Don

I'm blue in a State of red; my favorite living celebrity is Garrison Keillor.

I was born in 1935, in a small house (still there) in northeast Putnam County, Indiana. My parents lived in the "Weaning Pen", the tenant house on my maternal Grandfather's farm. A few months later, we moved about 3 miles to "The Hicks Place", a large 2-story white house on a farm in southeast Montgomery County, Indiana. It had no electricity, no indoor plumbing and a pot bellied stove for heat.

WWII began when I was in the 1st grade, and the school had a scrap metal drive. As the person in my class who collected the most lbs. of scrap, I gained the honor of riding in a wicker baby buggy down main street in Ladoga in a parade of the class winners. One year when mine was the first stop on the school bus route, the driver gave me a penny each day to dust the seats. Each Friday I then had a nickel to buy a "Dixie cup".

In the Spring of my 5th grade year, we moved to an 80 acre farm my parents bought in southeast Fountain County. I played basketball and baseball in high school. The school was too small to have other sports. There were 8 in my graduating class, 6 girls and Richard plus myself.

I graduated in 1957 from Indiana University with a major in Math. My ambition had been to be a lawyer and enter politics, but after getting a "C" in Ancient History my freshman year, (I blew the final essay question "Trace the history of the Papacy"), and getting married before my sophomore year, Math promised a more secure and lucrative future. R.O.T.C. gave me some income during school to supplement Wanda's salary at the bank plus money loaned by a family friend. I was hired by NSA upon graduation, my salary $5,335/year.

Math prepared me for a career as a computer programmer and systems analyst, positions I held with RCA, Honeywell, Stokely Van Camp and Indianapolis Public Schools between 1960 and 1975. I then moved on to positions as Supervisor of Teacher’s Contracts and Assistant Business Manager before retiring after 23 years at IPS in 1991. I obtained a masters degree in Public Administration from I.U.P.U.I. in 1979. Since 1991 I have been self employed as a residential real estate appraiser.

I was blessed by two great sons from my first marriage, Steve and Greg, who both live in Florida, and I have grandchildren in Florida, Indiana and Michigan. Marcia and I were married in 1984, at which time I obtained two wonderful step children; Mike lives in Manassas, Va. and Jen lives in Chicago. Marcia has a Human Resources job she loves.