’77 Hawk Profile

Barbara Ford Koch
luvhim59@hotmail.com

Everyone keeps on talking about how the time has flown since we graduated. For me, I look back and see how much I've grown as a person.  (And not just physically - lol)  And even though my profile may not be as long as Maggie

(Nelson) Morgan's, I'm going to give it my best shot....

 

I didn't do as many activities I would have liked while at the Creek because my father was disabled and I had to work after school and most weekends to support my family.  But I tried to do as many things as I could, especially going to football games and wrestling matches.

 

After graduation, I attended Saint Leo College (now University) near Tampa and studied to be a social worker.  It was there I truly experienced God's love and wanted to serve Him in some sort of ministry.  Growing up Catholic, the only ministry open to women at that time was in a religious community. In layman's terms, I became a nun.  (Okay, the normal reaction of people who used to know me back in the day is one of laughter, so please feel free to do this now.)  I was only in the community for 9 months (no, they did not kick me out) I felt I was called to do something else other than take care of the sisters that were ill. 

 

I found a job at the Orlando Regional Medical Center as a medical social worker.  Guess what?  I HATED IT!  When budget cuts were needed at the hospital, I volunteered to be laid off.  I vowed NEVER to be a social worker again.

 

I moved back to Daytona and worked various jobs from part time laundry attendant, customer service rep for insurance agencies and selling light bulbs.  (If you want advice on ballasts, sodium, halogen or florescent bulbs, I'm your girl). 

 

I joined the Jaycees, did a lot of community service work, and met some wonderful people.  I also learned leadership skills along with how to give effective speeches.  I met my first husband Mike through the Jaycees in 1986 and we got married in November 1988.  We had two children, Patrick born in 1992 and Erin born in 1994. (I was a late bloomer in the baby birthin' department)

 

While in the Jaycees, one of the members of our chapter worked for a Congressman in the local district office.  She found out I had a degree in social work and asked if I would be interested in working in that office as they were short handed.  At the time I was working part time in a Laundromat and outside sales in the heat of the summer and would have killed to get a desk job in air conditioning.  10 years earlier I had sworn off being a social worker and here I was getting back into the game. God does have a sense of humor.  What I do is help people with problems they have with the federal government.  I been in this field for 17 years (YIKES) and have served under 3 Members, currently with Congressman Tom Feeney.  (So if you live in Volusia, Brevard, Seminole or Orange counties, despite your political affiliation, please vote for my boss, I need my job!)  That's one of the few negatives with my work, I only have job security every two years, so if the Congressman is defeated or decides not to run for re-election, I'm unemployed.

 

If you attended our 20th reunion at the Hilton in Daytona Beach Shores, you saw me and Mike and our last social event.  We divorced in 1997, but we still have a good relationship especially for the kids.  I vowed never to get into another long term relationship again.  I met Warren Koch, a wonderfully warm and loving Christian man, in 1998 and we got married the next year.  (God's humor reigns!)

 

The kids are growing so fast, it's unbelievable.  Patrick will be starting at Mainland next year with the Academy of Engineering and Technology and Erin will be at Campbell Middle school.  It seems like only last year when I was crying after dropping each one of them off for kindergarten. 

 

The family is very involved at Covenant United Methodist Church. Rebecca Hyvonen is the assistant pastor, but ya'll might remember her as Becky Turley.  What a small and wonderful world!  My mother still lives in the house we moved into when we first settled in Daytona Beach in 1972 (Dad passed away in 1992) and I live two blocks away to keep an eye on her.

 

Now I've started on a third career - Christian comedian!  (Lewis Nixon doesn't need to worry, I'm a newbie at this)  I've done a few shows for churches within the State and have gotten some very positive feedback. Basically I take stories from the Bible and give it a more modern day feminine slant.  And I couldn't have done it without the training I got with doing speeches with the Jaycees.  (Yep, it's a God thing)

 

If you've been on the reunion website you've seen what I look like now, but I've put in a picture of the whole family on a recent vacation we went on to Washington, D.C.  (I may be a bit biased but Warren and the kids are downright gorgeous!)

 

DIETING to see all of you in July!!!!!

(Posted 06-14-2007)

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