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Anyone from Miami Org here?

asteroid

Patron with Honors
It seems as though most of you were in the Miami Org in the 90s? I was there (sort of) for six months in 1978-79, when I worked for Op Z and was "temporarily" assigned to help out. Among the people I remember fondly: John Gaffney, Leslie Gaffney, Debi Cameron (nee Debi Johnson). I'm blanking on the name of the guy from the Miami Org Div 6 but he was a wonderful, funny person; he later spent about 20 minutes as CS 6 at Flag after Kim Holt left.

Anyone know the whereabouts of these folks?
 

MissJones

Patron
[
Anyone know the whereabouts of these folks?[/QUOTE]

I don't know about the Gafneys or D. Cameron...but the Div 6 guy may have been Mike Fine. He is still on staff at Flag. He was slender, short, black hair & always smiling & energetic. If not him, I could give a better guess if you could describe him a bit more...also, do you remember his post? :)
 

Wisened One

Crusader
Hi and Welcome to ESMB, Asteroid! :)

I can't help you on the people you mention, since my time was in the early till mid 90's.

But glad to see you here, YAY another Miami person!! :clap:
 

Wisened One

Crusader
I was there in 1977 or therabouts. A lovely reg named Molly. But the CO, a guy named Sexsmith, had the personality of a locked bathroom door at a beer party.

ANOTHER one, Hi Clarence, nice to meet you :) Don't think I met any of the people you mentioned. But the way you describe Sexsmtih's personality...:lol: Never heard THAT one, before :p
 

MissJones

Patron
I was there in 1977 or therabouts. A lovely reg named Molly. But the CO, a guy named Sexsmith, had the personality of a locked bathroom door at a beer party.

HAHAHA! What a perfect description of our illustrious leader! If you stayed there till we moved to Giralda Ave, you'd have seen him goose-stepping about the org with his shiny black kung-fu stick! There are photos of him all over the internet. His name is John Sexsmith & he is a bigwig for nuskin.
 

TR'SIN

Patron with Honors
I could not resist checking in on this thread. My time there was from 1978 until I gave up pretending mid the '90's. Have had some nice talks with Xenutrawls, telepathetic, Papa Bear, Good Twin and Wisened One from those days. And glad to know the before and after guys who have come to this forum.

I had about 15 different post titles and worked all over the Org Board, so many names of public and staff and their stories were part of my daily routine. What's happened to them is most curious to me. Many people I've talked to never thought that I would leave the Org. They have told me that until they heard I was Declared an SP - they had no idea I had left. So hearing about others who got out is good news to me.

But, like most people no one has seen my declare except HCO MM - but that's good enough for me. I quite like the idea that they don't want me there. :eyeroll:

I'd love to hear from anyone who was there, feel free to PM me and we can share news.

For the thread: I had a good/bad expierence with Gary Botoroff. He was super smart and didn't fit well in social situations so he relied on the strict "rule of law". I worked with him in and out of the Org (yes I got up on the damn roofs). He didn't push people around who "in his eyes" he thought understood him. Sometimes that meant laughing at his dry humor or agreeing with his literal take on life. He never got the joy of being casual or having fun.

I too have big love for Helmuth, Fred, Tom Madigan from the 80's-90's and James K, Don Pfendler (not mentioned) Maria McCord (not mentioned) Wayne Eisenman (mentioned once) and Sharon Madigan (Tom's 1st wife) from the 70's - 80's.

Some warriors I slugged it out with on the all nighters etc. Debbie Morris(Anderson), Shaun Carroll, Mark Witt, Barbie Brown(Perez-etc.), John Gludovatz, Willie & Dianna, Ray Jourdain, Frank Thompson (RIP), Laz Mesa and of course Gui. There are a whole slew of others of course. Some in and some out but not as like-minded perhaps. There are those who are still on staff who I won't mention but care for as people and many who vilify me in any mention of my name these 16 years later.

