Larry Seale
Mailing Address:
624 77th Ave NE
Olympia, WA 98506
Phone: 360 888-6240
larry@larryseale.com
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Larry SealeMailing Address: 624 77th Ave NE Olympia, WA 98506 Phone: 360 888-6240 |
| Larry Seale larry@larryseale.com |
| Updated: July 9, 2015 | ||||||
The biggest change in my life since the last reunion is that our daughter Stephanie (turning 42 this month) decided to have kids after ten years of marriage in which she steadfastly said "never" Now she and her husband, Mike, are keeping us entertained with two grandchildren, Chloe (4) and Nate (2 ½). They live in Portland so we see them about once a month. This is in addition to two other "step-grandchildren" Kaya and Siobhan that came into our family when our son Chris (43) got married in 2008. He and his wife live near Philadelphia, but we have managed to see them a couple of times each year. I have not managed to completely retire yet, as I enjoy continuing part-time work as an international consultant in public financial management. As indicated in notes from prior reunions, most of my work is with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, but I have worked for other donor agencies as well. I have now worked in 30 countries in the last 20 years. Most recently my work has been in Afghanistan, Honduras and Cambodia. During the "partially retired" phases of my life, my wife Cynthia and I now have the main objective of seeing more of the USA, after a lot of international travel. We acquired a camping trailer about 18 months ago and during Feb-March of this year managed a 6500 mile, nine state trip and we have others planned for later in this year. We are not roughing it so much, but still like to find great hikes during the day, and retreat to the comfort of the trailer at night. |
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| Updated: June 29, 2010 | ||||||
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I continue to do international consulting work in the field of public financial management. I have now been doing this for 17 years so I summarize my experience by saying that I have worked in over 23 countries on five continents. I am essentially self-employed and take on projects funded by the US Treasury Department, World Bank, IMF, Asian Development Bank and others. Currently, Cynthia and I are winding up two years in Vientiane, Laos, where I work as a consultant at the Ministry of Finance. Because this assignment is 60% of full time we have had time to tour Laos, Cambodia and Thailand with my mother and several sets of friends from the US. We also have had the chance to spend weeks touring Japan, Malaysia, China, Australia and New Zealand. I also took on some short term assignments in Yemen and Afghanistan. After joining me in Laos part-time the first year, Cynthia quit her job last October with the Washington State Department of Ecology, where she was planning the multi-million dollar cleanup related to a 100 year-old (now demolished) smelter in Tacoma. She has been putting “retired” on her immigration cards, but her former employers are urging her to return to work there once we return to Olympia this August. I expect to continue my consulting work for a few more years at a slower pace, taking on short-term assignments perhaps 50% of the time. My father passed away in 2005, but my 89 year old Mother, whom many of you know, is still going strong and living at Good Sam in Moscow. We went with her to Egypt in 2007 so she could ride a camel at age 86 and in 2009 she joined us in riding an elephant in Laos at age 88 - and climbing up lots of temple steps. We are not sure what other large mammals are on the list at this point. Our son Chris has been heavily engaged in Women’s Flat Track Derby Association and with partners is running the Derby News Network which webcasts roller derby bouts and provides news and standings (see www.derbynewsnetwork.com). Along the way, he met and married (for the first time at age 36) a “derby girl” (Kristin) and they make their home in the Albuquerque area. As a result, we have been able to enjoy two inherited (fully-hatched) grand-daughters, Kaya, now 14 and Siobhan, age 6. Our daughter, Stephanie finally quit her day job at the Portland Building Department to devote herself fully to her niche chocolate business, “Truffle” in Portland, Oregon (See www.portlandtruffle.com). Her husband, Mike continues to work at Portland Building Department as a manager, so they don’t have all their chocolates in one basket. We were excited to hear earlier this year that after years of denying any interest, they have now decided to work on creating a next generation, so we are looking forward to that addition to the family. More on that at the next reunion? |
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Spouse: Cynthia Walker
