Ken (Kenny) Alford - Class of 1961

1961 - 1962 Attended Santa Rosa JC. No real goal in mind.

1962 - 1983 Jeff Nelson and I decided that we wanted to “see the world” so we joined the Army. I spent 21 years traveling the world (6 years in South Korea, 3 years in Germany and 2 years in Tehran, Iran) and the United States (The Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Fort Huachuca, AZ, Charleston Air Force Base, SC and Fort McClellan, AL.)

During this period I managed to have 3 wives (still married to my last one after more than 37 years) 2 sons (my youngest son was born in Tehran, Iran) and 1 daughter (I adopted my wife’s daughter from a previous marriage.)

Retired from the Army as a 1st SGT (E8) in April 1983 at age 39 and went to work for a living (if you call going to work as a civil servant for the government, work).

In 1986 I finally got around to finishing my bachelors degree and even started working on my masters in Public Administration. However, my GI Bill money ran out after 18 semester hours and so did my interest in a masters degree.

I started working in civil service for the Army at Fort McClellan, AL in November 1984.

I then went to Washington, D.C. where I was a senior inspector for the Office of the Inspector General, Department of Justice.

From there I went to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts where I developed staffing formulas for the Federal District, Appellate, and Bankruptcy Courts and for the Federal Probation and Pretrial Services Offices. There are 94 judicial districts and I must have traveled to over 50% of them. The flight attendants started greeting me by name as I would get on a plane.

Anyway, I retired from civil service as a GS-14 in January 2000 and have been living here in Alabama with all the other rednecks. I play golf (I’m a 3 handicapper) 5 days a week (Mon-Fri) and fish when the weather allows. My wife developed a rare muscular disease (Poly-myositis) in 2005 which has severely limited her strength and stamina. We had hoped that we would be able to attend the reunion; however, the last few weeks her condition has deteriorated to the point where we will not be able to attend. She wanted me to go on alone, but I just can’t leave her for extended periods.

Hope you all have a fantastic time!!!

Ken