Lori (Martinez) Harsch

Hey There Class of ’88!  It has been really nice reading about what you all have been up to in the past 20 years!  You have all led such diverse and interesting lives!  I won’t be able to attend the festivities, but I hope you all have fun. 

Chapter 1:  NMSU

After graduation I had no idea what to do…on a whim, and after a talk with Mrs. Finch, I decided to give engineering a try.  I enrolled at NMSU in the Industrial Engineering program.  I then did what all good engineering undergrads from LA do in the summer…I got a summer job at the lab.  It was a great experience, and I do credit Lea Morrison’s dad for “showing me the light” and getting me into Mechanical Engineering.  While at state, I ran into a few of you all…clubbing with Megan Guthrie, roomed with Kalynn Hoops and Katherine Whitty (’87) for a while, had some classes with Kane Fisher an Zack Parker (’83) , roomed with Brian Gray (’87), road tripped to Vegas with Brian and John Greene (’87) to see the Dead….I concluded my journey at NMSU with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering in 1995…

Chapter 2:  “the LAB”

I graduated and then accepted an engineering position at the lab working in the weapons program.  Patti (Travis) Buntain (’83), Darryl Gardner (’85), Kane Fisher were some of the LAHS alumni I worked with.  I also met a bunch of you all’s dads and was finally able to know the answer to the question…”What does your dad do?”

During this chapter I also got married, bought a house, got some dogs and parrots, got divorced, gave away said parrots.  Cerro Grande Fire came, a year passed, all my family moved out of LA and I decided sell my house, pack up my dogs and move on to greener pastures.

Chapter 3:  “the Other LAB”

Greener isn’t exactly what one would call Livermore California, except maybe in the winter.  I moved to “the dark side” and went to work for Livermore Labs in the summer of 2001.  Great move, and great work, new friends, and I even reconnected with some old friends, (Cecelia Brown (don’t apologize, I could have called you too…), and Val DeWulf).  I got out of the weapons program and did some neat work. I also became a licensed Professional Engineer for the state of CA.  Pretty cool considering I had no clue of what I wanted to do with my life after graduation from LAHS.

Livermorons aren’t all that bad…they are in fact kind of nice….So nice in fact I even married one.  We actually met online (Eharmony to be exact. they give a fabulous Tiffany bowl for a wedding gift).  Tim (native Californian) and I married in early 2005.  The following December, welcomed our daughter Mason Elizabeth to our lives.  Just this past Thanksgiving we added our son William Coleman (Cole) to our family. Life with 2 little ones is definitely challenging and rewarding at the same time.  Mason is a busy little girl with a charisma that draws people to her…Cole is my laid back, chill kiddo, he just watches and absorbs everything that goes on around him.  I can’t wait to see what kind of people they turn out to be.

I have been fortunate to be able to work 3 days/week and be at home with my kids the remainder of the week.  I have enjoyed the balance of maintaining my connection with the engineering community and being a mom.  I think I finally found out what I should do with my life….

Chapter 4:  The future

Just this past April, I left LLNL and am now an Engineering Consultant for ARES Corporation.  I still work part time, do a little bit of traveling, a lot of telecommuting and spend lots of time with my kids.  I am looking forward to getting back on my dirtbike (…yes I ride, mostly trails and OHV parks, and I love it!) and doing some trail riding when Cole is a little older.  And hopefully get the little ones out on the trail when they are old enough. 

Here are a few pics of all of us…..OK mostly the kiddos.

Mason on her “KTM”…just like daddy’s

Back in the good old Yamaha Days before the kiddos.

Have fun at the reunion!   Lori

lori@harschworld.com