CLASS
OF
Catalina High School, Tucson, Arizona, USA
I have lived in Carlsbad, California since 1979 and
Southern California since 1966. I started my career in
1966, after serving active duty in the Navy. When I
was single I lived in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach
and Marina Del Rey. I continued to live in the South
Bay area of Los Angeles after I was married and then
Los Angeles, before my company transferred me to San
Diego in 1976. Spent three years in Point Loma prior
to moving to the La Costa area of Carlsbad, where I
lived for twenty-five years. I moved into a new house
in Carlsbad in 2004.
Family:
My Mom is 94 and going strong and lives in Cerritos,
Ca. My Dad was a victim of a auto accident in 1990.
He was a passenger and died at the age of 78. They
lived together in the South Bay area where my Dad
finished out his career at TRW. He was part of the
Engineering Teams that designed the heat guided missle and the Lunar Excursion Module.
My brother Bob, CHS Class of 1961, is a CPA and lives in Marina Del Rey. Other than two years in
Scottsdale, he has lived along the coast since 1966.
I was fortunate to meet and marry Bonnie Haider from
Downers Grove, Illinois. We had a beautiful marriage
that ended after thirty years in 1999, when she lost a
fifteen year battle with breast cancer. She enjoyed
meeting many of you at the 25th reunion.
Bonnie and I raised two sons. Vincent, born in 1979
graduated from Grand Canyon University, where he
attended on a baseball scholarship. Vincent is presently the Director of Sports Information at his Alma Mater.
Andrew, born in 1984, has completed three years at the University of Hartford's Hartt School, where he attends on a Musical Theater scholarship. He took a leave of absence from college to be part of the National Tour of THE BOYFRIEND, Directed by Julie Andrews. The run ended in March 2006.
I now have a new and beautiful life. I married Dru
Young in 2004 and we bought a great home in Carlsbad
overlooking the Pacific. Dru has a remarkable
background. She hails from Virginia, worked for
Hubert Humphrey on Capital Hill, but headed west in
1960 to seek her fortune, but learned of the glass
ceiling for women. She then went out selling
encyclopedias door to door, raising to the level of VP-
Sales for the Britannica. Since 1996 she has been an
Independent Product Consultant for Tahitian Noni
Juice. The April 2006 issue of SUCCESS AT HOME is
dedicated entirely to Tahitian Noni International and
hails it as the next great brand. Dru was the 15th
person to sign up.
Education and Career:
I graduated from the University of Arizona in 1963 with a BA in Economics and then went on active duty with the US Navy. I served aboard the USS Purdy DD-734, a WWII
vintage Destroyer ("Tin Can"), home ported out of
Newport, RI. Second and Sixth Fleet operations took me
to the North Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea, the
Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and
the Persian Gulf.
We hit many ports along the way in
Spain, France, Italy, Crete, Saudi Arabia, Aden,
Dubai, Bahrain, Iran, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Bermuda.
We transversed the Suez Canal twice. We spent six
weeks refresher training at GITMO. We also operated
out of Key West and followed a few Russian Trawlers to
Havana. While the PURDY was going through an overhaul in the Boston Shipyard, I enjoyed the Freedom Trail and over twenty Red Sox games at Fenway Park. In Boston I also saw Jackie, Bobby and Teddy Kennedy closeup--that was big in April 1964. Also saw games at Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium. Saw Mantle hit the facade with a drive. It was a fun time. I learned to love the sea in all her beauty and fury.
I started a marketing career with Shell Oil Company in
1966 and had various sales and management positions in Southern California. I was a charter member of
Shell's Laurel Society, awarded to the top 4%
performers and was one of three to be awarded it for
the third time. When the huge promotion came in 1979,
I turned it down to stay in San Diego. Being a goal
oriented person, the same job got old and I left Shell
in 1980 and became an Independent Shell Dealer with a
24 Hr. AutoCare Station in Ocean Beach. After seven
years I got burned out and sold the business. The
shock of Bonnie's cancer also took the toll on me too.
