Christmas 1996

David is still designing and testing robots at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, for use in the construction of NASA’s future space station. His research is on robotic vision and navigation, and robotic arms and hands. He now has his robot recognizing and responding to arm and hand signals. David also works on computer systems for NASA’s BioSphere; and his robotics consulting firm now employs 15 people and will move to a new 2000 sq/ft office in March. David presented papers on his research at conventions in Palo Alto and Minneapolis; and was an invited lecturer at the U. of Chicago and Carnegie-Mellon U. (Pittsburgh). When in Minneapolis and Chicago he was able to get home for visits. And when he was in Pittsburgh, he drove up to visit his brother Peter, a graduate student at the U. of Akron. David was also coordinator again of the International Mobile Robotics Competition, this year in Portland, Oregon. Alan Alda was there to film a TV show about robots for his PBS series Scientific American Frontiers, scheduled for an April showing. David enjoys running, working out, hiking, camping, and scuba diving. This year he ran the Houston Marathon again. He also made several vacation trips to Mexico and Belize -- visiting Mayan ruins, and diving off the Mexican island of Cozumel and the coral reefs of Belize.

Suzie and Jerry have enjoyed watching their daughter Kaitlyn growing during her second year. She is a very lovely and bright little girl, with a wonderful disposition. Suzie still works as a tax attorney and CPA in Madison, and Jerry as an architectural draftsman. Suzie turned 30 this year, and we all celebrated with a surprise party. She received a sewing machine from everyone; and the first thing she sewed was an Elmo costume for Kaitlyn to wear trick-or-treating. With Kate living in Madison, Betsy in Milwaukee, Nancy in Iowa, and us in Stevens Point, Suzie and Jerry’s home often serves as home base for family get-togethers. Perhaps because of this, Suzie and Jerry are looking for a new location in the country to build another (larger!) house.

Steve received his Ph.D. in Astronomy from the U. of Florida. He was planning to go to work at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Munich, Germany. However, the explosion of a European Space Agency rocket destroyed a new satellite necessary for this research. He has taken a job at the Carnegie Institute, Washington, DC, where he will be doing research on debris impacting earth from the Asteroid Belt. Luckily, his place of work will be close to where his fiance “Dr. Jane” now works as an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Johns Hopkins U., Baltimore. The Institute coordinates research with the Hubble Space Telescope. Like David, Steve has been traveling a great deal, doing research and presenting papers. He made several trips to Heidelberg University doing research with German astronomers. This also gave him an opportunity to spend time with Jane who was then doing a post-doc at Heidelberg. They toured some of Europe, including a drive to Graz, Austria, to visit Peter who was playing French horn in an orchestra there. Steve and Jane also made it to Münster, Germany, the ancestral home of the Kortenkamps. There they visited “Kortenkamp Strasse,” supposedly named after the ancestral farm which once occupied that location. Steve’s travels also included presenting a paper at a convention in Paris. Steve is still an avid runner. He ran in the 100th Running of the Boston Marathon in April. There were over 38,000 runners. He started in about 3,000th place, and finished about 550th place with a time of 2:44:29. Very good for only his second marathon.

Nancy finished her one-year job as an audiologist with the public school systems of several counties in NE Iowa. She was filling in for an audiologist on maternity leave. She is now an audiologist for the Iowa Ear Clinic in West Des Moines, Iowa. In fact, she is starting up the cochlear implant program at the clinic. Nancy also works nights and weekends as a waitress in a restaurant -- to help pay off her student and car loans. Nancy likes to travel, vacationing in Florida and Arizona this year. Like Steve and David, she is a runner. She also ran in the 100th Running of the Boston Marathon in April. She wore a large pink ostrich feather in her hair; and we were able to pick her out of the crowd of 38,000 runners when the marathon was on CNN News.

Peter graduated from the UW-Madison with a BS major in physics, and a BM major in music performance (French horn). He spent the summer playing horn in the American Institute for Musical Studies (AIMS) Festival Orchestra, Graz, Austria. This was the second summer he played for AIMS. Members of the orchestra are chosen by national audition and receive full room and board. The orchestra travels throughout Europe, and performs in various places such as cathedrals, castles, and outdoor amphitheaters. High points of the summer were a visit from Steve and Jane who drove down from Heidelberg for a visit in July; and a visit by Peter’s girlfriend Julie in August. She is a music student at UW-Madison, and they both enjoyed touring the musical sites on a trip to Vienna. Peter is now a graduate student in music at the U. of Akron, and plays Principle Horn for the University Symphony. He is also a teaching assistant in the Department of Physics.