It was a 17 year ordeal and I reflect from time to time on the whole expierence. But, its not much of what I put my attention on these days.

Love and good health to any and all of you who were there, we made it out.:clap:
 

Maria Cuervo

Gold Meritorious Patron
I could not resist checking in on this thread. My time there was from 1978 until I gave up pretending mid the '90's. Have had some nice talks with Xenutrawls, telepathetic, Papa Bear, Good Twin and Wisened One from those days. And glad to know the before and after guys who have come to this forum.

I had about 15 different post titles and worked all over the Org Board, so many names of public and staff and their stories were part of my daily routine. What's happened to them is most curious to me. Many people I've talked to never thought that I would leave the Org. They have told me that until they heard I was Declared an SP - they had no idea I had left. So hearing about others who got out is good news to me.

But, like most people no one has seen my declare except HCO MM - but that's good enough for me. I quite like the idea that they don't want me there. :eyeroll:

I'd love to hear from anyone who was there, feel free to PM me and we can share news.

For the thread: I had a good/bad expierence with Gary Botoroff. He was super smart and didn't fit well in social situations so he relied on the strict "rule of law". I worked with him in and out of the Org (yes I got up on the damn roofs). He didn't push people around who "in his eyes" he thought understood him. Sometimes that meant laughing at his dry humor or agreeing with his literal take on life. He never got the joy of being casual or having fun.

I too have big love for Helmuth, Fred, Tom Madigan from the 80's-90's and James K, Don Pfendler (not mentioned) Maria McCord (not mentioned) Wayne Eisenman (mentioned once) and Sharon Madigan (Tom's 1st wife) from the 70's - 80's.

Some warriors I slugged it out with on the all nighters etc. Debbie Morris(Anderson), Shaun Carroll, Mark Witt, Barbie Brown(Perez-etc.), John Gludovatz, Willie & Dianna, Ray Jourdain, Frank Thompson (RIP), Laz Mesa and of course Gui. There are a whole slew of others of course. Some in and some out but not as like-minded perhaps. There are those who are still on staff who I won't mention but care for as people and many who vilify me in any mention of my name these 16 years later.

It was a 17 year ordeal and I reflect from time to time on the whole expierence. But, its not much of what I put my attention on these days.

Love and good health to any and all of you who were there, we made it out.:clap:

i never 'got' botoroff
 

Maria Cuervo

Gold Meritorious Patron
I was there in 1977 or therabouts. A lovely reg named Molly. But the CO, a guy named Sexsmith, had the personality of a locked bathroom door at a beer party.
Sexsmith was very different....always looking over his shoulder as if some alien were prompting what he had to say.
 

Maria Cuervo

Gold Meritorious Patron
James Kirtley, who I also found out died a few short yrs ago, had wavy/curly dark hair and spoke Spanish fluently since -as he always said- went to college and had mostly Cuban friends. He started out in the Public courseroom & then became one of three Ethics Officers at the time with John Bravo & Rick, forget his last name. James & John were over 6 fr tall & Rick towered over them at 6'3"-6'4" James's wife worked as either ED or a top exec at the Delphi Acad in CW and James himself became VERY successful working with his long time friend, and also ex-MM staff member, Mike Kaplan who brought James into the company, I believe HE founded. Kaplan & fmly can also be found on the "contributors" list of the other message I sent you.

As for John Bravo, I met him at the "Carreta" restaurant on Bird Rd & 87th ave. and he was trying to get me to join what I considered back then a "squirrel" group he'd joined. He actually looked good but he also was always smiling and had a good sense of humor. Oh and before I forget, James Kirtley was one of the sweetest most genuine & sincere straightforward kind of person I've ever met. It's too bad he passed away. He was perhaps a yr or two older than me, maybe even younger but definitely around MY age and I'm not quite ready to "drop my body" just yet. lol

After James, I liked Fred best but obviously there were -as you yourself know- many VERY GOOD people in Miami at around the same time. Dave Tropf, the ED when I joined was the Qual Sec for many yrs before becoming ED and taking MM Org to new heights. We were back then St Hill size, before there was even a Birthday game. The ED before him was John Sexmith, whose name also appears on the *new mag leak*

