John Stalker
Email John.

Spouse: Kay
Children: 2
Home: Bellevue, WA

John's profile by Charlie Burdell:

John Stalker didn’t achieve his ambition in the 1962 ISLA which was “To have a girl for every freckle”.  In fact, he only had one, his wife of 47 years, Kay Stalker.  They met at a dance while John was on leave from the Army at the University of Washington in 1968.  A year later, they were married.

A sociology degree from the U W doesn’t qualify one for gainful employment, so John went to work at Hunters Books in Bellevue Square.  He subsequently worked in wholesale for Ingram Book Co (Cindy Burdell was a big customer) owned a small book store (Bellevue Books) and finished his career as Director of Operations for University Bookstores the last twenty years.

In 1976 John and Kay built a home in Bellevue, and they still live there.    When John retired he started watching HGTV which showed him how to remodel homes.  He watched carefully, followed instructions and ended up blasting virtually all of the walls in their home out to make it a more open space and he even moved the kitchen!  This year the yard gets its makeover.

John has always been an avid tennis player.  Unfortunately, he was about a year too early to play on the MIHS team.  In college, he made the UW varsity tennis team, but, he describes his status as like the 13th player on a basketball team.  He showed up for all the practices, but rarely got to play in the matches.  He did receive a UW letter, so, as far as I know, he is the only member of the MIHS class of 1966 to have won a letter in any sport at the University of Washington.

He and Kay have been members of The Central Park Tennis Club in Kirkland since its inception in1974. John has been club champion several times, but that is old news now.    Ten years ago, Lake Washington High School asked him to coach both the women’s and men’s tennis teams.  He took the job and has been coaching high school tennis for the past ten years, but he’s thinking of hanging it up after the girls' season this Spring.

Last November, John was feeling poorly and ended up at Overlake Hospital with an artery blocked in two places.  Luckily he got there in time for the doctors to implant two stents and he was back home in a couple of days.  He’s resumed playing tennis and challenges any of you to a game any time anywhere.

The light of John’s life are his sons.  His eldest son is an anesthesiologist in Riverside, California and his second son, a former Division 3 All American baseball player, is a Manager for Banfield Pet Hospitals. Son Chris got married in June, so there is hope for Grandchildren. In the meantime John is still coaching Boys' and Girls' tennis at Lake Washington. His realistic goal for the 2018 year is to beat Mercer Island, the perennial champion.

John has had a fine life and marvels at what a wonderful group of people were in his senior high school class. 

 

 

 

 

updated 2/3/16