I drove north on Manheim Road. Dale Hoffman and I met at some restaurant that I had never heard of to have lunch. We met and he seemed congenial. I explained what happened to me on the CBOE. I had left there at the end of 1979. He seemed interested and listened. I had tried selling outside signs, but that did not work. I was now selling insurance for Prudential. He asked me about my wife and child. I then asked him how he was doing. He told me that it did not work out for him at the Montgomery Ward store he had been at. In fact, when Harry Haggstrom retired, they asked him to come back to the Franklin Park Warehouse store. He told me that Mary Burgess was no longer there but that Connie Bettilyon was still there. After I left, Dave Mylnarski had became the furniture manager. Don Smole had moved to another Montgomery Ward store as an appliance manager. Thus, Dale Hoffman had made Bill Gardner the appliance manager. I found this all very interesting, since he was telling me what had happened at the Franklin Park store after I left. I had not tried to keep up with things there. Jerry Syndorowitz had left to sell paper cups in Atlanta, Georgia. I was up to date on things at Montgomery Ward. Then he asked me if I wanted to return to the Montgomery Ward store in Franklin Park. My first response was, “No. I was okay where I was.” Then he posed the question differently. I had left Wards to be an options trader. That did not work out, why not come back to Wards since that did work out for me. That struck me. It was not that I disliked working for Wards, but I wanted to do something different, options trading. This was the first time that maybe it made sense to go back to Montgomery Ward. I would have the same boss and I knew all the people. Would that be going back instead of moving on? Did he really want me back there?
The telephone call
Sometime in late 1981, I got a call from my old boss at Montgomery Ward, Dale Hoffman. I was surprised to hear from him since he had never called me at home when I worked for him. I was taken aback. He said that he wanted to have lunch with me. This was even more strange. We had rarely gone out to lunch together when I was working at Montgomery Ward. This all seemed odd. I told Margaret about it and she said that I had nothing to lose by going out to lunch with him. Besides as a Prudential salesperson, I should reach out to people. I assumed that he wanted to catch up with what I was doing, and I wanted to know what he was up to. I decided to take up his invitation to have lunch with him. Have you ever received a call from someone in your past?
Life as a Prudential insurance agent
The end of my first year as a Prudential insurance agent making a $1,000 a month was coming to an end. I would have to rely on my sales for income from then on. I was fully licensed as an insurance agent in life, health, fire, and auto insurance, so that I could sell all these policies. The problem was that I did not have a clear market. I had tried newlyweds and those having children that were published in the local papers. It was a lot of work to match their names and addresses and get information to provide their phone numbers, just to hear them say that they were not interested. In fact, I was a person who liked to talk to people, but not on the phone. I liked learning about the various life insurance policies, but I was having a hard time finding people who might be interested in them. For most people, insurance would help their family, if they died. Most people did not like to think of death. They were too young to die. Another guy working there at the Prudential office asked me if I really liked it there. I had to say no. However, I did not know what else to do. I thought about going back to teaching, but then I was haunted by all kinds of recriminations against me, because I had been a priest. Nobody seemed to mind that I was a former furniture manager. There were no recriminations about that. I had decided to stick it out at Prudential. Margaret had an income as a school teacher and we still had a little money in the bank. I just had to be a little frugal and all would be okay. Do you have a happy workplace?
The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, July 29,1981
Margaret and seven-year-old Joy were all excited about the wedding of Princess Diana (1961-1997) and Prince Charles (1948-) of England in the summer of 1981. They got up early to watch it live on TV on a summer Wednesday. In fact, Joy slept on the couch so that she would wake up in time. I was not as interested. Diana was the twenty-year old fairy princess. The older Charles was the thirty-three year old prince heir to the British throne, becoming King Charles III in 2022 at the age of 74. Diana was a member of the Spencer family, who led a fairy tale life, until it all fell apart with her death at age 36. This traditional wedding service took place at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London with the Dean of the cathedral and the Archbishop of Canterbury there. Notable figures in attendance included many members of other royal families, republican heads of state, and members of the bride’s and groom’s families. After the ceremony, the couple made the traditional appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. The United Kingdom had a national holiday to mark this wedding. Their marriage was widely billed as a “fairytale wedding” or the “wedding of the century,” watched by an estimated global television audience of 750 million people. Many street parties were held throughout the United Kingdom to celebrate this occasion. The Queen and the royal family were taken to the cathedral in eight horse drawn carriages. Three choirs, three orchestras, and a fanfare ensemble played the music for the service. The royal couple had seven bridal attendants. There were 27 wedding cakes. It was a big deal. Margaret and Joy really enjoyed it. However, the couple separated in 1992, and divorced in 1996 after fifteen years of marriage. They had first met in 1977. Their engagement became official on February 24, 1981. Do you remember the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Di?
