Mike Coffman          Samantha, Mike & Clint


MIKE COFFMAN, 1967

After high school, I attended the University of Alabama for the 67-68 school year. While home for the summer, I married Jody Delaney (67) and left school. I then worked construction and went to school part-time.

In 1968, I joined the Illinois National Guard and graduated from Officer Candidate School in 1971. During this time, I worked for First Bank and Trust Company in Cairo. In 1975, I went to work as the Vice-President of the Tamms State Bank, now Chap Bank.

In 1981, as a Captain, I went on an extended active duty tour with the US Army. That first tour ran into another and I finally retired in 1999 as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Corps of Engineers. I have a business degree from Tarkio College in Missouri and did some work on my masters at MU while I was on a temporary disability from the Army. After 1 1/2 years on disability, I returned to active duty and eventually retired. While on active duty, I commanded a Combat Engineer Battalion; was the Executive Officer for a Engineer Brigade out of Ft. Leonard Wood; and various other positions in Honduras, Korea, Japan, Senegal-West Africa, and of course, lovely Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. I worked on engineer projects from the Western Samoa to Guinea and Rowanda in Africa as well as domestic projects in this country. In 1992, I had a minor stroke from a brain embolism but was not restricted on duty. In 1996, I had another brain embolism stroke which put me on disability retirement. I started working for the Missouri Veterans Commission after retirement and now am working for the Dept. of Veterans Affairs in St. Louis.

Jody Delaney and I were married in 1968. Our first child, Samantha, was born in 1972 followed by our son, Clint, in 1975. Jody and I divorced in 1996 and I subsequently married my present wife, Susan Lynn Castaldi from Jefferson City, Mo. Susan was an Army nurse at the time we married and is now retired.

Clint and Samantha both live in Phoenix, Arizona. Samantha is married and is the director of a community center in the town of Fountain Hills, Az. Clint is single and is a surgery equipment salesman. Susan has four children from ages 23 to 36 and we have four grandchildren from her kids; three grandsons aged 4- 9 and a granddaughter also 4 years old. Susan and I have been married almost six years. Our combined six children are all spread out...two live in Phoenix; one in Long Beach, Ca; and one each in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Jefferson City, Mo. With this much mileage between us, we get a lot of traveling for their family activities. At Christmas, we had close to thirty people in...all family.

When time permits, I play golf and do a lot of walking. All in all, life is good. That just about completes a full and what I consider a productive life.