Mike Cline

May, 2004

from Betsy (Wegner) Molson
Dick and I met up with Mike Cline at Borders in Schaumburg for a visit on April 28th afternoon. He spends time at Borders until he goes to Roosevelt University at about 4 pm, to get ready for his class. Mike lives in Chicago in the Old Town area. He teaches two classes a semester at Roosevelt, one at the Schaumburg campus on Wednesday and one at the downtown campus in Chicago.

He looks great and still has a wonderful, upbeat, personality. He was a late bloomer but knew he wanted to teach. He received his Degree in Philosophy and Masters Degree in Political Science with a lot of Economics in his program at the University of Illinois - Chicago. He has been teaching ever since (over 20 years at IU - Chicago). He was married to Carolyn (Japanese) at 40 yrs. old. She is the Assistant to the Dean of the School of Public Health at IU - Chicago. He developed diabetes when he was 22 years old. When he was 40, he knew he didn't want to pass on diabetes to his children, so they never had any children.

In 1998, he had a severe right side stroke because he thought he could smoke all those years without any problems. Little did he know it would catch up with him. He spent a lot of time receiving Physical Therapy and he wouldn't quit. His wife would push him in his wheelchair to teach until he could walk with a cane, and then until he could walk alone. He had to change his hand writing to the left hand because he has very limited use of his right upper extremity. He has great perseverance. He wanted to teach again, so now he teaches statistics two days a week and loves it.

He missed the 45th Reunion because of bleeding in both eyes (diabetic retinopathy). After three surgeries, they stopped the bleeding and his vision is improving as well. He is now able to drive, so his vision must be pretty good now. He says his forehead has moved across the top of his head and that he dyes his hair white! He has a great sense of humor. We are going to get together again and hopefully his wife will be able to join us.

I told him we missed him at the reunion and he was sorry he was unable to attend but he could hardly see. He said "I don't think many would remember me anyhow". I said, we all missed him. He likes to email so we can keep up. He has a great memory of high school. We just got started talking, it seemed, and he had to get to school. What a great time. What a great guy and what a great outlook. He is someone to be proud of, on his climb back from his severe stroke.

Send him an email and I am sure he will respond. His email is JMikeCline@cs.com .