Danny Wahlin

Wow....time really flies when you're having fun I guess! I can't believe it's been 20 years already. I didn't make it to the last reunion so I'm looking forward to seeing everyone this time around. Here's a quick synopsis of what I've been up to since school.

After high school I put my time in at college and graduated from BYU with a degree in Economics and a bunch of pre-med courses. My original plan was to go to medical school but during my junior year I got involved with the Internet (back when it was still new and unknown) and ended up jumping into software engineering. It turned out to be a great move for my family although I'm considering pursuing medical school again at the ripe old age of 38 since I've always wanted to be a doctor. It seems that I've forgotten just about everything I learned in college though so it'll be a lot of work if I end up doing it. Time will tell.

While up at BYU I met my wife (Heedy) under fairly unique circumstances. I saw her walk into a CD store back in 1991 and was too chicken to talk to her directly so I left a note on her car with my number (cheesy, but at the time I thought she was out of my league...now I know otherwise...and she'll probably slap me once she reads this :-)). I didn't hear anything for over a month but her roommate found the note in her room and convinced her to give me a call since she didn't like the other guys she was dating at the time. She admits that she thought I was a loser for leaving a note on her car. My extreme "charm" won her over though....at least that's what I think it was although she denies it of course.

Since getting married we've had two boys named Jeffery (12) and Danny (13). They're great kids who are into basketball and karate right now. That is...once we can get them off the PS3 and Wii (anyone else have that problem with your kids?). We like to go up to Pinetop to golf in the summer, go skiing, jet skiing, quadding, play basketball, ride bikes, etc. Here's a picture of the family at their favorite place (notice I didn't say "my" favorite place). They go to Disneyland and California Adventure WAY too much for my taste. My wife's still stuck at the age of 10 when it comes to Disneyland since she never gets sick of it. One day of the crowds is enough for me though.



Here's a picture of the kids back when they were cute and didn't talk back as much. :-)



Since graduating from school I've been involved in the software engineering and consulting line of work. I ran a software consulting company (Wahlin Consulting) for 6 years providing software architecture, development and training to companies around the US. I traveled back east to Boston, Manhattan, and D.C. a lot though and ended up taking a job here in Phoenix 2 years ago so I could be home with the kids more. It's really nice to stay home and away from airplanes and hotels. Anyone who's done business travel before knows that it gets old real fast!

In addition to software development and training, I spend a fair amount of time at night writing columns for different technical journals and have authored/co-authored several books on various software technologies. The books aren't anything that most people would care about (unless you're in the software business and consider yourself a "geek") but I suspect Ms. Petersen would be surprised since I wasn't too excited about writing back in High School. One of these days I need to thank her.

In addition to writing I still like to play around with music and record songs from time to time. I'll hopefully do something with my songs but for now it's a fun hobby that lets me work with some cool people. Well...that's a wrap for the past 20 years. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone soon.