AIDS and HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) occurs at the most advanced stage of the infection. HIV remains a major global public health issue, having claimed an estimated 42.3 million lives to date, since transmission is ongoing in all countries globally. There were an estimated 39.9 million people living with HIV at the end of 2023, 65% of whom are in the African Region. In 2023, an estimated 630 000 people died from HIV-related causes and an estimated 1.3 million people acquired HIV. There is no cure for HIV infection. However, with access to effective HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care, HIV infection has become a manageable chronic health condition, enabling people living with HIV to lead long and healthy lives. WHO, the Global Fund, and UNAIDS all have global HIV strategies that are aligned with the SDG target 3.3 of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030. In 2025, 95% of all people living with diagnosed HIV, are taking lifesaving antiretroviral treatment. In 2023, of all people living with HIV, 86% knew their status. HIV targets the body’s white blood cells, weakening the immune system. This makes it easier to get sick with diseases like tuberculosis, infections, and some cancers. HIV is spread from the body fluids of an infected person, including blood, breast milk, semen, and vaginal fluids. It is not spread by kisses, hugs or sharing food. It can also spread from a mother to her baby. HIV can be prevented and treated with antiretroviral therapy (ART). Untreated HIV can progress to AIDS, often after many years. All children younger than 5 years of age living with HIV are considered to have advanced HIV disease. The symptoms of HIV vary depending on the stage of infection. HIV spreads more easily in the first few months after a person is infected, but many are unaware of their status until the later stages. In the first few weeks after being infected people may not experience symptoms. Others may have an influenza-like illness including fever, headache, rash, and a sore throat. The infection progressively weakens the immune system. However, HIV is a preventable disease, but there is no cure for an HIV infection. It is treated with antiretroviral drugs, which stop the virus from replicating in the body. Have you ever known anyone with HIV or AIDS?
The initial outbreak of AIDS and President Reagan
The AIDS epidemic began to unfold in 1981. AIDS was initially difficult to understand for physicians and the public. As the epidemic advanced, according to White House physician, brigadier general John Hutton, Reagan thought of AIDS as though “it was the measles and would go away.” However, the October 1985 death of the President’s friend Rock Hudson affected Reagan’s view. Reagan approached Hutton for more information on the disease. Still, between September 18, 1985, and February 4, 1986, Reagan did not mention AIDS in public. Then, in 1986, Reagan asked C. Everett Koop to draw up a report on the AIDS issue. Koop angered many evangelical conservatives, both in and out of the Reagan administration, by stressing the importance of sex education including condom usage in schools. A year later, Reagan, who reportedly had not read the report, gave his first speech on the epidemic when 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS, and 20,849 had died of it. Reagan called for increased testing, including routine testing for marriage applicants, and mandatory testing of select groups, including federal prisoners. Even after this speech, however, Reagan remained reluctant to publicly address AIDS. Scholars and AIDS activists have argued that the Reagan administration largely ignored the AIDS crisis. AIDS research was chronically underfunded during Reagan’s administration. Requests for more funding by doctors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were routinely denied. In a September 1985 press conference, after Hollywood celebrity Rock Hudson had announced his AIDS diagnosis, Reagan called a government AIDS research program a “top priority,” but also cited budgetary constraints. It was a scary time for people because they did not understand much about AIDS. What do you remember about AIDS in the early 1980s?
Public sector labor union fight with the air controllers
Early in August 1981, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) went on strike, violating a federal law prohibiting government unions from striking. On August 3, President Reagan said that he would fire the air traffic controllers if they did not return to work within 48 hours. According to him, 38% did not return. On August 13, Reagan fired the striking air traffic controllers who ignored his order. He used military controllers and supervisors to handle the nation’s commercial air traffic until new controllers could be hired and trained. The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization was a trade union that operated from 1968 until its decertification in 1981. Over 12,000 members of PATCO walked off the job after contract negotiations with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) broke down. President Ronald Reagan ordered them to return to work. If they did return within 48 hours, he would fire those who did not comply. Thus, the strike ultimately failed, and PATCO was decertified as a union. PATCO was founded in 1968 with the assistance of the attorney and pilot F. Lee Bailey. During his 1980 campaign, Reagan sent a letter to Robert E. Poli, the new president of PATCO, in which he declared support for the organization’s demands and a disposition to work toward solutions. In it, he stated “I pledge to you that my administration will work very closely with you to bring about a spirit of cooperation between the President and the air traffic controllers.” This letter gave Poli and the organization a sense of security that led to an overestimation of their position in the negotiations with the FAA, which contributed to their decision to strike. The 1981 PATCO strike was a significant event in labor history. The breaking of the PATCO strike demoralized organized labor, and the number of strikes fell greatly in the 1980s. With the assent of Reagan’s sympathetic National Labor Relations Board appointees, many companies also won wage and benefit cutbacks from unions, especially in the manufacturing sector. During Reagan’s presidency, the share of employees who were part of a labor union dropped from approximately one-fourth of the total workforce to approximately one-sixth. I remember this, because my brother Johnny was an air traffic controller in the Air Force when he died at the age of 31 in 1969. What do you know about air traffic controllers?
