Paul and June Daspit

My wife of 45 years, June Marie Gardner of London, England, gives me an “F” in retirement. Twice I’ve “retired”, once from the US Air Force in 1992 and again from the IT industry in 2011, you’d think that I could get it right. But after getting involved with San Diego’s Traditional Jazz Society in 2005, I became its Executive Director in 2011 http://www.SDjazzfest.org. In addition to the Jazz Society, volunteer work with the Knights of Columbus, the church choir and playing a bit of clarinet would seem to justify my failing retirement grade.

When in the Air Force (4 years enlisted as a Aircraft Radio & NAVAIDS Maintenance Tech & 19 years commissioned as Squadron Commander and Communications/Information Systems Staff Officer), June, daughter Nicole and I did a 23-year bag drag around the world through some interesting locations … Spain 74-77, Hawaii 81-85, Japan 85-88, and Wash DC 88-92, as well as other US locations to include Ohio, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and California. After the Air Force, I worked for a few years as a Government contractor and then as a Program Manager for optical networking research with Nortel, and finally in sales with Avaya and Ciena.

The photo below of June and Nicole – one of my favorites, was taken in 1984 while we were based in Japan. We are very proud of Nicole (West Chester University, PA, 1996). She and husband Abheek (Michigan State, 1997) were married in 2011 and live in Austin, Texas where Nicole is Director of Development for Meals on Wheels & More, and where Abheek is an architect. No grandkids yet, but keeping our fingers crossed.

June’s career as an Executive Secretary and Administrative Assistant landed her some interesting jobs wherever we traveled: Medical Transcriptionist in Marin County, CA and Nashua, NH, Newspaper Typesetter in Ruston, LA, Secretary to the Commander, Naval Supply Unit, Misawa, Japan, Secretary to the Director, FDIC, Washington, DC, and Senior Archivist, RC Diocese of San Diego to mention a few. June received her BA at University of Hawaii. We met in Culver City when we both worked at LongLok Corporation. Seemed like half of SMHS worked there at the time (1967-68) including; Woody Bray, Phil Logsdon, Terry Flanagan, Bob Holmes, Luis Mesa, Tom McCloskey and Anita Schidel (Bob’s sister). So, here we are 50 years hence. When you’re in San Diego, give us a shout, or just show up at the 35th Annual San Diego Jazz Fest in November!

My daughter Nicole and son-in-law Abheek

They had two wedding ceremonies ... this is from the Indian ceremony.