Bob Boyd:  

Getting through high school seemed to take a lifetime in itself. My home situation wasn't that good at the start of my Junior year and I was boarding with Stan Nelson and his family. Money became pretty tight and I actually had visited the Army recruiter looking for a job but fortunes change and by Christmas I was living with my father in Indio after he had married into a well-to-do family. In one week I had gone from working in the cafeteria at McLane for my lunch to belonging to a country club and having a maid in the house every day. Fortunes changed again and at the end of my Junior year I was out on the streets again and wound up living with my Great Aunt in South Central L.A..I began my Senior year going to George Washington High. G.W. was so bad they actually made a movie about it called The George McKenna Story with Denzel Washington. By November I had pretty much worn out my welcome. It became apparent that if I wanted to graduate, and not become a statistic, I had better move on. I found a family to board with in Fresno, borrowed $500 from my Aunt and hot-footed it back to Fresno during Christmas vacation. After graduation (Remember towards the beginning of the ceremony when they were pacing us off to walk down the ramp, some guy came running down the ramp to a girl who was walking alone? That was yours truly but that' another story) I went into the Air Force. After four years of fixing (and flying on) B-52s I worked for a short time in L.A. then returned to Fresno and received my A.S. Degree in Electronics at Fresno City College. It was at this time my life took its most important turn. I started going to church with the girl I was dating and heard, for the first time, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and came to the conclusion that He is who He says He is. After that it was a no-brainer and I became a Christian. In 1975 I went to work for Intel. In 1978 I returned to Fresno and went to work at Saint Agnes Medical Center as a biomedical electronics technician. I have been there ever since. In 1985 I became involved in various community organizations. In 1992 I was elected President of the Fresno County Unit of the California Republican Assembly and that same year I was elected to The Fresno County Republican Central Committee. I also was county campaign coordinator for one of the Republican presidential candidates in 1996 and 2000. In 1996 my life took another good turn. After 15 years of being single, Hope Reilly and I were married. Hope is an RN who also worked at Saint Agnes. I have a vivid memory of seeing her one night in the cafeteria in the early eighties. This was when nurses still wore their caps and whites and she looked like a million bucks. Little did I know. A month after our first date we both new. Did you ever wish that as a teenager, you knew what you know now? We were like two nineteen year olds with all the experiences of forty nine year old. We've been happily married over fifteen years now. I have a son, two step-daughters and seven grandchildren. Hope and I have found we have become our parents. In 1999 Hope had a stroke, but God was good and she recovered 99%. In 2002 I left the Central Committee and started volunteering for Fresno Habitat for Humanity on their subdivision in Southwest Fresno where I helped coordinate the electrical work. In 2003 Hope retired and now does volunteer work and sells on E-Bay (Hopebeyond). In 2004 I had a minor heart attack and another one in 2009 but am doing very well. (Thank God for stents) In 2007 I retired from Sai...Expand for more