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Jim
& Ryan, 2006 |
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Location: |
Email: |
Bear, Delaware
("the land of NASCAR")
(Was previously living in West Chester, PA, and lived in Allentown from
1988-1990.) |
JLQuirkIV@Yahoo.com |
| Wife: |
Christine
M. Keller (Married 8/02/97).
"I met my wife at the Lion's
Share restaurant in Exton PA while I was cooking there part-time in the
summer of 1994 because the catering company I was working at was slow.
The Lion's Share was the restaurant I worked at during high school and I
was even there working during the Senior Class trip and the Senior Prom.
My wife was a waitress there. Our first date was to see 'Forest
Gump' and the rest is history. We have been together
ever since. She is my true soul mate."
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| Children: |
Ryan Joseph Quirk
 Name: Ryan Joseph Quirk
Original due date: 8/16/04 (off by a long shot)
Time of birth: 10:57 PM
Date of Birth: 7/27/04
Weight: 7 lbs. 2.3 ounces
Length: 20 inches
Looks like: Daddy
Cries like: Daddy
Has feet like: Daddy and Grammy
Has fingers like: Mommy
Christy had a 2:30PM appointment; the doctor asked her if she could feel
any contractions. She said no. He noted t hat she was 4 cm
dilated, and admitted at 4PM. Dad arrived at 6PM. Christy
got the good drugs at 8PM, was asked to start pushing at 10PM, baby
arrived at 11PM!
The picture to the right is Ryan in
February 2005.
From Jim,
3/09/04: "Yes the rumor spreading around Sinking Spring by my mother is
true, my wife Christine is pregnant!!!! Yeah, baby!!! We are due
in the middle of August. Chris is about 17 1/2 weeks pregnant now and we
are going for the ultrasound at the end of this month. Guess that
trip to Italy really worked. Came home, got pregnant, end of story.
Needless to say my family is going ape-shit over the whole thing. My mom
keeps the keys in the ignition of her car so as soon as I tell her if it
is going to be a boy or a girl she can immediately run to the store!"
Update from Jim,
3/25/04: "My wife had her ultrasound yesterday and we are going
to have a BOY!!! The Quirk legacy will remain intact for another
generation. I was the last great hope in my family, and I supplied
the Y-chromosomes to accomplish it!!! My wife is at 20 weeks now and the ultrasound
pictures were amazing. Seeing the heart beating, the baby moving
around, the arms, legs, fingers, toes, and the most unbelievable
thing, the profile of the baby, was more than words can describe." |
| Pets: |
Stanley James Quirk, a Yellow Lab born in
September 2001. |
Education/
Achievements/ Present Occupation: |
3/04/05 Update: "I now work for
Eastern Shore Natural Gas which is the transmission pipeline division of
Chesapeake Utilities in Dover, DE. I am still involved with corrosion
and pipeline integrity, but with less travel. Only 300+ miles of pipe to
look after. I left Russell Corrosion at the end of August 2004 after my
son was born. The web site is
http://www.chpk.com/"
Below are previous work updates...
 "Still
in college after 10 years, did obtain a useless two year degree in
electronics from a tech school in Allentown. Won a lot of nifty
merchandise from WMMR back in 1987, won $875 on one spin at Atlantic
City, drank a serious amount of beer. Will graduate in MAY
1997 with a degree in Geology." -- Jim Quirk, early 1996
The picture shown here is of Jim's
apartment in Isla Verde, Puerto Rico. In 2001 Jim got to spend a great
deal of time there as part of his job as a Corrosion Engineer. |
Russell Corrosion
Consultants, Inc. (RCC) has earned a reputation as the premier
consulting firm specializing exclusively in corrosion control
engineering services. We strive to work with our clients in protecting
the infrastructure through sound engineering practices coupled with
practical experience, rigorous quality control and personal attention to
each of our clients and projects. RCC's staff consists of individuals
who have dedicated their careers to corrosion control. RCC's mission is
a 110% commitment to the enhancement of the quality of the
infra-structure through the implementation of state-of-the-art corrosion
control methods. To date, this effort has earned us projects in 34 of
the United States.
Where's Jimbo?
3/20/02 Update: "No trips to Puerto
Rico yet this year. I am working on a large gas pipeline project
for Washington Gas in Prince George's County, Maryland for the next few
months. Man, I was spoiled last year."
