Christmas 2000

David lives in Seabrook, TX, near NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston, where he designs/tests robots for construction/ maintenance of the International Space Station.  One robot he is working on -- “Robonaut” -- was featured this December in a Discovery channel show about the Space Station.  He also researches ways to control advanced life support systems to be used for Lunar and Martian colonies.  His private company -- Texas Robotics and Automation Center -- is branching out from NASA, and has begun working with a genetics company to study the automation of gene therapy techniques.  David was very busy again traveling to give talks and workshops – Pacific Grove, CA; San Francisco (Ames Research Center), Los Angeles, Washington, DC; Pittsburgh (Carnegie-Mellon U.); Austin, TX; Tampico, Mexico; Venice, Italy; and Melbourne, Australia.  While in Australia he climbed the Harbor Bridge in Sidney, and went scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef.  David and his friends took their annual trip, this year to Peru.  They visited Lima, Cuzco, and the ruins at Machu Pichu -- the sacred Inca city high in the Andes.  David enjoys working out, and runs occasional road races.  He also takes dance lessons, particularly enjoying swing and salsa dancing.   He is starting to build a wine collection, and provided a $65 1986 Cabernet Sauvignon (Sterling Winery) for the family New Year’s Eve dinner last year.  In October, David had a visit from his cousin Paul Kortenkamp from Los Angeles, who was passing through on business.

Suzie, Jerry, Kaitlyn & Michael live in Middleton, WI (north side of Madison).  Jerry left his job of 13 years to start his own company -- Skyline Steel, Inc. (structural steel fabrication) -- in a former Del Monte canning warehouse with 43,000 sq/ft, and 30 employees.  Among other projects, they are fabricating steel for a 12-story building in Madison.  Suzie does the legal work and accounting (she is a corporate tax attorney and CPA).  Kaitlyn (6) started kindergarten, and was in a Thanksgiving play.  She takes gymnastics, and had her first “meet” in October.  Michael/”Micha” (18 months) started to walk at 9-1/2 months.  He is taking swimming lessons and loves the water.  His first words are “hot,” “pizza,” “bus,” “Santa,” and “dada.”  Suzie, Kaitlyn, and Micha (along with Betsy and Katy) flew to Houston in March to visit David, Nancy, and Matt.  Suzie, Kaitlyn, Micha, Sarah, and Betsy also spent a day in Chicago visiting Nancy, Matt, and Sam, when Nancy came for a training seminar.  In September Suzie & Jerry hosted a wedding celebration for Nancy & Matt, who then renewed their wedding vows.  It was a large Kortenkamp reunion with over 30 people including some of Matt’s family from Texas and Florida, and Janet’s sister Miriam, and brother Greg.  There was dancing and karaoke until after midnight.  In October Suzie ran the last 11 miles of the Twin Cities Marathon, filling in for a friend who had signed up but couldn’t run.  Kaitlyn ran the Twin Cities ½ mile race.

Steve, Jane, & Oliver/”Archer” live in Columbia, Maryland (between Baltimore and Washington).  Steve is an astronomer at The Carnegie Institution of Washington (part of NASA's Astrobiology Institute).  He also works in the Astronomy Dept., U. of Maryland, College Park.  He researches theories about the formation of Earth-like planets, asteroids, and the extra-solar planets recently discovered.  He gave a presentation in Houston, when Suzie and all were visiting David (he stayed with David); and in Pasadena.  Jane is an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, where she does star mapping research for the Hubble Space Telescope.  She also teaches a college astronomy course.  They took Archer (1) to the annual Morrison reunion, this year in Linton, IN, where Jane’s parents grew up.  In May they traveled to Cedar Falls, IA, for a family reunion with Steve’s Grandma & Grandpa Kortenkamp who turned 85 and 90 this spring and summer (sadly, Steve and Archer returned in August for Grandma’s funeral).  Steve made his annual pilgrimage to Boston to run the marathon.  Jane ran the Country Music Marathon, Nashville, in April (just 8 months after Archer’s birth), with a finish time that qualified her for Boston next year.  They both ran the Twin Cities Marathon in October.  Steve, Jane, and Kate ran the prestigious Annapolis Ten Mile Run, with Kate and Steve winning age-group awards (2nd and 3rd).  Between Steve and Jane, Archer has logged 2000 miles in his baby jogger, with only one flat tire.  Archer enjoys swimming with Steve and Jane at the local community pool and his favorite activity at home is taking a bath.   Steve enjoys woodcarving and woodworking.  This year he made Betsy a compact folding table-shelf-drawer system for her small apartment in Madison.