Sarah is a second-year graduate student, working toward a doctorate in clinical neuropsychology at the U. of Florida. She lives with her fiancee Kurt, who works in research at the university hospital’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities. Their wedding is planned for the summer of 1998. Sarah began seeing patients at the university hospital clinic this year. She is also very active in research, and received the Glaxo-Wellcome Young Investigator’s Award for her research on epilepsy (Glaxo-Wellcome is a pharmaceutical company). The award was worth $1,200, and Sarah used the money for a trip to San Francisco to present a paper on her research. While she and Kurt were in San Francisco they were able to visit Sarah’s Kortenkamp cousins. Mark and Tim took them around to see the sights, including Muir Woods, and the world’s only Pez museum.

Betsy is a senior at UW-Milwaukee majoring in psychology. She spent the summer as a nanny for a family in Milwaukee, and she has continued working for this family during the school year. Her interest is in child psychology, and after graduation she hopes to get a job working with children, before going on to graduate school. She also enjoys working with computers, especially updating her home page with new family pictures and links to web sites related to her interests. A high point this summer was a road trip to Florida with Nancy, Katy and Tony in Nancy’s Ford Explorer for a visit with Sarah and Steve. They stopped to see the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta, and were planning to run around the track; however, opening ceremony rehearsals prevented this.

Katy is a sophomore in the Honors Program at UW-Madison (still getting 4.0 GPAs). She hasn’t decided on a major yet, but says, “I am not going to major in math, philosophy, business, chemistry, computer science, English, French, history, biology . . .“ However, next semester she will be trying two advanced psychology(!) courses. Katy is very activist oriented; and for Spring Break, went with a group of students to work with the poor in the Appalachian Mountains around Franklin, NC. She belongs to Students Helping Others (which focuses on helping the homeless in Madison), and the Student Environmental Action Coalition. Being a vegetarian (as are Sarah and Betsy), Katy is also active in the animal rights movement. Like many of her brothers and sisters, Katy is a runner, and this year ran the Chicago Marathon, her first marathon. David, Nancy, and Betsy all traveled to Chicago to cheer her on. Another family get-together involved Janet, Suzie, Betsy, Kayla and Julie taking Katy to a production of My Fair Lady in Milwaukee to celebrate her birthday. Besides driving to Florida with her brother and sisters, Katy (inspired by the novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) talked her father into taking her on a motorcycle trip. They traveled to Poniatowski, Wisconsin (Latitude 45^o North, Longitude 90^o West -- the exact center of the Northern and Western Hemispheres). This summer Katy worked as a night custodian at the Student Union here at UW-Stevens Point. During the school year she has a job working in the UW-Madison Office of Research and Grants.

Kayla, a black woman from the Bahamas, is in her third year living with us. She graduated from high school last spring, and is now a freshman here at UW-Stevens Point. She hasn’t decided on a major yet, but is thinking of sociology. She would like to work with people, perhaps as a social worker. Since she is a foreign student, she is not eligible for government loans or financial assistance. To help pay for college she sleeps 5 nights/wk at the home of Pauline Issacson, a retired college professor (who needs daily medical assistance), and receives $20/night. Kayla also works for a catoring service, serving at wedding receptions, banquets, etc. And, she helps out at the reception desk of the Foreign Student Office on campus.

Tony is a senior in high school. This fall he ran again on the Cross Country Team, and his team won the State Championship (that makes three years in a row). He enjoys hanging out with his many friends in our basement, playing Ping-Pong, video games, poker, and watching videos. He also enjoys an occasional game of basketball with his friends. The low point of the year was when he caught his upper front teeth on the net while practicing slam dunks -- breaking part of his upper jaw away from his skull. To spare you the details, after some very painful upper-jaw manipulation, wiring, and a couple root-canals, he has all his original teeth back in place. A high point of the year (besides being on Homecoming Court) was his trip to Florida with some of his sisters, and helping drive Nancy’s Explorer on the way down. Tony also got his first job -- working as a bagger and then checker at a local supermarket. Tony plans to go to college and major in physics, eventually becoming an astronomer. He bought his first telescope this year, an 8-inch Dobsonian, and enjoyed observing (among other things) Comet Hyakutake -- “The Comet of the Century.”