Where's Jimbo? (2003 version)
Jim was in Sauda Arabia in October 2003 for his job:
I was part of a 7 man team to evaluate (2) existing aircraft
fueling systems at the Prince Sultan Airbase in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia. I was basically a subcontractor for a subcontractor for
a prime contractor out of Atlanta, Georgia. I flew to Saudi via
Baltimore-Atlanta-Zurich-Riyadh. About 1 day total of travel
with 16 hours in the air.
SA is everything you could imagine it to be: 108 degrees in
the daytime, no
 women
anywhere, men in robes everywhere, crazy drivers, clean
bathrooms (see photo to the left!) Yes, that was the facilities
at the airbase. TP is your left hand and a spray nozzle. They
think toilet paper is unsanitary. Needless to say, I held it in
all day!!!! Didn't "high-five" anyone one over there as well.
So I went over there and we evaluated the fueling systems at the
airbase. Very few American troops are left in SA so the base was
now controlled by the Saudis. The first three days there we got
nothing done. We had tea and dates with the Major General
everyday and the Saudis work about a 5 hour day. (with 2 of
their 1/2 hour prayer times mixed in as well.) Got our mission
done and came home. Stayed at the only remaining American
military base there (Eskan
Village-look it up on the internet) which was heavily
fortified and very safe. I ate more bacon and drank more beer at
that base on this trip that I have in a long time.
Impression of the Saudis: Good when you meet them 1 on 1. They
like us personally, they just hate our government (who doesn't?)
Here is the only picture of me from the trip. All the other
photos I had taken were of jet fuel tanks and piping. It was a
security risk for us to
take any other pictures either on the Saudi or American base. I
bought the entire Saudi get-up from checkered head scarf to
white robes when I was over there. I am going to put
it on and walk around the neighbor-hood with it on some day!!!
The next photo is of a road sign that we passed everyday on our
1 hour commute to the Saudi base. Yes, there is a town
called Yammah (pronounced "your mamma.")
Just so you don't think that my job is all glamour and intrigue,
here is a photo of me in Chincoteague, VA inspecting a leaky
water line in the backbay. Can you imagine the smell????
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Previous
Occupation: |
Chef at the
LENAPE INN in West Chester, contemporary American cuisine. |
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This is Stanley James Quirk, at 8 weeks of age
in November 2001. Stanley is 100% pure Yellow Lab and was born in
September of 2001 in Stevens, PA. According to Jim: "As
in the picture, he is already a 'Quirk'. He doesn't sleep on his
blanket, but next to it!!! |
Here's Stanley (Center) and Jim (Top/Back) at around 5 months old
in February 2002.
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Stanley in 2004, now 2-1/2 years old and 125 pounds. His
favorite place to sleep is on the ottoman. |
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Yearbook
Future Career: |
In our senior
yearbook, Jim listed "Chemistry" as his future
career path. |
| Person
I would most like to see again from HS: |
"You
Chris (aw, isn't that nice), and Co Lieu." |
| Favorite
HS Memories: |
"The day
that I finally graduated, the rest is just a blur now. (Do I sound
bitter?)" |
| Exciting
Things I've Done since Graduation: |
"They
are too numerous to mention, I have had an incredibly interesting life
since graduation, I am working on my autobiography due to be released by
RANDOM HOUSE in 1997, don't miss it, a guaranteed page turner."
For their 4 year anniversary (August 2001), Jim and his wife Chris
took a trip to Las Vegas which included an excursion to the Hoover Dam
and the Grand Canyon. They stayed at Caesar's Palace. It
reached 108 degrees during their stay. Jim also noted that the
phone book contained 120+ pages of escort services.
Just 3 days after Jim returned from his business trip to
Saudi Arabia, Jim and his wife took a 10-day vacation to Italy,
including Rome, Venice and Florence. |
| Ideas
for future reunions: |
"Wait to
have a 75 year reunion, by then I will be unable to remember if I went
to high school, or what I had for dinner that day." |
| Senior Memories
(Copied directly from the Senior Yearbook): |
| Jump-Rope-a-Thon ... Gawumpgkie ...
Perogie ... US Apr. 24 ... CSN ... Dire Straits ... It's Chewy ... Sean,
where's the car? ... The nad ... wiffle ball ... football bets ...
hockey shot ... baseball ... 10th grade German class. |
| Chris Mal Notes: |
As I mentioned in my memories
section, Jim and I used to map out the sewers down in Pennside. I'm not
sure exactly why, but we did. Seriously, I couldn't make
this stuff up, we used to take a flashlight and go walking underneath
the streets of Pennside. Then again, I look at us back in 8th
grade and then I understand why - what else were we going to do?!