I hooked up with a Los Angeles Independent Oil Company as VP-Marketing, but it kept me away from the family and when a new opportunity came up to work out of the house, I took it. I helped a small athletic uniform
company grow and I am now a minority owner.
Opinions:
Plenty!
Avocations:
Being born in Brooklyn, I was always a Dodgers fan,
but switched to the Padres in 1983. Had season
tickets with both the Rams and Charges for many years.
Enjoyed many Lakers games in the West-Baylor years,
but the biggest sports event that I witnessed was
Sandy Koufax's perfect game against the Cubs in 1965.
Watching my sons perform on the field for one and the
stage for the other always will be fond memories.
Now it is travel and making Dru the happiest woman
alive that is important now.
Story:
Humble Oil Company (Now EXXON), flew me into LA for an interview and put me up at the Beverly Hilton the night of the 1966 Academy Awards, where the Ball was
held. Guest of the hotel were able to watch the stars of the era exit the ballroom. I was a few feet from them all. I do remember how great Liz Taylor, Sophia Loren and Kim Novak looked. Also was surprised the Gregory Peck, James Stewart, Paul Newman and even John Wayne were shorter than me. Lee Marvin was clutching his Oscar he received for CAT BALLOU.
The biggest story to tell is what I have learned about Tahitian Noni Juice from Dru., who was one of the original Distributors for Tahitian Noni International (TNI). When I met Dru in 2003 I had not heard of noni. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that this exotic fruit from Tahiti would change my life.Drinking Tahitian Noni Juice daily has given me the same energy I had when I was in my thirties.
No other company takes such care in bringing the purest product possible to market. The following link is a five minute video, called "Tree To Bottle," that demonstrates this fact: http://www.noniusers.com/1-11053420083323540938 You also can find additional information at www.nonidru.com
Sam's two sons, Vincent the ballplayer, above, and Andrew the actor, below.
Sam and his wife, Dru.
Dru and Sam Aug. 2, 2004
Dru and Sam in Vienna, 2004
SAM BRIEDIS
UPDATE
Editor's Note: This was a letter I received from Sam on April 8, 2013. I have left in tact all of the earlier information that he supplied for this site.
My darling Dru passed away on Good Friday after a two and half year battle with the lethal melanoma. After losing Bonnie in 1999 to her fifteen year fight with breast cancer, I was reborn when I met Dru in March of 2003. I was 24 again, madly in love with a gorgeous woman that had it all. I had a close friend that saw her pictures and accused me of robbing the cradle...he thought she was early 40s and didn't believe it when I told him that she was born in 1937. I always was reminded of the JFK quote when he said " I'm the man the accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris." That is how I always felt about my Drusilla.
Dru was raise privileged, but you would never know it...two of her closest female friends were a farmer's daughter and a carpenter. Her mother...personal assistant to "Wild Bill" Donovan head of the OSS during WWII... groomed Dru to be what a Jackie Kennedy became, but The Washington DC Debutante fled that scene in the early 1960s. I came across Dru's personal invitation from Congress to attend John F. Kennedy's Inauguration. Dru had told me that she was there and that she attended one of the balls, but not that she had special seating. There couldn't be anyone more genuine than Dru...she was one in a hundred million.
My oldest son Vincent wrote a tribute to Dru on his blog and it covers some of her accomplishments, but not all. Vincent was extremely close to his Mom, so to write a tribute such as this for a step mother, reveals volumes to who Dru was:
Dru had a bad first marriage of seven years and an old time friend of hers told me that Dru waited over 25 years for me. Imagine a second string basketball player from CHS in Tucson who envied the guys that dated the beauties of our class at 61 had the hottest of romances with a beauty that had everything including brains...Dru was Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Richmond.
For a change of scenery and a time to reflect I'll be visiting Vincent in Charlottesville where I'll catch some Virginia Lacrosse and Baseball games and check out some of the sites. I'll be experiencing Virginia, Dru's home state, as I morn my loss. I leave Tuesday for two weeks.
