Mike Hegarty
839 Lancelot Circle
Collierville, TN 38017-6118
901-853-8362
mhheg@comcast.net or mjhheg@hotmail.com
I've been married to my wife, Helen, for 45 ½ years. We have 2 children and 4 grandchildren. I retired from FedEx in 2001 after 27 1/2 years of flying. Haven't missed it for an instant. I don't know how I found time to go to work, as I sure don't seem to have any trouble keeping busy since I retired. My wonderful wife of over 45 years, Helen, and I, moved out of our "Captain's" house when I retired, into a slightly smaller home on a small lake. I am the manager of the lake for our subdivision. So between taking care of the house, yard, & lake, fishing whenever possible and playing with my computer, I manage to keep pretty busy.
It's awfully hard to narrow 50 years down to just three highlights. Of course the best thing I ever did, or will ever do, is marry the only woman who could have put up with me for over 45 years. I met Helen at UND on a blind date. After college, I went directly to Arizona for pilot training in the Air Force. Both of my daughters, Michelle and Lori were born there. Michelle while I was in pilot school in Phoenix, and Lori while I was in F-4 school at Tucson. Immediately after that it was off to Thailand to fly 104 combat missions over Laos and Viet Nam, leaving Helen to take care of two infants! Then she had fly to England with them, by herself, to join me there for my next three year tour. While there, we lived in a 110 year old house with a coal stove for her to cook on! See what I mean about putting up me? Things did get slightly better after that. I separated from the Air Force in 1970 and was hired by TWA. Four months later I was back in Grand Forks living with my parents after TWA started furloughing pilots. After MANY menial jobs, I got on with the UND Aviation School as a ground and flight instructor. While there, I saw one of Federal Expresses first Purple Falcons and called Mr. Smith about a job. The rest, as they say, is history! It's been quite a ride. I've been around the world with significant stops in Okinawa, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, England, Libya, & Spain. I've at least landed in most of the 50 states and spent some time in a lot of them. Helen has stuck with me through all that! Thank God for ND women!
I like to fish and play on the computer. I have two great daughters who have given me 4 Grandsons. The oldest daughter lives about ten miles from us and is a homemaker, while the younger one lives in Cincinnati and flies for Comair.
Since graduating from Central I'I've lived in Phoenix & Tucson, AZ / Tampa, FL / Naha, Okinawa / Udorn & Ubon, Thailand / Oxford & Aldringham, UK / Grand Forks, ND / Collierville, TN (3 homes) Helen's lived in all but Okinawa & Thailand. We've lived at our second home in Collierville the longest; 20 years. I've been here for 7 years now. We moved to Collierville to fly with Federal Express.
Not sure I can actually say "favorite", as high school was not exactly the best time of my life, but I can still remember my lines from the Junior Class play "The Family Nobody Wanted" (remember Susan?), running to "Y" every noon to be first to the pool table (winner got to keep playing) and Mrs. Rosenthal's fantastic cinnamon caramel rolls for lunch at the "Y". Hockey with "Serge" Gambucci was great until I broke my arm, "Doc" Winter's Chem. class and Mr. Bohnoff's history class. I remember Mr. Hagen and his dog "Wolfy" and the shameful way we treated him. I still remember a lot of great people that treated everyone well, whether they were part of the "in crowd" or not. Unfortunately, I was not one of those who did, and also unfortunately, an awful lot of them have passed on way too soon. I'm still working on getting to the reunion, but it doesn't look promising at this point. I hope everyone has a great time! Will let you know if I can make it.
