Marilyn Diehl has some memories she would like to share with you:

“After receiving my Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Illinois Wesleyan in 1965, I enrolled in graduate school at University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. I received my Master’s degree in Zoology, specializing in genetics and embryology, in 1967. Following graduation I took a job as a medical research technician in the infectious diseases department at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. Encouraged by my father, Lester Schniepp (IWU class of 1931 and PhD in Chemistry from University of Illinois), I enrolled in graduate school at University of Illinois in 1969 to study toward a PhD. After one semester I decided I did not want to pursue a PhD and took a job as a genetic toxicologist with Abbott Laboratories pharmaceutical company in North Chicago, IL. My responsibilities involved testing new candidate pharmaceuticals very early in development for potential to cause gene mutations and chromosome damage using bacterial culture and mammalian cell culture test systems and animal models. My career with Abbott spanned 41 years from 1969 until my retirement in December 2010.

In my single years I purchased my own house in Waukegan, IL, and became involved in vegetable and flower gardening. I took up hiking, bicycling, downhill skiing, cross country skiing and training and showing my Sheltie dogs in obedience. In 1984 I married Ron Diehl, a chemical project engineer at Abbott Laboratories. Our son Michael was born in 1988. We moved to Libertyville, IL, and I became engrossed in the many activities of working full-time and raising a child through pre-school, grade school, junior high, high school and college. Our son Mike is a cardiology nurse at University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City and is the proud father of our granddaughter Mackenzie, born in 2008.

Ron and I both retired from Abbott in December 2010. We moved to a house on a small lake in Lindenhurst, IL. We love retirement. We are active in the Abbott Retiree Club and have gone on 3 cruises since we retired. I spend time gardening, reading and exercising at a gym. After double knee replacement surgery in 2012, I am again active in hiking, bicycling and cross country skiing and I enjoy taking my paddle boat out on the lake behind our house. I am involved in dog training and showing with my Shelties in obedience and agility. “