Nancy, Matt, Trevor & Simon/”Sam” live in Houston, TX., where Nancy is Head Audiologist at a medical center.  Nancy & Matt married in January.  Here is a newspaper account of their wedding:  “Nancy Kortenkamp and Matt Mikel were united in marriage on Sunday, January 16, at mile 8, Hermann Circle, during the 28th Annual Houston Marathon.  They met last year at mile 8 while competing in the marathon.  David Kortenkamp, brother of the bride, officiated at the 9 a.m. ceremony before a gathering of family and friends.  Approximately 7,000 runners were also in attendance. The bride wore flowered running shorts, white tank top, and white wedding veil decorated in sequins and pearls.  The groom wore black running shorts, white tank top, and black bow tie.  No sooner had the couple said ‘I do’ than they were off to finish the remaining 18 miles -- celebratory bottles of Gatorade in hand, and ‘Just Married’ signs pinned to the rear of their running shorts.”  A picture and article about their wedding appeared in the Houston Chronicle.  To legally officiate, David became an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church (via the World Wide Web).  Matt has a son, Trevor (7), from a previous marriage; and on July 11 Nancy and Matt had a son, Simon Andrew (“Sam”).  “Simon” occurs often in the Kortenkamp ancestry back to the 1600s.  Matt has a degree in aviation maintenance, but is now a “house husband” and taking night classes to become a science teacher.  Nancy traveled to Chicago for a training workshop for her job.  While in Chicago, Matt ran the Chicago Marathon.

Peter & Julie live in Iowa City, IA.  Peter is a third-year graduate student in astronomy; Julie is a third-year graduate student in music therapy, both at the U. of Iowa.  Peter’s interest is in planetary systems around distant stars.  He works as a Research Assistant, and is assisting in a radio telescope study of the sun.  Julie researches music preferences, experiences, and music perception in children with cochlear implants.  She published some of her research this year, presented a paper on music therapy in hospice care at a conference in Topeka, KS; and attended a conference in St. Louis.  She passed her comprehensive exams this fall, and will be doing a spring semester internship at Hospice of Palm Beach County, FL.  In January, Peter & Julie drove to Houston (along with Tony, and Julie’s cat “Moxy”) to visit David, and attend Nancy & Matt’s wedding.  They also ran the Houston Marathon with them.  Peter, Julie, Tony, and Moxy started the drive home a few hours after the marathon, but their car broke down at 2 am in northern Texas.  They had to hitchhike to the next town with a Mexican trucker.  Luckily, Julie spoke some Spanish.  After sneaking Moxy into a motel, they tried to get some sleep.  Their car only needed a new timing belt, so they were on their way the next afternoon.  Tired and stiff from the marathon, Julie called it the “road trip from hell.”  Pete & Julie also made a trip to Boston for the wedding of Julie’s cousin.

Sarah & Kurt moved to Brookfield, WI (a Milwaukee suburb), in September.  Sarah finished her internship at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, and received her doctor’s degree in clinical neuropsychology (U. of Florida).  Her dissertation was on epilepsy, and she presented it at a conference in Denver.  Sarah started a post-doctoral fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where she works with children and adults with brain injuries/disorders.  Both are glad to get back to the Midwest and close to family.  While living in NYC, Katy and Jane visited them and also ran a race in Central Park.  Sarah & Kurt made a trip to Schenectady to visit Sarah’s Aunt Miriam and Uncle Gary.  It was a mini family reunion with Steve, Jane, Archer, and Kate driving up from Maryland; and Mom and Dad coming from Wisconsin.  Sarah and Kurt bought a dog they named “Summer.”  They are enjoying learning the tricks of dog training.  Summer will be a running companion for Sarah.  Kurt is a freelance computer consultant.  Among his clients are the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, Dept. of Psychiatry, U. of Florida; and the U. of Florida Outreach Program.  He works from home via the internet, but makes regular trips to the U. of Florida.  However, Kurt’s first love is studio art (he has a degree in art), and he works on his own pieces and commissioned pieces.   He also has a degree in creative writing, and enjoys writing fiction and songs (accompanying himself on guitar). 

