Rick Neel: DTD at MC #8.5

Well here we go again,

As promised, I have another update from a brother. He is Rich Kramer, a former chapter President as I recall.

It sounds as if he has been pretty successful and might be a person to talk to if somebody has any interest in starting his own business. Make note of his email address.

See you in Marietta soon, Rich!

Please send anything of interest to me for posting. Remember, it may be boring to you but your friends will be interested in hearing from you.

Rick Neel '73

Hello Rick and Brothers,

Just a quick note to let you know that Nancy (Dow) '74 and I are alive and well in the great white north of New Hampshire. I will try to make my 30 years since graduation at MC as painless as possible.

After grad, I went to work for Hill's Department Stores. After a couple of years of 80 hour weeks, months on the road and being chased around the store by the executive senior VP of Operations' daughter, a management trainee herself, it was a sure sign that I had no long term future unless I wanted to become a gigolo in training! So off to Nancy's homeland, New Hampshire. There after several months of needed sleep, I started my own retail business which expanded into 3 stores and went on for the next 22 years until Tandy corporation made me an offer I could not refuse in 1999.

Beginning in 1997 and until the present, I have become a graduate business school professor. Actually, an adjunct professor but I work for slave wages and a title. I've taught 74 courses to date and teach at Franklin Pierce College and New England College. Education is big on titles and short on cash! But the speed of work is great. It really is one of the best jobs in the world.

Along the way, Nancy and I adopted two children in 1984 , ages 6 and 7 at the time. Today they will be 29 and 30 this coming March and April. We feel very, very OLD! My daughter has given me 3 grandchildren two boys, about to be 6 and 8 and one girl just a year old. My son just got married this past summer to a real "fine" young lady from Vermont. She wants to be an elementary school teacher and she really is good with kids. I suppose my Christmas shopping list will grow exponentially over the coming years?

Nancy has had a great career haul in accounting, education, healthcare and now government. She has been a really great partner and yes as they use to say on the sitcom In Living Color "and we still together after all these years," 30 to be precise. Nauseating, isn't it.

Well, I'm glad to see that you Rick are trying to bring the Mod Squad back together for our 40th reunion. Maybe we should have a contest to see who can still throw the football through the tire hanging from a tree like Mike Ditka!

I remember at the 25th reunion looking towards the back of the Lafayette Hotel and seeing more faces than I thought possible. DTD may not have been "coolest" house on campus during it's past 40 years, but by far it was the most fun and I'm sure brings many fond memories to mind to most of it's members, past and present!

So let's hear from the rest of you. Time waits for no man as Rick pointed out with the passing of two of our founding brothers. Maybe Randy "Awk" Williams can update one of his famous study table lectures for the preretirement brothers? Possible topic: Viagra, friend or Delt menace?

Rich Kramer '75