Roger King

Hello, Class of ’71,

If you’re reading these in alphabetical order, you have already read Jerry Garry’s story. Jerry and I were college roommates at South Dakota State University and we also teamed up as the wanna-be-famous musical duo, Garry & King. We actually were kind of famous to people who were already our friends and to the Catholics at the Newman Center. Those were fabulous, fun years. Jerry and I remain great friends and we’ve played and sung together on a number of occasions since graduation. I would disagree with Jerry about one thing -- that being the wedding that was the highlight of our wedding-singer career. He said it was the one that Ricky Nelson was invited to but didn’t show. I say it was the one we did at the Newman Center, officiated by a Catholic priest. The kicker was that it was a Muslim wedding between a friend of ours named Muhammed and his stunning Iranian bride, Kashani. Unfortunately, Kashani was unable to get to the United States for the actual wedding day, so Muhammed’s brother, Ali, stood in for her. Sheesh! Eventually, we did meet Kashani and she asked Jerry and I if we were brothers. We assured her we were not, to which she replied, “Well, you all look alike to me.” :)

Other than that, here’s what I’ve been up to. After graduating from SDSU with a degree in journalism, I moved back to Sioux Falls and began working as a reporter and editor at the Argus Leader. I married Paula Robbie, a ’71 Lincoln High graduate, whom I met at a huge kegger outside of Brookings during our college years. Well, over the years, things changed. I took a new job in public relations and communications with Missouri River Energy Services. After 10 years, my marriage to Paula ended in divorce. However, I’m no quitter, and, in 1987, I found the real love of my life -- Julie Sherwood. Julie had a son, Michael, who was 10 at the time. Julie and I were married in 1988 and, while we didn’t have any other children, I was, and continue to be, very happy and proud to serve as Michael’s stepdad. He’s 44 now and is a vice president with Malwarebytes, a cyber-security firm in Silicon Valley. He and his wife Elizabeth have blessed us with the most amazing gift anyone could imagine, our beautiful, energetic, hilarious granddaughter Brielle, who turned 3 in June. And, we just received word that her baby brother will be arriving around March 1, 2022!

I retired in April 2020 from Missouri River Energy after a 40-year career that concluded with me working from home for the last two weeks because of Covid. I was not a big fan of working from home so, it turns out, I stepped away at the right time.

Julie and I play a lot of golf (I’m not a bad player, but she’s better, as evidenced by her four state tournament trophies that adorn our mantle.) One of the highlights of our golfing life was a visit to St. Andrews, Scotland, about nine years ago. St. Andrews is the Home of Golf and our visit there greatly exceeded our very high expectations.

We love visiting our little Brielle (and her parents) as often as possible. Those visits should get easier in the coming months as they plan to move to the Twin Cities area in October.

LIke everyone, we’ve had our ups and downs, but all-in-all, it’s been a great (yet very quick) 50 years since graduation day. I sincerely hope that all of you can say the same.