A note from Joan concerning Curt's fight with cancer
We wanted to let you know that Curt's cancer has returned
in the saliva
gland (parotid) near his left ear (the same side as his first surgery).
He has been having a lot of pain in that area since the weekend of our
Stutz family reunion in Iowa on August 3-6. We returned from our 3 week
visit to Illinois and Iowa on August 15. On Monday, August 20, Curt had
an MRI (already scheduled for a year after his first surgery) at OHSU, a
CT scan, and saw his main doctor, Dr. Gross (head and neck surgery).
Dr. Gross said the tumor is in a very tricky place (between his jaw bone
and base of his skull). It will require major surgery with 3 doctors -
Dr. Gross, a neurosurgeon, and a reconstructive surgeon. They will have
to destroy an important nerve on the left side of his face, so that he
will probably be paralyzed on that side of his face. It will also
involve some skin grafts from either his stomach or leg. He will be in
the hospital for a week and probably have radiation several weeks
afterwards. I have established at blog site for everyone to keep up
with his progress. It is http://curtcook.blogspot.com/.
The Curtis and Joan (Stutz) Cook Family
40 Wedding Anniversary - August 2005
We both graduated from Augustana College in 1965 (Joan also graduated from Black Hawk) and Curt graduated from the University of Iowa with a PhD in computer science in 1970. Curt retired as a Professor of Computer Science at Oregon State University in 2003 after 33 years. As professor emeritus he still has an office at OSU and does a little consulting. He continues attending OSU events, playing tennis, slow pitch softball, and some basketball, and likes to read, garden, ride his bike, and collect stamps.
Joan worked at the Iowa City Library and then the University of Iowa Computer Center Library until the birth of our daughter in 1969. She only worked part time for a few years at miscellaneous jobs after that. She kept busy with volunteering for various activities of our daughters’ when they were growing up, and OSU Faculty Wives (and their Thrift Shop). She likes to play bridge and tennis, walk with her friends, do various crafts, and has recently been working on our genealogy.
We are both active in our church, follow some OSU sports, belong to a pinochle group, and have done some camping. We spent one school year on sabbatical at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and 4 ˝ months on sabbatical in a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark. In the past few years we have done a lot of traveling overseas (England, France, Chile, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Spain, Italy (twice), Greece, Mexico, Canada, and just recently returned from a tour of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria). We hope to continue these travels, as well as travel in the United States.
We also keep busy with our children and grandchildren. In August of 2005, we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. We have two daughters – Beth (1969) and Angie (1972). Beth graduated from Augustana in 1991 and married a fellow graduate, Jason Bogner, in 1996. They live in Schaumburg, IL, and have Aaron (7) and Sam (5). Angie graduated from Willamette University in Salem, OR in 1994 and married OSU graduate, Jef Baker, in 1999. They live in Lake Oswego, OR, and have Maddie (3) and Vega (22 months).
