Hello from Professor Emeritus, Dr. Bannister
Greetings to each graduate, former colleague and friend of the FHSU program in the communicative disorders and sciences! Each day I think of you and the hundreds of clients and families we have served through the years. Speech-language pathology is and continues to be a much needed profession and a wonderful career choice! Although I miss active service, I remain so thankful for my 1961 career decision. I now enjoy participating in occasional alumni, departmental, and KSHA activities. My most significant continuing ed activity (non-CEU) of the year has been observing and participating in the English learning of our two newest grandchildren, Tigist and Mulu, who were adopted from Ethiopia by Ted and Kathy last January. It is an awesome process to observe these dedicated, determined learners. From having only a few words of English and not really knowing what books were for, now 10 months later they are demanding to take a book to bed with them! The Herndon Clinic played a role through its summer language-literacy program in bringing them to this point.
Most of our time is spent right here in Hays. Some volunteer church and neighborhood improvement activities help give me a purpose. Our big, old house is a great gathering place for our eight grandchildren. They love hide-and-seek from the basement to the attic and it is not usual to have a half dozen sleeping across the living room carpet. Allison, the oldest, is a freshman at Truman State in Missouri. All are doing well in school and most are involved in music and busy with sports. So with Anne's Chamber Singer concerts and tennis matches; Hannah's volleyball and basketball games (an 8th grader averaging over 20 points on the season); Sydney's softball (a super pitcher for a 6th grader), volleyball, and basketball games; Tigist's softball games (averaged 2 homeruns a game), and Will's Clifford, the Big Red Dog first-grade program we have been busy the last several months.
Travel has been limited this year but we spent 10 days the first of August sharing a trip to the Philadelphia and Washington, DC areas with the Grant Bannisters. Syd (11), Will (7), and our darling Grace (3) gave a lot of spice to that trip! Will is a great young historian and we all greatly enjoyed Valley Forge and Mount Vernon with him.
Although Bill's rental business is now down 10 units to 14, it keeps me busy scheduling workers and locating supplies in addition to all the paper records. The most exciting part of our business lives is that the southwest part of Rush County where our farm and ranch is located is working hard to contribute to a greener economy through harvesting wind energy. We will hope for something concrete to report next year!
So for '08 I'll sign off and head to the farm to entertain pheasant hunters for three days and prepare for a big family Thanksgiving gathering. No, I am not bored with retirement. I wish all of you and yours the best personally and professionally.
