Alexandra (12), Aaron (16) and Amy
Bronson-Alderdice (ageless).Amy writes:
After graduating from Dhahran, I went back to Florida and finished high school in Cocoa Beach, where I had grown up. From there I moved to Texas to attend Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches. It was a good school with a beautiful campus and wasn’t far from my sister’s home in Houston.
It was there that I met and married my now ex-husband. We moved to Dallas in 1986 and subsequently had Aaron (soon to be 16 and driving!) and Alexandra who turns 13 in May.
I have worked for the past 11 years for a company now called Diageo—the world's largest adult beverage company! We are the owners/suppliers of such brands as Jose Cuervo, Smirnoff, Crown Royal, Johnnie Walker and Baileys to name a few... I am a Market Manager handling grocery and club stores for our wine portfolios (Sterling, BV and Trimbach!) for the state of Texas.
Diageo is a great company to work for and has given me tremendous exposure and experience with all of our spirits and wine brands. I like getting to travel and meeting new people—This is a fascinating industry to work in…. It's a very exciting, demanding, challenging and fun role that keeps me busy!
My children are a great gift and keep me on my toes. Aaron is a high school sophomore who works hard in school and is active with our city's fire department as Captain of the Explorers. He's anxiously awaiting the ability to drive by himself and, at 6'5", is a real cutie if I do say so myself! Alex is also a great student and stays busy riding horses, cheering on her school cheer squad as well as a competitive cheerleading team. Such the social butterfly!
My brother, Bill (RT 81), also lives in the Dallas area. He and his wife, Amy, have four kids, Griffin (10), Ashton (6) and their twins, Emma and Olivia (1-1/2). He has kept in contact with many of his Aramco friends and enjoys getting news about fellow Aramco kids! The rest of my immediate family is also here in Dallas.
In
the Spotlight
Leon Harkey grew up in Lovington, a small town in eastern New Mexico. After graduating from New Mexico University he moved to Taft, CA (a small town near Bakersfield) where he spent the next thirteen years teaching. Through a friend he heard about Aramco. The chance to travel the world and experience life in another country sounded too good to pass up, so he applied, got an offer and moved to Dhahran in 1976.
Leon taught junior high math for five years and then transferred to Aramco’s Drilling & Workover Engineering department, where he served as the Training Coordinator for the next ten years. He left Aramco in 1990 and returned to Mojave, CA where he taught high school until he retired in 1999. Leon married Rebecca, his tennis doubles partner, in 1998.
They now spend much of their time playing tennis, visiting with friends and traveling. Over the last five years they’ve been overseas several times, spending a week or more in London, Bora Bora, Paris and Costa Rica. In April, they will go to the Emerald Isle for ten days. They also like going up to their second home in Laughlin, NV.
Leon really enjoyed his years in Arabia, teaching, coaching basketball with Dave Goff and playing guitar in the Talent Show (who could forget his duet with Greg Weinbender (DH 80) on "Junk Food Junky"?). He also played in a bluegrass band with Mike Morrow (DH 69). He says the best part of the Aramco experience was the camaraderie among teachers, students and the rest of the community.