I didn't know Judi Blum & fmly were in CW. Her pic can be seen in the MM mag leak & last I know she was still MM staff or at least FSM. Dave & Nancy Caulkins were in CW but Nancy had finished her contract with Delphi as her kids had finished school & she was no longer working for them when I met them at Wayne Eisenman's home. Also there as I said were Fred & Kate Fig., Shaun & Vicki Carrol (Remember Fred was also married to Vicki, right? That boy got around:) Scott (there were two Scotts I rem) but the one who was acad admin was there too. He was studying to become a lawyer. The other Scott had long blond hair, kinda wavy and hung around with Alexis Rodriguez, don't know if you know him.

Then the last time I went to Flag and Tampa org, I met Denise, who worked with Leona as letter reges way back. Denise was married to Ray who was one time the MM Org intern sup. I forget their last name. I also met Darrell Kirkland -remember him and his brother Duane or Dwayne?, who was married to (but divorced) Martha Kirkland [She was also in CW and kept the name] How about commercial realtor Jorge Correa & his wife, Maria? They lived in Coral Gables near the org but they divorced and Jorge re-married a Venezuelan girl & moved also to CW. I know he got pretty high on the Bridge, doing all 3 Ls before I lost touch with them. Jorge & Maria are of Cuban heritage. How about George Bravo, who was LOC & KTL sup? And David & Mary DeMoss? I met up with David in CW also, or Tampa (same diff) CW & Tampa Org are 15-20 mins apart driving dist. I also saw Mary at Delphi but I never liked her much, to be honest. Dave I liked. They were already divorced & I hear Mary remarried and, of course, she's now blown too. She's disappeared. Maybe Mark Bunker is hiding her out >:) I know he seemed to like her from what things he wrote about her.

Let's see who else? Kat & Gary Bottorf? I didn't like either as well. Gary was my senior at one time in HCO & well, not many liked him in those days. He was HCO Cope Officer. :) What of Celia Alvarez, then Madigan? She was married to two auditors, George Alvarez (who got SP declared - I just ran across his name on the latest SP list from 1992) and Tom Madigan (who died about 10 yrs ago) I think she's remarried but she was Treas Sec for the longest, then became ESTO or HES, I'm not sure. She's STILL MM staff as are Leah & Leona. And Mark & Lisa Witt? Both good people. Lisa was also my auditor once & she had a very natural affinity, in or out of an auditing session.

Okay, I'll stop here. I enjopy writing, as you can probably tell, plus I, too, have been meaning to find other Miami Org people on this forum.

If you have any specific questions, ask away. Thanks for reading.

Until the next one. :)

fred was a great human being. Lisa Witt was the Pitts. Pure petty jealous and way not good enough for Fred.
 

Maria Cuervo

Gold Meritorious Patron
Well Hi and :welcome2: to ESMB, MissJones! :) Soooo HAPPY to finally hear from some more Miami people, here! :yes:

And thank you for reading my story and confirming how Gary was and for some strange reason, it gave me some relief to hear he didn't only treat me that way! GLAD YOU LEFT, as well! I'd love to hear more from you and share stories with you :)

I got on Staff just a few months before she died. And yes, it did devastate Celia and KB. I remember. :sad:

And WOW...KB is OFF STAFF, now?! Probably means Gary is too, then? Huh! Wonder how many are left there? I know Celia is STILL THERE and still sweet as ever. Yep, she has had at least 3 or 4 husbands, and I think she's had to deal with some tough times when they died on her, like that. I really like Tom Madigan. :sadsigh:

So bet you and I know many of the same people. Tropf was not the ED when I was there, Mark and I think Celia were 'acting ED's' or something until :violent:Cat Fox:violent: came back from OEC/FEBC Training to take over as tyrannical ED until she got busted (THAT'S how bad she was!)

