Judith Ann Deeds

Judith was born in Mansfield, Ohio on May 29, 1941. She lived with her parents Ruth Dean Sawyer and Ralph Byron Sawyer and her brother Dean in Lexington, Ohio until she was 5 years old when they moved to Marietta, Ohio where her father was the Vocational Agriculture teacher in the Marietta school system.

Growing up in Marietta, Judie spent lots of time visiting the Dean Grandparents plus Aunts, Uncles and Cousins in the Columbus area. And over the summers, weekends were also spent in Malta, Ohio where the Sawyer grandparents lived and her dad ran the Sawyer 450 acre farm. It was a typical farm with Beef & Hogs and raising corn, but also had a specialty growing Certified Seed Corn for supply to other farmers for their crops.

While Judie was going to high school she participated in the School Debate Team and also was on the Varsity Cheerleader Squad. After graduation, Judie also attended Ohio University and was a very active member of the Sigma Kappa Sorority. During her school years, Judie palled around with her BFF Judy Sauer who later introduced Judie to her future husband - David on the 4 of July in 1960. Dave was from Amherst in Northern Ohio and a recent Chemical Engineering graduate who was just starting his career with Borg Warner Chemicals.

Judie and Dave got engaged, were married in June of 1961 and moved to Parkersburg, W Va. This was the start of a long and exciting marriage taking them around the world more than once. Their son Douglas was born in 1962 while living in Parkersburg. In 1965 their daughter Deborah was born, and Dave took on the assignment to provide technical support to the company building two new ventures in Japan and the Netherlands.

The next three years were hectic as Dave was traveling out of the country half of the time - leaving Judie with the responsibility for the household and most importantly to raise both Debbie and Doug at their very young age. In 1968 they found a solution to that challenge when Dave was asked by the company to move to Melbourne, Australia to support the new Borg Warner start-up, and most importantly to bring the whole family the 12,000 miles with him to their new home.

Australia was a huge change in all aspects of life, culture and separation from friends and family in the USA. In those days home leave was only included every 2 years, so with no emails and few phone calls, letter writing became the norm. The nicest thing was that the Aussies were and are the most outgoing and welcoming people; and adaptation was so easy with all of our new friends down under. Also new things to do - we joined a Duplicate Bridge club which was so enjoyable competing every month; and a highlight was getting a boat to go Snapper fishing and cruising every summer.

After 6 years down under the kids were getting older and we wanted them to get back to the US school system, so we made the move to return. On a return visit back to the US in 1974, Judie stayed longer while Dave returned to the job. On her own she found a house to buy in Marietta Ohio and locked it down. Dave did not see the house until several months later when they made the final move home in August of that year.

Back in the USA in their new home the family settled down, got the kids started in school, and reacquainted themselves with friends and family. Life-was normal and as the kids grew up they attended the same Jr High school that Judie had attended. In some ways it is still a small world.

Doug spent his Jr and Senior High school active with the band and Judie active volunteering travelling with the band and at band camp. Doug graduated high school and went off to Georgia Tech in Atlanta majoring in Electrical Engineering. Debbie followed her mother and excelled in high school Varsity Cheerleading. That is until in 1982 when Dave's company said - do you want another assignment? So with that opportunity we asked Debbie if she would like to be an Exchange Student for her Senior Year? The only requirement was that she take Mom & Dad with her to Holland where Dad had another assignment with Borg Warner.

Three years in Holland was fantastic with so many opportunities to see Europe and experience the various cultures. Skiing in Austria each year at Christmas, driving Judie's Mom around Germany, Switzerland and France, and also taking the car with everybody to tour England and Scotland were just some of the delights. Equally fun and interesting was the opportunity to sample culinary delights from all of the. countries. Debbie graduated from the American School of the Hague, then went off to college at Vanderbilt in Nashville.

Returning back to the US in 1985, everything got back to normal again. Judie got creative and planted the hill behind our house with imported tulips from Holland and Heather from Scotland.

Everything seemed normal again - that is until the Financial World created Leveraged Buyouts and Borg Warner got sold to General Electric in 1989. We, along with lots of others were let go and typical of industry finding a new job with a new company meant a move landing us in Houston Texas with Dave working for Solvay a Belgium Company.

Houston has been our home now for over 30 years. Together Judie and Dave have made lots of new friends, joined Newcomers and played duplicate bridge again. Judie fell in love with growing Orchids which we have enjoyed till now, raising them both indoors and out. Dave worked for 25 more years and finally retired. Both Doug and Debbie had graduated, married and moved around a lot; both finally ending up in North Carolina: With no family in Texas and fewer friends still in Ohio, the question of where do we want to spend our final days became the question. Not an easy decision to make.

In summary, we have had a wonderful, exciting, interesting and diverse life. Judie managed the

family for so many of those years especially when Dave would be traveling extensively or absorbed by his jobs. She has had a positive outlook on life always finding a way to smile at all that life presented. She was creative and encouraged adventure. I could not ask for a better friend, partner and love. I know that we will be together again in the future.