Oh, I know what else we could have done - and did do - we painted a
bunch of bean pods red, painted white numbers on all of them, dropped
them in the creek, and watched them float downstream to see which one
would win. OK, now you've got to admit, that I've clearly become
quite secure with myself that I can admit my sordid past. Oh, shut
up, stop laughing, like all of you other people were doing anything more
interesting when you were 12!
Jim and I also probably played about 500 games of wiffle ball in his
back yard between 7th and 10th grade (when we weren't in the sewers or
racing bean-pods, of course.) 95% of the time it was just he and
I, but I think there were a couple occasions where we were joined by
Mike Greene, Jeff Benedict, Matt Curtis (all from Central Catholic) or
Jason Miller. We, of course, kept stats and had "teams"
where the players had clever names like Eddie Dembokowicz, Mike Erphone,
Jim Nazium, Scott Towlez, Bob Furapples, Rob A. Train, etc.
Between 7th and 10th grade, I probably spent more time with Jim outside
of school than I did with anyone else in our class.
Along with
Sean Gimeno and Bill LaBate, Jim and I ate at McDonald's or Wendy's just
about every single day in 10th grade. Other years it was Italian Gardens or
Taco Casa (2 tacos to go, then we'd run to Jim's house, eat our food in
about 10 minutes and then run back to school.)
Jim's Dad once took us on a week-end trip to the Poconos. We went
out fishing on the lake early one morning, and that afternoon went
swimming and got stuck treading water in the middle of the lake while
some freak we didn't even know bombarded us with rocks from the shore
for about 15 minutes.
Jim was also part the junior high Dungeons & Dragons craze that all
the cool kids got involved in. I can remember him sleeping
overnight around 6th and 7th grade, and us staying up playing D&D
and listening to Led Zeppelin in my basement until the sun came up.
We also played a lot of 3-man football (1-on-1 with an all-time
quarterback) which usually included Mike Green who lived not too far
from Jim. (Mike was a Central Catholic graduate who went on to
marry Sherri Becker's sister, Bobbi Jo)
Jim was also part of the contingent of my friends - which included Jason
Miller and Brendan Kane - that spent hours hiking around Neversink
Mountain with me.
Jim pointed out the following things that he and I did that I had
forgotten about. (Some of them probably would have rather
continued to forget about, but I still got a chuckle out of them.
:o) Here they are...
* Live D&D in Jimmy's basement. Don't ask me how we pulled
this off or what the inspiration was. Just accept that we were
probably in 7th grade and bored of racing bean pods and mapping out the
sewers of Pennside.
* D&D....over the phone. It wasn't enough to play it nearly 24
hours a day and then play it on the phone and live in Jim's basement.
* We also played a lot of pool in Jim's basement, and you would get
paper medals for making an awesome shot. (Shut up...if we had time
to spray-paint bean pods, we sure as hell had time to give ourselves
medals for our future careers on ESPN2.)
* Jim also fell asleep one time as I was talking to him out on his back
porch.
* We also used to have a bit of an unfriendly rivalry with Tigger
Vozella (Teresa's little brother) who lived near Jim. There were a
couple times when we hurled rocks back and forth at each other in an
obvious attempt to injure. Thankfully, none of the three of us had
very good aim!
Jimmy was really one of the funniest people that I have ever met. It's a
shame most people didn't really know him that well.
Jim says that he would go to the reunion if Bill LaBate and Sean
Gimeno go.
Note from Jim, 11/07/01: "Is there ONE yearbook picture of
myself??? I know I wasn't the most noticeable person in High School, but
there has to be one somewhere??? I was a fourth string JV bowler. I did
join the science club and did attend 1 meeting. Details Chris, what has
happened to your mind numbing attention to details?!?!?!"
Update from Jim, 3/21/02: "Nothing
really changed down here in Delaware. Things are really heating up here now that NASCAR season is under way.
Stores can't seem to stock enough Bud Light and Skoal chewin' tobackie to
keep up with the demand!!!"
There is a full page picture of me (Chris
Mal) on Page 134 of the senior yearbook, but my face is covered by the
"Marty's Amoco" logo. Damn Marty! In my yearbook, that page is
also covered by a full page high school summary written by Jimmy Quirk.