Anyways: Enough about me. When did you leave? :) :drama:

i really liked Rose and Dave Tropf
 

Maria Cuervo

Gold Meritorious Patron
I could not resist checking in on this thread. My time there was from 1978 until I gave up pretending mid the '90's. Have had some nice talks with Xenutrawls, telepathetic, Papa Bear, Good Twin and Wisened One from those days. And glad to know the before and after guys who have come to this forum.

I had about 15 different post titles and worked all over the Org Board, so many names of public and staff and their stories were part of my daily routine. What's happened to them is most curious to me. Many people I've talked to never thought that I would leave the Org. They have told me that until they heard I was Declared an SP - they had no idea I had left. So hearing about others who got out is good news to me.

But, like most people no one has seen my declare except HCO MM - but that's good enough for me. I quite like the idea that they don't want me there. :eyeroll:

I'd love to hear from anyone who was there, feel free to PM me and we can share news.

For the thread: I had a good/bad expierence with Gary Botoroff. He was super smart and didn't fit well in social situations so he relied on the strict "rule of law". I worked with him in and out of the Org (yes I got up on the damn roofs). He didn't push people around who "in his eyes" he thought understood him. Sometimes that meant laughing at his dry humor or agreeing with his literal take on life. He never got the joy of being casual or having fun.

I too have big love for Helmuth, Fred, Tom Madigan from the 80's-90's and James K, Don Pfendler (not mentioned) Maria McCord (not mentioned) Wayne Eisenman (mentioned once) and Sharon Madigan (Tom's 1st wife) from the 70's - 80's.

Some warriors I slugged it out with on the all nighters etc. Debbie Morris(Anderson), Shaun Carroll, Mark Witt, Barbie Brown(Perez-etc.), John Gludovatz, Willie & Dianna, Ray Jourdain, Frank Thompson (RIP), Laz Mesa and of course Gui. There are a whole slew of others of course. Some in and some out but not as like-minded perhaps. There are those who are still on staff who I won't mention but care for as people and many who vilify me in any mention of my name these 16 years later.

It was a 17 year ordeal and I reflect from time to time on the whole expierence. But, its not much of what I put my attention on these days.

Love and good health to any and all of you who were there, we made it out.:clap:

Hi, this is Maria again, mentioned above. :) Sorry for overposting. Rather than repeat things, here is a link to where i have been posting starting on page 5. I didn't realize these were separate threads. I just found this site in the last day or two and still not completely sure where I am going.
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthre...ckell-Ave-early-Giralda-Ave-OP-Z-anyone/page5
 

Good twin

Floater
Welcome Maria.

Patti Thompson, here. I didn't spend much time at MM until you were gone, but I remember you.
ESMB is more fun than the cult of Scientology.
 

WildKat

Gold Meritorious Patron
I am curious about a bunch of people that ended up in Clearwater that came from Miami either the org or nearby mission. (Coral Gables?) A number of them ended up at singer consultants. Where are they now?

One was Pat Hilliard .. Later married Tony Fantilli. Also James Kirtley...he got ALS or something like that and suicided. I think that was after or during OT V or VII? Also Duane or Darrell Kirkland and Marta. Didn't Kobrins come out of Miami also? And I think David Singer himself and also Jerry Dyas also came from Miami originally? Then there was Mike Kaplan and others as well.

As I recall, there was quite a crew of Miami people who filtered thru Singer's group.

Maybe I should start a Clearwater people from the 80's thread? Lol
 

Maria Cuervo

Gold Meritorious Patron
Welcome Maria.

Patti Thompson, here. I didn't spend much time at MM until you were gone, but I remember you.
ESMB is more fun than the cult of Scientology.


WAY more fun! I remember your name but can't put a face to it yet. Glad to re make your acquaintance.
 

Leland

Crusader
Mer, I can't remember any names....but the Thompson name above jogged some memories.

Perhaps you can fill in a few blanks.