Ronald Reagan appointed the first woman to the Supreme Court
In 1981, President Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Connor (1930-2023) to be the first female justice to the Supreme Court, which fulfilled his campaign promise. Sandra Day O’Connor was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006, twenty-five years, the first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. Before O’Connor’s tenure on the Court, she was an Arizona state judge and earlier an elected legislator in Arizona, serving as the first female majority leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. Upon her nomination to the Court, O’Connor was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate. O’Connor usually sided with the Court’s conservative bloc but on occasion sided with the Court’s liberal members. She often wrote concurring opinions that sought to limit the reach of the majority holding. Her majority opinions in landmark cases include Grutter v. Bollinger and Hamdi v. Rumsfeld. In 2000, she wrote in part the majority opinion in Bush v. Gore. In 1992, she was one of three co-authors of the lead opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that preserved legal access to abortion in the United States. On July 1, 2005, O’Connor announced her retirement. At the time of her death, O’Connor was the last living member of the Burger Court. Samuel Alito was nominated to take her seat in October 2005. During her term on the Court, O’Connor was regarded as among the most powerful women in the world. After retiring, she succeeded Henry Kissinger as the chancellor of the College of William & Mary. In 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. She was born in El Paso, Texas, but grew up on a 198,000-acre family cattle ranch near Duncan, Arizona. When she was 16 years old, Day enrolled at Stanford University, and later graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in economics in 1950. She continued at Stanford Law School for her law degree in 1952. There, she served on the Stanford Law Review, whose then presiding editor-in-chief was future Supreme Court chief justice William Rehnquist. She graduated in the top 10 % of her class. On December 20, 1952, John Jay O’Connor III and Day married at her family’s ranch. She and her husband in the army lived in Germany for three years. They then settled in Maricopa County, Arizona, to begin their family with son, Scott (born 1958), Brian (born 1960), and Jay (born 1962). Sandra volunteered in various political organizations, such as the Maricopa County Young Republicans, and served on Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign in 1964. She served as assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965 to 1969. In 1969, the governor of Arizona appointed O’Connor to fill a vacancy in the Arizona Senate. She ran for and won the election for the seat the following year. By 1973, she became the first woman to serve as Arizona’s or any state’s majority leader. As a skilled negotiator and a moderate, after serving two full terms, O’Connor decided to leave the Senate. In 1974, O’Connor was appointed to the Maricopa County Superior Court, serving from 1975 to 1979, when she was elevated to the Arizona Court of Appeals. She served on the Court of Appeals-Division One until 1981 when she was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan. She had quite a resume. Thus, she got unanimous approval in the Senate to become the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Anti-abortion and various religious groups opposed O’Connor’s nomination because they suspected, correctly, she would not be willing to overturn Roe v. Wade. In 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the second female Supreme Court justice. O’Connor said that she felt relief from the media clamor when she no longer was the only woman on the Court. What do you know about Sandra Day O’Connor?
