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Nadine Zimmerman, from Ken Granzin


A couple of months ago you provided me with the address of Nadine Zimmerman and I finally got around to writing her a letter last week. Nadine and I (along with our classmates Milt Beeman, Bonnie Hill, and occasionally the very busy Dennis Sheets) were in the Methodist Youth Fellowhsip at Memorial Heights Methodist Church (now long gone).  Yesterday I received a prompt reply from her son, Chris.  Nadine passed away 24 October of last year.  Up until her death she worked part-time as a social worker.  She is survived by her three children and four grandchildren, and by her sister Karen Darling in California, also an RIHS grad.  Chris said she loved living in New Orleans and all that it had to offer, like great restaurants, museums, art galleries, the street cars, and the French Quarter.

Dennis Sheets

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Photo:
Dennis Rodney Sheets

Dennis Rodney Sheets, 74, passed away at his home in Dania, Fla., on Nov. 24, 2011.

He was born in
Rock Island and was educated in Rock Island public schools. Although he was offered scholarships at Yale and Harvard, he selected Yale, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1958, magna cum laude. In 1967, he earned a graduate degree from Tulane University in Latin studies.

He served in the U.S. Army and later as a civil servant, investment officer, at the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corp.

Throughout his international financial management career in the commercial banking and public sectors, he worked and/or resided in the U.S. as well as in more than three dozen foreign countries, including Panama, France, Brazil, Ecuador, numerous countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Philippines, Sri Lanka, New Guinea, North Africa, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Tajikistan and Mongolia. Dennis held multiple executive positions in
U.S. and international banks and spoke and conducted business in four languages. As such, he was considered an expert in international banking and finance.

He published or coauthored books and studies on ornithology. He traveled every continent to pursue his quest for knowledge of birds and was considered an expert in the field.

Dennis married Genoveva Margoth Gaete Aviles; he was preceded in death by her. He is survived by his two sons, Eric Sheets, Guayaquil, Equador, and Manfred Sheets, Sunny Isles Beach, Fla.; his brother, Arthur (Bud) Sheets, Nags Head, N.C., formerly of Rock Island; two daughters-in-law, Giomar Jimenez and Maria Fernanda Egas; three granddaughters, Nicole, Erica and Fiona Sheets; and two nieces, Cari Sheets, Macomb, and Nancy Sheets-Darr, Nags Head, N.C. He was preceded in death by his parents, Arthur Sr. and Gertrude Sheets.

A private service was held in
Hollywood, Fla., on Nov. 29, 2011, to reflect upon his life and contributions in his extended fields of studies, endeavors, interests and accomplishments.

This is the last email I received from Dennis Sheets. It passes along a video by Eskimo children and the Hallelujah Chorus.

 

 

Wonderful. Also click on one of the great regular  choral arrangements of the Hallelujah Chorus shown on the trailer. You will be reminded then that It is customary for everyone to rise and remain standing during the Chorus out of honor for this great piece of holy music.

 

 

 

Went a few years ago to the Xmas celebration of  Handel’s Messiah here in Ft. Lauderdale.    Brings back memories  and a tear or two, from my youth in Rock Island, location of Augustana College, whose nationally known Augustana Choir every year presents the whole Messiah…four hours long.  One the highlights of the Christmas season for me.  [Bill, I recall that we both get inspiration from hearing  the Panis Angelicus sung by some of the opera greats….similar emotional experience]

 

 

 

Reminds me of my intention to write a brief chapter on how so much of the world’s art has been religious-inspired… Music, architecture, sculpture, painting, poetry.  But somehow I just cant get going on it…perhaps it can be said in a couple of sentence… or in many pages. I defy any non-believer to demonstrate that human life would be about the same without religious-inspired Art.

For Evelyn Jinks-Crosby:

 

1. Bill,
 
I attended Evelyn's services in Dana Point.  Evelyn would have been proud of her Grandchildren (11).  Everyone had wonderful things to say about a great lady. 
 
Carol Kish

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2. Bill...yes, I recall that happy red headed gal.  I bet she made someone a nice wife.  

     I was surprised in our class booklet that no one knew 'info' about Gene Monte or Dave Lundy.   Gene was my roommate in college at Western Ill.  He went on to teach in Chicago suburbs was the last I recall.

     Dave Lundy , as I understand, married a lady in Indiana and her Dad had a fencing company and Dave went into that business.

     Dave was a State Champion wrestler at Rocky and a modest gentleman  who I am sure became a success in life.

     Gene was a happy go lucky guy in high school...in college he was married to a Moline girl named Nancy and he became the ideal student and I then knew he was very much more than the fun loving guy  we laughed with at Rocky.  Gene also became the Conference Champion Wrestler at Western Il

     I can't remember what I did yesterday but I can recall these two great guys quite vividly.

 

Harry Lester

 

Epitaph for Sara Buck by Dennis Sheets
 
Sarah was a lifelong friend.
 
I knew Sarah (or Sara as she later preferred to spell it) probably longer than anyone else in the Rocky ´54 class. We were playmates since age 8 when her family moved in from Coal Valley to across the street from my family. We went to Denkmann and Washington together, and during  our three years at Rocky High , she was a part of my daily carpool, paying promptly every Friday 50 cents for gas. Later in life, she was there to comfort me at the time of the deaths of both my parents, and met and liked my wife and first-born son. We lost contact for many years except for Christmas cards, until our friendship was re-energized by phone and Internet when I moved to Virginia and she lived in South Carolina. We confided in each other as only two long-standing friends can do.   
 
Those who only remember Sara from schools in Rock Island will not realize how she bloomed in later life into a highly intelligent and caring human being who as a manager commanded professional respect from her government co-workers, and who earned the loyalty of many friends because of her sociable and truly empathetic nature.  
 
She suffered from several physical maladies simultaneously, and she was already quite ill the last time I saw her some six years ago in Myrtle Beach, SC. But she never let these physical problems affect her optimistic and cheerful outlook on life. When I moved back to South America in 2000, we kept up a frequent flow of jokes and inspirational mesages over the Internet that stopped abruptly some three months before she died... and I knew then that the end must be near.  Sara was a true friend whose suffering has ended mercifully
 
Dennis Sheets.