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Name: Cliff Anderson After MHS I: After the summer of 1983 trying to figure out what life was about at that time somewhere between childhood and adulthood, I headed off to Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. I spent four happy years at Carleton. I played Division III varsity soccer all four years, maybe gave up too early on a career in medicine, turned to Economics, majored in it, and threw in a Political Economy Concentration for good measure. However, I paid little attention to what I was going to do in life after college. I was too busy falling in and out of a relationship with my girlfriend at the time. Along the way, during sophomore year in 1985, I studied in France and spent the summer of 1985 in Europe, complicating the girlfriend thing but simplifying my summer as I traveled Europe exploring life at 20 in France, Spain, Germany, Austria, England, the Netherlands, and elsewhere. After college, like most of us in 1987, I struggled to find work. I finally found a job at Merrill Lynch working in operations and lasted through the crash of 1987 and beyond until July 1988 when I decided to quit. At that time I decided I would apply to law school. I spent the balance of 1988 and much of 1989 pursuing my other potential career - professional soccer refereeing -and fed myself doing odd jobs like working for UPS loading semi-trailers (a real life story for another day). I started law school in 1989 at the Universtiy of Wisconsin-Madison. I graduated in May 1992 and went to work as a Law Clerk to Senior United States District Court Judge Myron Gordon in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Judge Gordon was appointed by LBJ and was a great judge. I stayed with the Judge for 2 years. During my 2 year stint in Milwaukee from 1992-1994 I met my future wife and did the I-94 commute between Milwaukee and Chicago on most weekends. I got to know Chicago quite well in those years and greatly enjoyed it. I got married in August 1994 and after a month honeymoon in Europe began working in October 1994 as a litigator at Dorsey & Whitney law firm here in Minneapolis where I have worked ever since. While at MHS, I would have loved to have had a date with (or been noticed by): Laura Arcara, Pam Benoit, others. . . Most Embarrassing High School memory is: Hands down this one is showing up to school on October 19, 1982, following Mary Ann Barr's Saturday night mystery date party. To my dismay, I found that Kevin Denslow (rest his good soul) had decided to advertise with a large, red, hand drawn heart on the wall above the radiator in jock hall, information about my dangerous liasons of the past Saturday evening. (As a footnote I might add that Tina Marty was my mystery date that past Saturday evening and had she not been she would not have been disqualified from contention for the answer to the question above. Although, I might add that our web guru Alan Tollefson made the "field" too damn small because -- true confessions here -- I'd add to the "dating list" Gaby Boller, Jennifer Gross, Debbie Delaney, Krstin Dunaway, and many more. As I learned much later in life, "feint heart never won fair lady," but I almost never had the guts to ask for a date in high school. I wish I had because the worst that can happen is someone says "no" -- something I know now but didn't believe then. Life's lessons. Most exciting thing I’ve done since I left MHS: Probably two different things. Certainly traveling Europe during summer of 1985 at age 20 qualifies. How could that not be memorable? From a very different perspective, working for a federal judge in the United States trial courts writing court opinons that impact people's lives was really a memorable experience. During that same time I had the opportunity with Judge Gordon to sit by designation with the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and write a few opinions at the federal appellate level as well. Both my experiences in the trial court and the appellate court were particularly fascinating because one hears all the time about our three branches of government and the checks and balances that our founding fathers came up with back in 1776 when they drafted the Constitution but to see it in action in our daily lives is really quite amazing. The system works, believe it or not. Farthest away from MHS: During the summer of 1985 I headed East with my brother from Paris on the Orient Express. We made it as far as Vienna, Austria and that qualifies for me as the farthest point I've been from MHS. Most bizarre place I’ve run into an old classmate: I ran into Donny Fillbrandt at a Rapid Oil Change years ago and that would have been my only entry but for the fact that about a year ago I crossed paths with Doug Sil. I found myself sitting opposite him in a $4-$8 Texas Hold'Em game at Canterbury Park (that is Poker for those who have not