Classmate Photos
Grady Lloyd & wife Lida
(Click to enlarge)
Email exchange leads to bio/photo update from
Grady Lloyd in Prague, Czechoslovakia
(6/5/16) After a recent exchange of emails between Charles Caldwell (husband of Mary Ruth Sevier Caldwell '64) and Larry Holt '63, Charles contacted our classmate Grady Lloyd '63 who has lived in Prague since 1990. Grady emailed a bio update and several photos to Charles, who shared them with Larry. Now we are posting them for classmates to enjoy.
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2016 16:37:15 -0400
From: Larry Holt
To: Webmaster@svhs1963.com
Subject: GRADY LLOYD BIO - EDGEWOOD BOY GOES TO PRAGUE
Please read about our classmate Grady Lloyd. Very interesting life for a kid from Edgewood & SVHS Class of 1963
Larry
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: grady lloyd
Date: Sat, May 21, 2016 at 2:24 AM
Subject: Re: From Charles Caldwell
To: Charles Caldwell
Hello Charles & Mary Ruth,
What a surprise and pleasure to hear from you! Larry seems to act as a sort of agent or sales rep for me in B'ham, and I'm glad for it. Before recounting the last 40-50 years, I first want to congratulate you both on your incredibly successful marriage - 48 years, just a few short of Paula and Lanny. There is clearly a Sevier marriage longevity gene - you should check it out.
Ok, so here is a rough timeline:
1970-1990, moved to Mobile, went to work for a market research firm. Had a pretty normal life.
1990-1991, things changed in early 1990, when divorced (no longevity gene), learned about program forming to send English teachers to Czechoslovakia, and, almost before I knew what was happening, landed in Prague on April 27th as director of the program. This was just after the fall of communism, hardly anyone spoke English, Exciting and interesting times. The program eventually had over 1500 American and Canadian teachers scattered around the country, mostly successful in their work. Possibly most notable for me was meeting my future wife, who was/is Czech but speaks fluent English.
1991-1992, went to work for a company that was setting up the Apple Computer distributorship for Czechoslovakia; there had previously been a US export ban on Apple technology to the ex-communist countries. It was a great business and the owners made fortunes - I didn't, but did learn a lot. Still using my Apple products.
1992-2008, set up a laundry and dry cleaning service, including the first laundromat in Eastern Europe: Laundry Kings. Met a lot of people who you might not see in B'ham. Bought and sold land, traveled around Europe, and generally prospered.
2008 to present, sold out business, tried to retire but got bored. Started teaching business English on a part-time basis; usually students are professionals (lawyers, doctors, accountants) or company middle managers. Nearly all are university grads, very bright, and see English as their path to success in life.
Otherwise, I'm reasonably healthy - main problem is recurrent basal cells, which almost everybody from Alabama experiences. My wife and I travel a lot, sometimes inter-continental (to US, Africa, Asia), often within Europe, especially to Denmark where one of my wife's daughters lives with family, and almost every weekend we go to different places in the Czech Republic. Her other daughter lives in Stamford, Ct, which is our usual US destination. We typically come to B'ham for a couple of days to see my sister and her kids, and to Miami to see 2nd sister. I know that Larry, Warren and others organize a big to-do around Christmas every year, and we hope to come in the next couple of years; I've seen the pictures and can't understand why all my friends have white hair.
I'm still a dedicated Bama fan, and listen to JOX radio almost every day - you can pass that on to T. McLeod, who I know must suffer through Bama successes. Our big hobby is geocaching (Google it!) which leads us to lots of interesting places and demands heavy-duty fitness training. A big discovery for me in the last couple of years has been Coursera, which is a web-based program that offers US university courses on-line; I've taken courses from UVa, UNC, Yale, Stanford and Penn - most recently, "The Global Financial Crisis" from Yale.
We also welcome visitors from home. You may recall my buddy John Timmons (a Sigma Chi at UVa from Atlanta); he and his wife came here through a Viking Tour last year. John has been attending class anniversary events at UVa for several years, and highly recommends it. We hope to go for our 50th class reunion next year.
Anybody who feels the urge to see Europe should come soon because change is coming due to the refugee situation; we really enjoy showing folks around and Prague is a magnificent city. + the world's best beer for those who are interested in such things.
So, that's about it from this end, but please reciprocate.
Best regards,
Grady
P.S., photo sent separately
Grady, wife Lida & grandchildren - July 2012
(Click to enlarge)
Grady climbing pole after Geocache - March 2013
(Click to enlarge)