Kids: Chris 33 Stephanie 32 In Mrs. Hungerford's English class, I wrote my career paper about the Foreign Service and I recall being one of the few students who finished the paper being more interested in the career than less. And I stuck with that for a while, concentrating in International Relations during my college career. But by the time I finished college, I decided I could accomplish very little overseas and decided instead to pursue public administration, which is what I did for 22 years in Idaho, California and Washington. At the last reunion in 1995, I was working on my first overseas consulting assignment, at the Ministry of Finance in Bucharest, Romania. I didn't realize at the time that this would be the start of my new career, but it was. So I have returned to the path I first chose in Mrs. Hungerford's class. I have spent the last 12 years working as an international consultant in governmental financial management, working in at least 14 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. Most of this work has been for the US Department of Treasury, but I have worked on projects sponsored by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the British Department for International Development. A lot of my work has been to help formerly communist countries reform their systems to embrace a market-oriented, democratic society. However, it has also been increasingly dominated by work in "post-conflict" countries. After working in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania in the 1997-99 period, Treasury asked me to take up a post with the UN Administration in Kosovo shortly after the US intervention there. I spent six months as the budget director for the Kosovo Interim Administration. Having revealed my foolishness in that regard, Treasury then asked me to go to Afghanistan in the wake of the Post 9/11 war that evicted the Taliban from power there. I arrived there in early February 2002 and stayed (with breaks) 22 months until the end of November 2003, working as an advisor to two different Finance Ministers working with the Afghanistan Transitional government. I would not have taken that kind of long-term assignment except for the fact that my wife, Cynthia Walker, has an equal commitment to this kind of work, and capacity for it. So after five years of nurturing a non-profit health care organization in Olympia, Washington after our return from Romania, she agreed to join me in Afghanistan. She worked on a USAID health care project providing $80 million in grants to NGOs throughout Afghanistan to provide basic health service and especially maternity and pediatric care to start improving the world's worst maternal mortality statistics. (If women can't see a male doctor and women can't be trained to be doctors, what do you expect to happen to maternal health?) More recently I have worked in Liberia, which is overcoming its own problems from 20 years of civil war. But the frequent offers to help "make a difference" in Iraq always earn the response, I have been instructed to say "NO" (These instructions come from Cynthia, who gets from me in return the instruction, "No full-time work," so that she can join me overseas or we can take time off together.) Working (and living) in places like Kosovo, Afghanistan and Liberia can be very challenging, but rewarding at the same time. Cynthia and I have learned a great deal about ourselves, about "being American" and we have had tremendous satisfaction that we have made some difference in people's lives. We have made many new interesting friends from all around the world in the process, and love to have them as visitors to our house on Puget Sound in Olympia, Washington. While in Europe, I decided I was "close" to Africa, so on March 6, 1996 successfully reached the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, thus completing an ambition I first recorded in the Wocsomonian 30 years earlier.
Our children, Chris (33) and Stephanie (32) have been deprived of a little parental contact because of this kind of life, but have generally been supportive. Stephanie has kept a map of the world at her office with a flag marked "Dad" to keep track of where I am. She married (Michael) on Christmas Eve 2001, continues in a career with the City of Portland building regulation, but is pursuing the dream of starting a chocolatier business. Chris has been working computer ISP and web design work in Seattle, and is not married. So, no "grandkid" photos for me to share at the reunion. My parents are still both living in Moscow and have just moved into the Good Sam retirement community. The house on Seventh Street they lived in for 52 years is still being cleaned out for sale as I write this. My father has suffered from Parkinsons for at least 10 years and recently got the more disturbing diagnosis of acute leukemia. So in addition to seeing all of you at the reunion, I'll be looking forward once again to some quality time with my parents. |
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Moscow Bear T-Shirt Travels The Globe |
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, Mike Liefeld (son-in-law). Bottom Row: Daughter Steph, Mother Beth, Son Chris, Daughter in law Kristin with granddaughter Siobhan.',0))
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Amsterdam, Holland at the Train Station.){kind=small}
Baku, Azerbaijan-Maiden Tower.){kind=small}
Bratislava, Slovaki with Bratislava Castle.){kind=small}
Bucharest, Romania with Casa Popolurui.){kind=small}
Cadaque, Spain-Jan 1, 2004.){kind=small}
Dubai, United Arab Emirates.){kind=small}
Geneva, Switzerland.){kind=small}
Kabul, Afghanistan - Ministry of Finance.){kind=small}
Kiev, Ukraine, with statue of Lenin.){kind=small}
Koror, Palau Islands.){kind=small}
Lisbon, Portugal.){kind=small}
Ljubljiana, Slovenia.){kind=small}
Marrakech, Morocco in the Medina.){kind=small}
Monrovia, Liberia - Budget Bureau.){kind=small}
Pretoria, South Africa - Government House.){kind=small}
Pristina, Kosovo bombed building.){kind=small}
San Jose, Costa Rica.){kind=small}
Yerevan, Armenia Opera House.