seen "Rounders" and do not track the World Series of Poker). Best friend while at MHS: Many depending on the year but clearly my closest friends for much of high school were Andy Heeb (dating to fourth grade and life in the old hood to hte present), Jim Dugan (a.k.a Doogs and playing poker, traveling to Ocean City, and trying to buy beer illegally, among other things), Mike Weldon (soccer, poker, and lots of meals at McDonald's trying to figure out life), Eddie Kelly (soccer, competing in science classes -- Eddie won, he is the Doc, and watching Eddie unsuccessfully buy beer), and Al Sasson (poker, poker, and more poker with a few beers thrown in for good measure). The most meaningful moment I have had since MHS: Just about everyone says it, but how can you not? Meeting my wife and falling in love with her and having two beautiful children with her. I was so inspired when our daughter arrived on a 65 degree December day in 1998 that I wrote a poem in the middle of the night about her. We thought she was going to be a second son to join our son Ian so she came as a bit of surprise. The poem is called "December Daughter" and it became Eva's birth announcement. It goes like this: A gift from God on the ninth day of December, Forever a day that we shall remember. Snow, ice, and winter sneezes, Gave way to sun, blue sky, and southern breezes. With such misplaced harbingers of spring, We should have known the surprise the day would bring. But like the magic of Christmas morn'; The gifts remain secret until the wrap is torn. The same was true of you December sweet, A mystery you were until unwrapped from head to feet. And so Eva Waters, bright eyed girl, Forever you will be our shining pearl. I now reside in: Edina, Minnesota -- land of the dreaded "Cake Eaters." I am still coming to grips with that as my son pursues hockey, soccer, baseball, etc. but all things pass so I am sure I'll figure it all out one day. Here’s what I do on a daily basis: I've run the past two Twin Cities Marathons so running is part of my life (at least during training season March to October). So, if I can, I try to run in the morning, then run to catch the 146 bus downtown (used to be the reliable 35B) and either read the newspaper or a book or possibly work on the way to Minneapolis. Spend the day "practicing law" doing complex commercial and employment litigation at Dorsey. Dash home on the bus in time to coach soccer, hockey, or get involved in some other kid time (I always need to remind myself of how important such time is for Ian and Eva), and then get to bed usually failing to read anything of substance (something I need to fix). I have kids?: Yes, as mentioned, Ian is now 7 and Eva is 4 1/2. They have very different personalities - as different as "chalk and cheese" as my English father would say. They are each joys in their own way and delight as all kids do with such turns of phrase as Ian's querie at age 4 whether the word "chipper" meant that "you like potato chips." I am married?: Yes, to Ginny. Spouse/Partner: My wife Ginny is a talented architect from Lake Forest, Illinois who has taught me much about life in our soon to be nine years of marriage. She is a great wife, mother, and friend, and I am lucky to have her in my life. We seem to be growing together, fortunately, in the same direction, so life just keeps getting better and better. We are having fun which is how it hopefully should be at this stage of our lives with Ian and Eva providing ever present background noise in our home that is sorely missed (I know that sounds crazy) whenever they happen to be elsewhere. I’ve learned since high school: I've learned since high school that it is too bad we didn't know in high school what we know about life today because high school would have been a whole lot easier and made a lot more sense to most of us. But, of course, if it were that easy, it wouldn't be called life. Nonetheless, I hope to teach my kids not to take things too seriously in high school and find the middle ground between highs and lows because life really is too short not to enjoy each and every day. Time seems to be racing by already -- a few blinks of the eye and 20 years have past faster than I am sure any of us could have imagined back on graduation night, June 2, 1983. What I would like to go down in history for: First and foremost, being the best husband and father that I can be to my wife and kids. For if we could all just accomplish that difficult goal this whole world would be a better place. Second, beyond impacting those in my immediate family, I would like to be a judge someday and/or use my legal career to meaningfully impact positively the lives of many others beyond my family in a way that matters. I am not sure what that will be but I know I will find it along the way.
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Alan Tollefson
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