There was a Company out of Miami, called "Studio of Sculpture," that was involved with refinishing mannequins for the clothing store display industry.

(most modern mannequins are made out of fiberglass...and can be repaired...or updated makeup can be airbrushed on the face...or updated wig....Fingers and hands are the first to break, and those can be replaced....) ( a top quality mannequin can be expensive....)

Quite a few cult members worked for this company. As far as I know, it was not owned by a Cult member.....but the son of the owner....was a Cult member...and ran the company....and I believe was an OT 5 at the time. (around 1979.)

I had the impression that the son was "siphoning off" money from the company to pay for Cult services....... but don't know if this was true.

Can you tell me anything about it....?
 

Maria Cuervo

Gold Meritorious Patron
Mer, I can't remember any names....but the Thompson name above jogged some memories.

Perhaps you can fill in a few blanks.

There was a Company out of Miami, called "Studio of Sculpture," that was involved with refinishing mannequins for the clothing store display industry.

(most modern mannequins are made out of fiberglass...and can be repaired...or updated makeup can be airbrushed on the face...or updated wig....Fingers and hands are the first to break, and those can be replaced....) ( a top quality mannequin can be expensive....)

Quite a few cult members worked for this company. As far as I know, it was not owned by a Cult member.....but the son of the owner....was a Cult member...and ran the company....and I believe was an OT 5 at the time. (around 1979.)

I had the impression that the son was "siphoning off" money from the company to pay for Cult services....... but don't know if this was true.

Can you tell me anything about it....?

I remember that company existed although I never worked for them or knew the details. So I can't be much help.

Not exactly on topic of your question but there were three companies that hired a number of Scientologists. There was a food catering company. I worked for them once on a New Year's Eve. There was a jewelry company, owned by a woman named Helga whose jewelry was made of sea shells. I modeled for her and still have many of the slides. It was fun and the pictures were used on the large signs at Helga's booth at some big NY jewelry show. The year was 1979? (I'd have to check the slides and don't feel like it right this second.) The photographer was from Vogue and they tried to recruit me to move to NY. I guess she showed the pictures to editors at the magazine. I was not tall enough for runway, she told me, but I could do all the rest. I never did go to NY since I was a true believer. LOL. I had just come back from one of my trips to Venezuela where I had helped set up the org there along with another person. The third company was the mannequins. I have a weird thought that the mannequin company and Helga were connected somehow. Now I am not sure how or if. Maybe. If you could check into the Helga angle with someone who remembers her that might help. Helga was definitely a scientologist. I don't know if she left, or if she is alive. I never really met her directly. She saw me around the tech div and thought I was photogenic and sent Vicki, her friend from Vogue, off to fetch me for a day of photo shoots. I think I was paid in jewelry. It was not my type of jewelry. I got an abalone necklace and a coral necklace that I long since gave away or lost. Cheaper than hiring a model at the hourly rate!

Edit: there was also Singers but I draw a blank when trying to remember what they were about. A lot of Div 6 folks went to work there so I am sure they were selling something....
 
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Maria Cuervo

Gold Meritorious Patron
Mer, I can't remember any names....but the Thompson name above jogged some memories.

Perhaps you can fill in a few blanks.

There was a Company out of Miami, called "Studio of Sculpture," that was involved with refinishing mannequins for the clothing store display industry.

(most modern mannequins are made out of fiberglass...and can be repaired...or updated makeup can be airbrushed on the face...or updated wig....Fingers and hands are the first to break, and those can be replaced....) ( a top quality mannequin can be expensive....)

Quite a few cult members worked for this company. As far as I know, it was not owned by a Cult member.....but the son of the owner....was a Cult member...and ran the company....and I believe was an OT 5 at the time. (around 1979.)

I had the impression that the son was "siphoning off" money from the company to pay for Cult services....... but don't know if this was true.

Can you tell me anything about it....?

Leland, you were there in Miami...and obviously knew Felix too. Try to help me remember you. Did we ever meet?
 
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