an Army brat, and moved a lot
but attended Hickman his sophomore year in 1959.
We were married in Columbia in August
of 1968 and moved immediately to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.
After only 11 months of marriage, Pete
received his orders to deploy for Viet Nam.
I then returned to Columbia and taught
2nd
grade in Hallsville, Mo.
After
a very long and uncertain 364 days, Pete returned home and we were sent
to Springfield, Mo., where we spent the next 24 years.
Our daughter, Kelly, was born in May of
1970.
The next few years were, as many new
parents know, a blur.
I taught, aided and volunteered during
Kelly’s school years.
I’m proud to say she is a 3rd
generation MIZZOU graduate. We are now grandparents
to 3 delightful grandchildren.
We are currently missing them terribly,
as they will be spending the next 3 years living in England. Pete and I moved to
Wichita, Kansas in 1996 for his job with the Army Reserve.
In 2003, Pete retired with 32 years of
service and the rank of Colonel.
I’ve enjoyed being an Army wife and am
very proud of my husband.
In 2004 we moved to the Kansas City area
(Liberty) to be closer to our grandchildren. Since our retirement we
have enjoyed trips to Austria, Germany, England, Scotland and Canada.
We
recently celebrated our 45th
wedding anniversary and hope an Alaskan cruise is in our future. For now, we are
involved in our church where, incidentally, we discovered Rod Fox and
his wife Ellen also attend.
Pete and Rod play a lot of golf
together.
I volunteer with Assistance League of
Kansas City which takes up a lot of my time.
We enjoy being with new friends here in
K.C. but try keeping in touch with our long-term friends.
Hopefully in a couple of years we will
resume our grandparenting roll when our daughter and grandchildren
return to the States.
For now we rely on phone calls and
Facetime. Memories from Hickman include time with friends,
cheering with Pep Squad, enjoying the tradition of wearing beanies and
tragically having them stolen off your head by upper classmen (thank-you
very much Dave Holsinger), leaving school grounds to race to the bowling
alley for P. E. class, Playboy Drive-In, fun in Mr. Ekern’s biology
class, Mr. Stawski’s English class and even a sense of accomplishment
and great sense of relief that I survived Mr. Proffer’s Geometry
blackboard drills. Looking back, I realize we were so very fortunate
to have such dedicated and caring teachers.
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