Hey, write on your own face! Just kidding. This is what he
wrote: "Christian John Matthew Malinowski I, since most people
don't sign their own yearbook, I thought I would sign it near your
picture. Since you covered our life together from birth to present,
I thought I would bring up just a few things: D&D over the phone, James
the Conqueror XV, the trip to the Poconos where the kid was throwing
rocks, "the time now is", all our wiffle ball games - from my back yard to
Levine's, 1-on-1 football with Mike Green, rock fights, Tigger and the
baseball bat, bean pod racing, sewer exploring, adventures in the
mountains, the fish pond, pool tourneys and medals, the infamous WXYZ tape
(too bad it's gone), Atari football tournaments (when I threw the joystick
into the TV and your dad got mad), lunches at McDonald's, Wendy's, Italian
Gardens, Taco Casa (two tacos to go), R&R games, your killer cat, your
dead cat, your funny mom, your sister's big feet, falling asleep while
listening to Led Zeppelin, Coleco Vision football/baseball. There
are many other times, I just can't remember but had to have been great ...
Well that is about all I can think of and my hand is about to fall off.
Later. James Leo Peter Quirk IV."
Just one day after posting what I wrote in
Jim's yearbook, he sent me what I wrote in his: James Leo Quirk IV,
Well, Captain, it's been real and it's fun! But it would have been even
more fun if we had played wiffle ball this year-I think. We'll have
to get together next spring break and play the special memory game! Aisle
Icky, Eddie Dembokiwitz, Bob Sledd, Jim Nazium and the whole shabang!
Remember the Home Run Derbys! Bean Pod Racing! And best of all- crawling
around in the sewers! Ah yes, those were the good old days! All-Ball!
Smashing Walter V. in the face, kicking Mike Green in the nads, and
one-on-one football games! Remember live D&D in your basement! James the
Conqueror the first, second, third....fifteenth, sixteenth, catching my
breath. Sorry about that Raise Temperature spell-Didn't mean to burn
you up like that! HAHAHAHAHAHA. I'll have to play you in Coleco-Vision
Baseball again sometime! How about all those pool medals we made!
Play song titles lately? How about Rock Trivia matches! And say high to
Sonny, Puddie, and all of the other felines in the Quirk household!
Hopefully you will lose the Malinowski curse by the time you're 22! I
never realized we've done so many wierd things! It's all coming back to me
now! Mr. Leinbach and the train club! - The Screwdriver Mafia! I'd really
hate to write over my face, but - if you really want to dreul (yes you
spelled "drool" dreul!-JLQIV) over me, you can turn to one of the other
twelve pictures! And then we come to High School! Getting stuck at
Burger King in the hatchback! Mr. Dengler's History classes - "I'm gonna
give you a shot!" Gawumpkie, Perogie, and Beer! All of the wierd lunches!
Taco Casa, Wendy's, McDonald's. Italian Gardens, etc. And the ever famous
line "Sean, where's the car?" And lets not forget "It's chewy!" And I
forgot about Cub Scouts - the first time we met! Oh, and how about the
rock battles! And our hikes up in the mountains for the Neversink Mt.
Club. Remember throwing snowballs at the Borsts! What a couple of ruffians
we were! And we can't forget Ranck's Chem classes and our tremendous
sight of the two twin monsters -PANT PANT! Anyway, it's been real and it's
been fun and I am running out of room so - Good luck and all of that
jazz!!! Your Pal Chris Mal
Jim still gets back to the Reading area fairly often to
golf with his brother-in-law: Galen Hall, Perry, Blackwood, etc.
Jim and I got together for lunch in October
of 2006. We were 17 when we last saw each other as we walked off
the stage at graduation. 20 years later we were eating together at
the Applebees in Wyomissing. |
| Marta Weitz Notes: |
| Jimmy Quirk was a guest at my
birthday party in Kindergarten, as was Darren Max. My mom STILL
remembers Jimmy Quirk and mentions him every once in a while. I
went to West Chester University for college, and so did Jimmy (but I
didn't know that). So, one day I was walking through campus
and...there he was. Unbelievable...I went to school with him from
the time I was 4 until 21. Well, realistically, since I continued
on to grad school at WCU and graduated in Dec 93 (and Jimmy is still in
school there), I guess I technically went to school with Jimmy from Sept
1973 until Dec 1994...21 years. The sad part about that is that I
didn't spend a ton of time with him, but I ALWAYS really liked him and
smile whenever I think of him. And, the best part of it, there is
some guy who goes to my gym who looks like Jimmy, so actually I DO get
to see him pretty often! |
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Hey,
there IS a picture
of Jim in the yearbook!
1986 |
Number of total miles Jim
and I walked
underneath the streets of Pennside:
  
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