Chris (Belle) Monroe "Bio"

It’s been 40 years since we graduated from Alemany, and 40 years since I met the love of my life in the summer of ’66, John Monroe!

I graduated from Immaculate Heart College with a teaching credential in 1970. John and I were married that year and settled in Reseda.

After teaching Kindergarten for a year in LA City, our first baby Amy was born and I became a full-time Mom and our family grew in the next 10 years to include Michelle, Michael, and Nicholas.

Deciding we wanted to “raise our kids in the country,” we hitched up our wagon and moved to the Sierra foothills near Placerville and John built a home for us on 10 acres, and we have lived in this gorgeous area for the last 25 years. We added one more child to the Monroe crew (Monica) and now have 3 (and one more on the way) beloved grandchildren…isn’t being a grandparent the greatest?

I went back to teaching at our local K-8 rural school for 15 years and helped develop an award-winning visual and performing arts program. I retired from there in 2000, and went to work at UC Davis coordinating professional development workshops for teachers in the arts.

I have been working on a Doctor of Ministry degree for the last 10 years in a program with theologian, Matthew Fox, and took an amazing class at Chartres Cathedral in France this summer. In June this year, I graduated from Cal State Sacramento with a Masters in Education…OK, I confess, I’ll never stop going to school, I love learning, and this passion has rich roots from our education at Alemany, especially the ILAP program!

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about what our classmates have been doing and seeing your pictures. John and I are very excited to reconnect with all of you in person at the reunion and continue this great dialogue!

Love,
Chris Monroe
9/9/06

P.S. The picture above is of John and me at my Sacramento State graduation from their Masters in Education program with an emphasis in visual and performing arts, June 2006.