Dear Family and Friends,
Every year seems to bring many new changes to the Sliwa family, but 1991 has to take the prize as a year of change for us. It’s hard to find words to describe all the changes; “radical” and “awesome” come to mind.
First and foremost, we have moved from Woodside, California to the Daytona Beach area in Florida. This was primarily caused by Steve being chosen as the new President for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). ERAU has 2 resident campuses, one in Daytona Beach, where the administration has its main offices, and one in Prescott, Arizona. ERAU also has over 100 sites worldwide where it offers classes in its College of Continuing Education. Steve has been very busy since July presiding over this world-wide activity, but loves it thoroughly, particularly the interaction with the students.
We are living in the President’s Residence of the Daytona campus, called the Battleship, for reasons that are obvious to anyone who looks at it from the beachfront. We think it is a delightful place to live, mainly because it’s right on the beach, and it has plenty of room for visitors. Tabitha has her own room in the heart of the house; Steve and Nancy are in the private apartment section over the garage. Honey loves it most of all, because she has maintenance staff at the house all day. She is convinced that their primary purpose in life is to feed her and play with her.
Nancy was able to transfer to a NASA position at Kennedy Space Center that started in early November. After spending 10 years in the technology development part of NASA, she’ll now be learning about the operational side of NASA (and getting to see all the Shuttle launches!) Her initial assignments are to manage the project interests of the electronics directorate in which she works, in two Space Station-related facility developments – a Hazardous Operations Facility (for fueling payloads), and the test facility for the Assured Crew Return Vehicle (the “lifeboat” for Space Station Freedom). Since Kennedy is 75 miles from home, she has a room at Merritt Island so she doesn’t have to commute everyday, but enjoys commuting twice weekly in her new Saturn Sports Coupe.
Tabitha completed her junior year at Woodside High in California, and had a busy summer this year visiting relatives. She spent several weeks at Harris Hill, New York, getting her sailplane rating. She is now a senior at Seabreeze High School. She has a very challenging curriculum this year, with Calculus and several Advanced Placement classes. She is studying hard, and is applying to several colleges, primarily in California and Florida. She is leaning towards a major in some aspect of chemistry or biology.
Honey has learned several new tricks, and loves to come out after all the social functions at the Battleship and perform at Steve’s command. She also likes to roam under the tables after these parties, looking for any scraps that may have fallen. Although she’s not supposed to be on the beach, we’ll frequently take her in the surf after dark, playing Frisbee. She loves the water so much, she’ll look for any excuse to go swimming, and we have a hard time keeping her out of the hot tub when we’re in it.
A new addition to the family this year has been Nancy’s purchase of a 1982 Mooney 201 aircraft. Steve has been flying a Cessna 303/Crusader on business trips that is the University’s administrative aircraft, but Nancy wanted a family aircraft she could use. Thus, N1151N joined the family in November. Since she completed her instrument license in May, Nancy plans to use it for both business and pleasure travel, as well as to continue her racing with the 99s. (Her race team took 16th out of 44 this year in the California Palms to Pines Race this year.)
Our new address and phone numbers are:
Steve and Nancy Sliwa, Tabitha Orlando
317 Ocean Shore Blvd.
Ormond Beach, FL 32176
904/677-1774 (Steve and Nancy)
904/676-2407 (Fax)
904/672-5095 (Battleship) This is getting ridiculous!
904/676-2504 (Tabitha)
904/226-6200 (Steve at work)
407/867-4976 (Nancy at work)
We would love to have you come to visit us, just call in advance so we can reserve you a room.
Best wishes for a happy holiday season and a joyous new year!
Steve, Nancy, and Tabitha
Share this Post