Mark Morris

A quick update with some crazy changes in my life. I recently changed jobs and am now VP of US Sales and Marketing for a Taiwanese based electronics manufacturer. I mention this because the position has me moving to San Jose and I would like to hook up with alumni that live or have lived in the area (Sarah Peratt and husband have already given me a ton of helpful information). I will also travel frequently to Taiwan where I hope to see some of Abbie's dogs.

In addition, I now have a new "night job" as President of my own company called ClosedWon. My partner is Tim Smith, Angie's brother. We do something known as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) consulting and systems integration using the innovative salesforce.com platform. For those not in business, this is probably the most boring thing you have ever read in these bios. I apologize. But for those in business, I just wanted to shamelessly plug my business. If you need a better way to connect with your customers or partners, or are already using salesforce.com and need some help, please let us know at www.closedwoncrm.com.

Ok, now you can return to reading the funny, emotional, and more
meaningful bios. Great bios everyone! Keep 'em rolling in!

After several complaints about my abridged bio, here is the unabridged version…

For starters, I went to LSU in Baton Rouge, LA. It was a great experience and quite the culture shock. I still remember my first trip to Bourbon Street. Still 17 years old, I quickly learned how easy it was to get a drink in New Orleans! Not to mention the horror we all experienced upon discovery that you can't get green chili on a hamburger outside of New Mexico. Trust me, you don't want to eat at the Pancho's in Baton Rouge.

Angie Smith and I continued to date throughout college. She attended Tulane in New Orleans and we spent the weekends commuting back and forth to see each other. We were the ultimate nerds and spent most of our time studying with occasional late night study breaks at Café Du Monde. We also had friends that would visit for Mardi Gras. One time, after calling it a night at 6 am, Greg Hirons and I returned to my car only to find the back window smashed and all of his stuff stolen! On another visit, Alex Simons helped convince Angie and me that we "really did like each other"! Thanks Alex, I owe you BIG time. Angie even graduated #1 in her class with a BS in Biomedical Engineering. Angie and I have fond memories of Louisiana and return once a year to visit friends, eat Cajun food (warm boudin and cold couche couche), and attend an LSU football game - G-E-A-U-X (go) Tigers!

I landed my first engineering job with Exxon and experienced yet more culture shock. I worked on the 34th floor of the Exxon high-rise in downtown Houston. It was the kind of job where you had to wear a suit, tie, and polished shoes every day! Angie and I got married in the summer of 1994. After the wedding, Angie continued her education at Rice on an NSF fellowship while I slaved away in my suit at Exxon. We really liked Houston, especially Rice, and one time visited Chris and Sheri (Blossom) Hanson at their apartment near NASA. We attended 2nd Baptist church – a "mega-church" that has more members than the entire population of Los Alamos - which I always found bizarre.

The heat of Houston drove us to a "cooler" Austin in 1996. Angie got her "dream job" designing orthopedic implants. No doubt Austin was a great place to live! We purchased our first house near the downtown/university area - practically within walking distance to 6th street. Angie's younger brother was attending UT at the time which gave us an excuse to hang with the university scene. However, during a hiking trip to Colorado, we realized that we needed to head back west. We quickly packed our bags, sold our house, and headed for Albuquerque in 1997.

We really liked being back in Albuquerque and we continually bumped into LAHS classmates. The first week I remember seeing John Canavan at Home Dept. My sales job had me cross paths with many classmates, including Steve Orton, Lance Butler, and Rob Hertrich to name a few. One time I even climbed "the ridge" with Mike Engelhardt. Angie played Lobo League volleyball with Tracy (Shipman) Henderson. Barb Van Eeckhout even saved Angie's life during an ectopic pregnancy – true story! I've bumped into Coach Baca and Reid at a few track meets. Did you know that Coach Reid's cute little baby girl, Ashley, is like 20 years old? Yikes we are getting old!

And the list goes on...Tom Jones at Subway near work, Geoff McGirt at the gym, Kyle Hayden and Rob/Claire (Henderson) Lundberg at Upward basketball, flying somewhere on Continental Airlines with Craig Milroy, Matt Filer at WRBC Christmas Eve service, Tony Newlin in Telluride, Jesse Taylor skiing Wildcat, Dean Hurst at a Hilton Garden in Cleveland, and Tony Miller is everywhere! The list goes on...

We continue to live in Albuquerque, near Whole Foods, and have 3 children – Jackson (9), Maddy (6), and Graham (1). Angie home schools the kids using a classical education curriculum and is a fabulous teacher. She is a leader in our church's home school co-op, where the kids get their weekly dose of "socialization". She runs into Sheri (Putman) Taylor at various home school functions. I currently work as VP of Sales for a startup company in Albuquerque. Angie's mom (Elaine) is now living in ABQ. My parents share their time between ABQ and Mesa where we happened to see Janet Croasdell at Organ Stop Pizza. In all, It's great to be close to family.

Angie and I have had some fun trips. We went to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta where I was able to watch some of my track friends compete. We also went to the 2002 Winter Olympics and stayed with Cammy Chidester's family. We spent a week in the UK and Paris back in 2004. After an MBA class trip to Tokyo, I became fascinated with Asia and have been back about 10 times - mostly to mainland China where Angie has accompanied me once. Shockingly I ran into Amy Taylor while climbing the Great Wall. Well, not really, but I just wanted to mention Amy!

It's great reading all the bios. I never knew Keri Rusthoi could sing. And Lesley Caudill is a youth therapist, it must be April 1st. Seriously, we are so blessed to have been raised in such a unique community. Congratulations to those that have made it this far and our thoughts are with those that have not. I look forward to bumping into more of you this summer!

Feel free to drop me a line on Linkedin or facebook.