NeWS - Archbishop Alter High School

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A l u M n I N e W S Brother Knights Protecting our Nation God sometimes uses whatever means possible to get us where he needs us in life. For John ’81 and Stephen ’83 Miller, it was the game of basketball. these former Alter Knights were discovered on the court and both recruited by the u.s. Air Force Academy right out of high school; today, these brothers are highly regarded Air Force Colonels working to perpetuate freedom. Pat Miller, a former tutor at Alter, is shown with her son, Steve, placing rank on the shoulder boards of son, John, in the late ’80’s. Colonel John Miller jested, “The Air Force has continued to see if they can keep us on opposite sides of the globe so we don’t terrorize some hapless intramural basketball league.” John is in Washington D.C. as the Deputy Director of the u.s. nuclear Risk Reduction Center for the Department of Defense. he is responsible for the day-to-day leadership of this highly dynamic international watch center manned by foreign language specialists that receive and transmit treaty and international agreement notifications. John has dedicated communication links to the nuclear states of the Russian Federation, ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. he finds it rather ironic that much of his 16 t h e R O U N D TA B L E career was spent watching the former soviet union and now he deals with several of those countries on a daily basis. When John graduated in 1986 from the Air Force Academy, he attended weapons director and AWACs (Airborne Warning and Control system) training and was later assigned to operational AWACs units at Kadena AB, Japan and tinker AFB, oklahoma. he has served as Chief of operations for the theater Air and Missile Defense Branch and operations officer for the 607th Air support operations Group, Republic of Korea. Colonel Miller is also a Master Air Battle Manager with over 4,000 hours onboard the e-3 AWACs, as well as e-8 JstARs. Reflecting on his experience at Alter, John stated, To this day, I am amazed at how some of my teachers, coaches, friends and parents saw potential in me that helped me reach levels in my faith, family, education and career that I would have personally thought unattainable way back then. For that, I am truly thankful to the good Lord. John currently lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife, teresa and their four children ages 7, 5, 3 and a brand new boy just born June 12. Colonel Stephen Miller is on the other side of the world at the u.s. embassy in Kuwait City as the Deputy of the office of Military Cooperation (oMC-K), a unique organization of all four u.s. services (Army, navy, Air Force, Marines), civilians, Kuwaitis, and other nationalities. With over 70 people in oMC-K, they assist and An earlier photo of John and Steve dated around year 1998. advise the Kuwait Military on a daily basis. stephen is a 1987 AF Academy graduate who then attended the usAF Weapons school. he’s been the Director of operations for the 755th operations support squadron and the Command and Control operations Division at the usAF Weapons school, as well as Commander, 23rd training squadron at Maxwell AFB, responsible for the initial leadership training for new Commissioned officers. he has twice commanded the 43rd expeditionary electronic Combat squadron flying in direct support of operation IRAQI FReeDoM and is a Master navigator (electronic Warfare officer) having flown over 4,400 hours, serving in support of combat operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Balkans, and haiti. steve has been deployed to the Middle east over 30 times since 1992 and for the first time, his wife stephanie and their three sons (ages 4, 7, and 9) will join him. the family is moving to Kuwait City this July where the boys will attend an American or British school. though many Kuwaitis know english, the schools teach Arabic which steve will be learning right along with his boys. the weaving of prayer into the daily lives for Muslims often reminds steve of the great example set by his parents and Alter in also combining faith with education. I often think how lucky I was to attend Alter. It was a terrific foundation of both discipline and Catholic faith. When you are surrounded by highly motivated students whose parents really care about their children’s religious and educational futures you can’t help but succeed. ~ Col stephen Miller ’83
theMusic EnginEEr To become what God intends, you must be willing to do While at Alter, Howard’s faith in God was naturally strength- two things: first, look inside your heart to find your calling and ened, but so was his faith in himself as a musician. Alter’s second, have the courage to pursue it relentlessly. Howard Music Director at the time, George Koenig, in particular, en- Watkins ’82 has followed his own advice. At the end of his couraged Howard’s tremendous talent and showed him just sophomore year as an engineering student at University of how fun music could be. Equally gifted as a tenor sax player, Dayton, Howard listened to his heart and switched his major vocalist and bassoonist, Howard was active in every music en- to music performance. Since making that decision and worksemble available at Alter but it was piano he chose for a career. ing tirelessly at continually improving, Howard has made Howard has performed in numerous recitals and con- quite a name for himself as a professional pianist, becoming certs throughout the Americas, Europe, Russia, Israel and the one of the most highly sought accompanists by world leading Far East. He has appeared in concert and on television with musicians, as well as a distinguished conductor and educator. Kathleen Battle, Grace Bumbry, Ben Heppner, Anthony Dean Some of Howard’s confidence to pursue a career with less- Griffey and violinist Sarah Chang, to name but a few. He has than-great odds of success can be attributed to his family’s given recitals and concerts at such premier venues as the Met- foundation of faith. Growing up, I just assumed everyone had ropolitan Museum of Art, Spivey Hall, Kennedy Center, and the same grounding that my parents gave me. Now, in my career, most recently at Carnegie Hall for a culmination concert with I’ve seen the difference the strength of God makes as one goes the highly esteemed American opera singer, Jessye Norman. through the ups and downs. Faith is often all that can sustain you. A New York Times review of the performances at Carnegie noted that of the four “fine pianists” featured, Mr. Watkins consistently stood out for the color and sensitivity of his playing. Howard stated that playing at Carnegie Hall was definitely the “wow” moment in his career and he realized by experiencing its amazing acoustics, why many consider it the world’s ultimate performance space. As an educator, Howard is the Opera Program Coordinator at the Tanglewood Music Center and has taught at the Aspen Music Festival, the Banff Centre, Meadowmount School of Music and the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel, among others, and he has accompanied the classes of such legendary artists as Marilyn Horne, Renata Scotto and Regina Resnik. He is an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City where he resides and a faculty member of the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy. After completing his undergraduate degree at U.D. he earned his Masters in Music Education and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan where he has since been honored for his outstanding contributions in the field of music. Howard’s complete professional achievements and musical accolades are far too numerous for inclusion in this short piece; and undoubtedly, the list will only grow longer as he continues to delight music patrons in halls around the world for years to come. S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 17
Page 1 and 2: s u M M e R 2 0 0 9 RoundTable A pu
Page 3 and 4: Be sure to view the many more campa
Page 5 and 6: Teacher FeaTure Technically speakin
Page 7 and 8: Full Academic - Accepting Michael C
Page 9 and 10: Spring Sports Baseball - GCl Champi
Page 11 and 12: A Leader of Service service has lon
Page 13 and 14: Retirements Farewell to Mrs. Bergst
Page 15: Everybody’s Furniture. When Anne
Page 19 and 20: Knights In Marriage Laura Portune
Page 21 and 22: alumni announcements the Alter High
Page 23 and 24: In Memoriam We offer families of th

NeWS - Archbishop Alter High School

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