Betsy lives in Madison, WI.  She works with children from drug and alcohol abuse homes at ARC Community Services (she has a degree in psychology).  Betsy also helps out babysitting for Suzie & Jerry, especially this year when they were busy starting a new business.  In April, Betsy, Suzie, Kaitlyn, Micha, and Katy flew to Houston to visit David and Nancy.  David paid for Betsy’s plane ticket in exchange for cleaning his house.  They went to Galveston Beach, a drive-thru zoo, a butterfly zoo, an aquarium, and got the insiders’ tour of the Johnson Space Center.  They also gave a baby shower for Nancy.  Betsy also went to Chicago with Suzie, Kaitlyn, Micha, and Sarah, to visit Nancy, Matt, and Sam, while Nancy was there for a training workshop.  A high point of Betsy’s year was another BoDeans concert (her 7th).  There was a mini family reunion in St. Paul for the Twin Cities Marathon in October.  In addition to Steve, Jane, and Katy running the full marathon (starting temperature was 20O F.), Betsy, Suzie, and Sarah ran the last 11 miles together.  David came up from Houston to cheer the runners, and help Grandpa Dan babysit the grandkids (Grandma Jan was at the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Bavaria, and touring Europe with her sister Miriam, and sister-in-law Ellen).  While in the Twin Cities, everybody visited the Mall of America south of Minneapolis for shopping, and rides on the roller coaster and log slide at Camp Snoopy inside the mall.

Kayla Tinker graduated with a sociology major from UW-Stevens Point this December. You may remember her as the woman from the Bahamas who lived with us for 4 years.  Last summer she worked in a youth camp near Indianapolis.  While there she met a woman from England who invited her to come there and look for work after graduation.  So, after a brief Christmas visit with her family and friends in the Bahamas, Kayla will be off to England.   

Katy lives in Washington, DC.  She began the year in AmeriCorps*VISTA (“Domestic Peace Corp”) teaching environmental studies (one of her majors) in a Massachusetts grade school.  After quitting (“personal freedom reasons”), she spent a month with Suzie’s family (“giving up all personal freedoms”), helping out while Suzie and Jerry started their new company.  In May, Katy joined her AmeriCorps friend, Tara, in NYC, and they took off hitchhiking -- down the east coast, over to New Orleans and Houston (visiting David), and on to San Diego [Katy’s dad hitchhiked more than 20,000 miles all over the U.S. as a young man].  Katy and Tara slept in hostels, a tent, friends’ places, and tried to visit as many national parks as possible -- Carlsbad Caverns, Guadeloupe Mountains, White Sands, Gila National Forest, Petrified Forest, Sunset Crater, Wupatki National Monument, and Grand Canyon.  From San Diego they took a train to San Francisco, and visited Katy’s Uncle Leon, Aunt Ginny, and their family.  Katy and Tara planned to hitchhike the rest of the way to Portland, (Tara’s home).  However, Leon, fearful for their safety, found a car delivery service needing a driver to Eugene, OR.  Thus, Katy and Tara drove to Eugene.  They then hitchhiked on to Portland.  Later, Katy took a bus to Washington, DC, where she lived with some friends while looking for a job.  She now works as a Research Assistant at the Urban Institute -- a nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization (Tara is now in the Peace Corps in Mozambique, Africa).  While in DC, Katy often gets together with Steve, Jane, and Archer; has gone to a Phish concert (the new “Grateful Dead” band) and other events; visited NYC several times; and visited AmeriCorps friends in Kentucky and Mississippi.   Katy ran the Twin Cities Marathon in October, with a finish time of 3:28, qualifying her for the Boston Marathon next year (remarkable, considering Katy is a vegan).  Katy also got together with her cousin Tim Kortenkamp from San Francisco, who was checking out a graduate school in DC.  

Tony is a senior at UW-La Crosse.  He lives in a house with student friends from high school.  He was a physics and computer science major, but is now an education major. He wants to teach science and computers in high school.  Tony spent the summer working at his dad’s university. He worked with a crew doing whatever jobs needed doing – washing windows, setting up/tearing down for conferences, etc.  In January Tony drove to Houston with Peter, Julie, and Moxie, to visit David, attend Nancy & Matt’s wedding, and run the Houston Marathon.  It was the hottest Houston Marathon in 28 years  (over 80O F); however, Tony had a personal best time of 4:15.  One of the “high-points” of Tony’s summer was serving 11 days on a sequestered jury in Baraboo, WI, for a murder trial involving the murder and dismemberment of a female foreign student.  The jury returned a guilty verdict, and the murderer was sentenced to life in prison without parole.  Tony took a theatre course this fall, which required him to work on stage crew.  He met Mandy, one of the actresses, and they have started dating.  Tony also works part-time at Shopko.  Tony enjoys time with friends, riding motorcycles, working out, and running road races.   He trained for the Twin Cities Marathon, but had to work on the theatre stage crew that weekend.