Lunch with ARCO friends

Ramiro and I went to Pappadeaux's Seafood in Arlington today to have lunch with former colleagues from the ARCO legal dept.--Steve Molina (former head of litigation); Bill Keffer, whom I hired to work in the Environmental Group; Ross Lind, Legal Dept. private investigator, and Norma Rosner Iacovo, who was in the FERC regulatory group at ARCO then went to Vastar when we spun off that asset. Molina is now a partner with SNR Denton, a large law firm headquartered in D.C. He still does international energy law, and travels extensively to the middle east and latin america. Keffer has his own firm; not quite sure how many other attorneys he has. He's also running for state rep. He won a term in 2002 and 2004, then lost in 2006. He's in a runoff on July 31. Norma is associate general counsel for regulatory (FERC) matters for a company called Tenaska, which is a privately held gas company with assets in Nebraska and Texas. It is actually HQ'd in Omaha, so Arlington is a 200 person satellite. She was as stiff and unfunny as ever. Actually, everyone was the same as before. Molina was in his element telling stories about everyone we remembered. Keffer of course brought up the NORM litigation that he's been trying to interview me about. I've told him repeatedly that I really don't remember any details but he is going to mail me a notebook with a timeline and a questionnaire to fill out and send back to him. I told him to send it to me in Arkansas because I don't want to lug it back. The most interesting information was about Mark Sheets and Mark Wilson, the two guys who worked for Kratsas (Head of the Env. Technical Group, and Debbie's old boss). The Marks were Industrial Hygienists, specializing in NORM and radiation. Keffer has been looking for them because they were instrumental in developing our NORM program. But they seemed to have disappeared after ARCO was bought up by BP. Turns out that Wilson is in the state of Washington, still working, and still the same as ever, according to Keffer who actually visited with him. Not so good about M Sheets, who was reported as having died from a stroke by several people. However, according to Keffer, Sheets is in the Chicago area living with his elderly mother, but can't tell who's taking care of whom. Sheets had a huge stroke that left him unable to get around well. Keffer said it was shocking to see how bad Sheets looks now--instead of his tall, slender self with military bearing, he said that he's slovenly, straggly beard and hair, decidedly overweight, and generally giving the appearance of low self esteem. Keffer spent most of a day with him, and said that Sheets seemed very appreciative of having a professional conversation about a topic on which Sheets is an expert. I imagine those conversations are few and far between for Sheets now. I was very sorry to hear about that. Lillian Fouche Kirstein was invited to the lunch, but had some excuse about why she couldn't make it. She's working for 7-11, and there was a lot of teasing that she's pumping gas and slopping Slurpees. Molina said that he twice asked her why and when she'd gone to 7-11 and what she was doing for them, but Lillian either didn't respond or gave him some non-sequiter answer. Something tells me she's fallen down on her climb up the corporate ladder. Lillian's husband Brett was a partner at one of the big 8 accounting firms, but the firm disbanded after the Enron debacle because they (the firm, not Brett) got caught not having followed good accounting practices that would have disclosed to the public and the SEC what Enron was up to. Brett lost all his pension, 401K, etc. when the firm failed, and had to start all over again. He'd been with them something like 8 years, so that was a serious loss. It was a big blow to Lillian, who had big dreams for him. I remember one time when they were only engaged that she got very upset with him because he told her that he figured he would top out at $100,000 a year (that was a lot of money back in the 90's), and she kept badgering him to set his sights higher. He finally calmed her down by saying "would you feel better if I said that I'll try for $200,000?" She had to be satisfied with that. Molina said that Lillian's 2 boys are enrolled at St. Mark's (Episcopalian). Wonder how she got around Brett's desirre to raise his childlren Jewish? Of course, as Lillian would always tell you, she wanted them to be raised as Christian because Jews could not go to heaven. Some of Lillian's friends from Baylor actually asked her how she could marry a man who would go to hell and she would not see him in heaven.