BARBARA FANDRICH

I pursued a college prep course in high school but had no clue how to afford college. So I did the next best thing for a girl with a 1950s mindset and married a college grad. Never really followed my own star but moved to Texas and grad school at University of Texas for my husband to follow his.

 Places resided for more than one year include three yrs, Austin, TX; three yrs, Los Angeles, CA; three yrs, Seattle, WA; nine yrs, Portland, OR; six yrs, Carmichael & Fair Oaks, CA; four yrs, Jonesboro, AR; with the balance in Western Washington State (Grays Harbor and Lewis Counties).

I married the first time in 1962 for seven years, and had two beautiful daughters, Kimberly and Melissa Leigh Allen. Both of them are now professional women--Kimberly is an Asst. Attorney General in Alaska and Leigh is a software interface designer in Seattle. Leigh and her husband are the parents of my two unbelievably cute grandsons, Tazio and Sebio, currently aged seven and four. I married Delwin Fandrich in 1973 and we've moved around the country as he pursued his career as a piano designer and builder, including R&D director for Baldwin Pianos in Arkansas.

We've had pleasure boats a couple of times over the years and plan to buy another--there's so much water in So. Puget Sound. We attend our local Methodist church because we can see that people who go there live a long time. We love jazz and classical music events (anything with an acoustic piano), and we travel together as Del conducts seminars for piano technicians around the world.

I belong to environmental organizations such as Sierra Club. I exercise at the local college M-W-F every week and frequently hike the local trails. Del and I have had two bullmastiffs over the past thirty-eight years and love that breed and also love mastiffs. We have no pets now because we travel too much. Favorite movies include The Accidental Tourist; The Fabulous Baker Boys; and all biographical movies.

I earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration at California Coast University. I earned several certificates of appreciation as Finance Director for Maranatha Church in Portland, OR, and G.E.D. Instructor for Grays Harbor College in Aberdeen, WA.

In my 20s and 30s I had a variety of part-time jobs so I could focus on caring for my children. In my 40s I was vice president of operations for Christian Yellow Pages and helped that company thrive. Then, in 1989 I learned to edit for McGraw-Hill and finally found my niche, copyediting manuscripts for authors. I've done about 140 books and counting. With my husband I've worked to establish piano companies. In 1991 we began building our own pianos in WA State (enter "Fandrich" in YouTube to see an interesting CNN story about our pianos). I owned a piano store in downtown Chicago in the 90s and currently own a piano store with my husband in Centralia, WA. I hope to continue my current work for a long time. Why retire? I love editing and managing the piano store and traveling with my husband when he teaches.