Contact:

Brighton, Michigan
moose@ismi.net

• Bill Moosekian c.2000
• Rick Skarbo, Bruce Norvell, Lynn Makkonen, Bill Moosekian c.2000

My Life After Patton:

Since my swimming days at Patton and high school, I did a couple of years at Ford Motor Company and then went into sales in the graphic arts industry. I have sold in many areas of the industry including equipment, printing, and the paper industry. I'm currently selling for a paper company out of Chicago called Case Paper Company.
I played competitive badminton from the time I was 15 to 30, winning many regional and national rankings. Now I just play a little racquetball now and then. Although I'm not too bad at that game either, considering my age.
I have a cottage on Russell Island. It was my parent's home for more than 20 years and in the family from my mother's side since the 1920s. Both Bob and Phil, as well as several other family members, have cottages on the island The island is at the mouth of the St Clair River and causes the river to split into two channels. There are no cars on Russell Island and that makes it a great place to escape the city.
I'm single, divorced after 13 years of marriage, and have three beautiful daughters: Jessica 20, Audrey 12, and Lynly 10.
My big brother Phil, as some of you know, passed away last July. Oh how proud you would have been to see him fight the fight he did and see the role model he became to so many, most of all to his little brother. It's just me and my big brother Bob now in our family. I love you Bob. (1/99)

I grew up at Patton Pool, since my mother worked there from the first day it opened. I remember hard workouts in the pool but never to the extent of Laura Frost; god, her dad drove her hard. I swam my first swim meet at Patton when I was 5 years old at an intermission of sorts to a Xmas swim meet against Charlie Ohanisan I think they called it a tie. My mom and dad were legends at Patton, as you know, and my brothers both were swimmers; but Bob was in my eyes the greatest swimmer of all. I looked up to my brother and was very proud of his swimming accomplishments. I quit competitive swimming after my first year of high school in 1963 when the team won the Detroit City Dual Meet Championships and placed second in the All-City Meet. The stars of the team were swimmers like George Saldana, Rick Skarbo, and Mark Manrique. I went on to play racquet sports, primarily badminton in which I won many titles in national and international tournaments. Even when I quit competitive swimming I remained close to many of the swimmers because my badminton training took place at the park as well. My memories of Patton are so vivid and precious. I remember crushes on several of the girls like Lee Davis and a few others at about the age of 15. Who wouldn't have had a crush on such a great girl like Lee?

What a fabulous experience for us all: to have such a great facility to go to for sports we loved, to friends we made and lives we built on the ethics and morals we learned inside those walls. Imagine how much stronger our poor city of Detroit would be today if they had a recreation department today like we had then.
I guess I can only say how lucky we all were to have the experiences and friends we made at Patton Pool. I know it has affected us all to have the leadership of guys like Tom Sullivan, Harry Hauck, Mike Hieck, and Ron Alsobrook. They were good solid people with work ethics and life teaching abilities. We had it good even though we never really knew it was luck that put us all there to learn more than just swimming strokes and hard work in the pool. We learned a way of life and lessons about life that we all carry with us today.