Margaret Klein Finnegan’s immediate family
Mary Ginsbach Klein (1915-1999) and Pete Klein (1913-1992) had seven children, Margaret Klein Finnegan (1944-), Ed Klein (1946-2022), Jeanne Klein Reiff (1947-), Kenneth Klein (1949-), Michael Klein (1952-), Lois Klein Ries (1953-), and Rosalie Klein Nielsen (1955-), the brothers and sisters of Margaret. Margaret and I (1939-) had only one child, Joy Finnegan (1973-), who married Larry Walton (1972-), so that I have three grandchildren, Kiley Walton (2004-), Lauren Walton (2006-), and Will Walton (2009-). Ed Klein, Margaret’s oldest brother, married Janice Colling (1948-2012). They had three children, Kim Klein (1972-), who married Troy Swift (1971-), with three children Sierra Swift (2002-), Jaxyn Swift (2005-), and Shayda Swift (2009-). Jackie Klein (1975-) did not marry, while Jessica Klein (1984-) married Mark List (1984-), with three children, Kenna List (2011-), Joseph List (2013-), and Lydia List (2016-). Jeanne Klein, Margaret’s oldest sister, married Tom Reiff (1945-). They had three children. Scott Reiff (1969-) married Deanna De Vries (1972-). They had three children Rachel Reiff (1996-), who married Jordan Joseph (JJ) Hejna (1995-). They have two children, Jacob Hejna (2022-) and Miles Hejna (2023-). Jenna Reiff (1998-) and Hanna Reiff (2001-) are not married. Brad Reiff (1971-) married Chris Johnson (1972-). They have a daughter Hillary Johnson (1992-) who married David Tucker (1991-) who have two children, Braylen Tucker (2020-) and Briar Tucker (2024-). Brad has two children who are not yet married, Jackson Reiff (1999-) and Hollyn Reiff (2003-). Jennifer Reiff (1978-) has four children who are not married, Bailey Kontz (2002-), Gavin Kontz (2005-), Alizabeth Peterson (2010-), and Kaden Peterson (2017-). Kenneth Klein, another brother of Margaret, married Linda Mousel (1950-). They have two children, Erika Klein (1974-), who is not married, and Aaron Klein (1978-) who married Heather Moon (1977-). Aaron and Heather have two unmarried children, Sophia Klein (2007-), and Evelyn Klein (2010-). Michael Klein, Margaret’s youngest brother, married Grace Mergen (1956-). They have four children. Becky Klein (1980-) married Eric Perkins (1980-) and they have one child, Owen Perkins (2013-). Tony Klein (1981-) married TracyJo Kubal (1986-) and they have two children Madisyn Marie Klein (2011-) and Lennyx Klein (2013-). Sara Klein Froke (1983-) married Elton Johnson (1973-) and they have five children, James Froke (2009-), Jordan Rosinski (1994-), Katelyn Vostad (2016-), Miranda Johnson (1996-), and Skylar Johnson (1998-). Peter Klein (1985-) is not married. Lois Klein, another sister of Margaret, married Dennis Ries (1952). They have three children. Lisa Ries (1976-) married Ryan Kramer (1977-) and they have two children, Kirsten Kramer (2003-), and Samantha Lynn Kramer (2006-). Stacie Ries (1979-) married Josh Swanstrom (1979-) and they have two children, Mary Lynne Swanstrom (2013-) and Emily Ruth Swanstrom (2015-). Darin Ries (1980-) married Leah Radway (1983-). They have three children, Deacon Ries (2010-), Ainsley Ries (2012-), and Finley Ries (2021-). Rosalie Klein, Margaret’s youngest sister, married Paul Nielsen (1951-). They have two children Charity Frost Olson (1975-), who has one son, Elijah Olson (2004-), and Thomas Frost (1980-), who married Ashley Bettmann (1983-). Tom and Ashley have two children, Gable Tuff Frost (2007-) and Autumn Rose Frost (2009-). Thus, Margaret has seventeen nieces and nephews with six brothers and sisters. How many nieces and nephews do you have?
Margaret Klein Finnegan’s aunts and uncles
John Klein and his wife Frances had 8 children, Margaret’s father and her aunts and uncles. Clarence Klein (1911-2004) married Mildred Gebhart in 1942. They had 6 children. Peter Klein (1913-1992), Margaret’s father, married Mary Ginsbach in 1942, also. They had 7 children. Arthur Klein (1915-2001) married Irene Lamberty in 1938. They had 14 children. Matilda Klein (1917-2000) married Leo Gebhart in 1944. They had 9 children. Frances Klein (1919-2016) married Joseph Klein in 1941. They had 5 children. Priscilla Klein (1921-2015) never married. Mary Ann Klein (1923-2017) also never married. Robert Klein (1925-2000) married Vera Gerard in 1963. They had 4 children. Thus, John and Frances Klein had 45 grandchildren. The various descendants of their 8 children and their families made up the John Klein family. Margaret had 44 first cousins, and 4 aunts and 3 uncles with their families, just on her father’s side of the family. I had a hard time remembering who they were. They still have reunions of the John Klein family. In fact, they just had a reunion in Dell Rapids, SD, in July of 2025. Do you come from a big family?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 