Raymond Eschert:
CLASS OF 1964
Island Trees High SchoolClass of 1964
Levittown, NY
Massapequa High SchoolClass of 1965
Massapequa, NY
Raymond's Story
Life
Well lets see 1964 to 2009....been an experience. Short bio would be as follows.
Career / Work
Left school and did 2 plus years training to be a menswear window trimmer. Decided to try college at Farmindale but Uncle Sam had other plans. Timing was not the best on the draft offer as I had just gotten engaged. Decided to enlist in the Army and get some benefits in training and assignment. This worked out as I was selected based on a security screening to an assignment in DC with the Army Chief of Staff for Intelligence. Assigned to Germany under civilian status to a special security detail / office supporting the embassy. After leaving the Army I was employed by Grumman Aerospace at Bethpage and worked on several LM vehicles including LM-7 or Apollo 13. Had the assignment of putting together the sell-off documention and obtaining the signature from the NASA representative on the runway at Bethpage for LM-7 when the vehicle shipped. Recently exchanged emails with Fred Haise from Apollo 13 remembering the good old days at Grumman and Vito's for lunch. After serving as the LM-10 Engineering Test Team Administrator I optioned out at Grumman to take a job with the then New York Telephone Company till 1978 when I relocated via AT&T to the local operating company for AT&T in Charlotte, NC.
Interesting career with what was BellSouth in several management positions including 7 years with the company HQ staff for Investment Management doing training, support and district review audits for NC, SC and GA. I took an early retirement in 1991 at age 44 as the youngest person to retire as I made the cut off by only 13 days. Did some consulting with some communication firms including Lucent but my heart was not in it for the long term. I financed my wife start up in real estate with RE/MAX. I have a Brokers license and work with my wife Elaine whom I married in 1967. She is a broker with RE/MAX in Charlotte NC and also owns her own firm GoldenProperties Realty of Metro Charlotte and is the Broker in Charge. She and her company are licensed under RE/MAX Select Realty in Charlotte. We have developed our business by marketing our services using goldenproperties dot com along with charlotterelocation dot com.
Family
Married Elaine in 1967 and we have two sons. Oldest is Eric who is 40 and the service manager for the local Charlotte Porsche dealer. He is exceptional when it comes to all German made vehicles. He is married to Ava and...Expand for more
they have a daughter Madison who is 6. Our other son is Jason who just turned 33 had a long career working in and being a manager for Loss Prevention. He was most recently the LP manager at the local Bass Pro Shops in Concord NC. His career path changed in 2008 as he joined the Concord Police Department. He is married to Heather and they have two sons Grayson who will turn 8 in 2009 and Hunter who is going to be 3 in 2009 also.
Our Homes
As a family we have lived in Agusta Georgia, Farmingdale L.I., Islip L.I. and in Charlotte N.C. We have been in our present home in the community of Thornhill in Ballantyne since 1994.
Civic / Fun Stuff
Involved in local business groups, politics and founded the South Charlotte / Ballantyne area community information forum several years ago. It is called the Ballantyne Breakfast Club and we are online at ballantynebreakfastclub dot com. I also do off duty security patrols with some local police officers keeping our local shopping centers free of problems. Thanks to one of the officers I have been refreshing my target shooting skills. I've been very involved with the Homeowners Association for our community and with at one time the local chapter of the Community of America Association (forum for HOA) and was a guest speaker at one of their meetings here in Charlotte several years ago. I was appointed to a joint city, county, chamber task force to develop road priorities and funding options in 2008 and we will be completing our work early in 2009 when we present our recommendations.
What makes me happy
Enjoyment is found sharing tasks, trips, shopping and conversations with my wife, playing in the dirt doing landscaping, decorating and painting the house inside and out, playing with our last remaining Golden, Rugby or any of my 3 children or Jasons or erics 4 other goldens and any others I happen to meet. Best of all is experiencing the joys of a second chance of being a child while playing games and hiking in our local nature park to feed the deer with my grandsons.
Conclusion
Am I happy...Yes and thankful for having been a part of the Island Trees experience. I learned a lot which at the time I did not realize would last a life time. My teachers and my classmates were instructive in shaping who I became more than they realize....even with those visits to the school office for corrective encouragement in my behavior. For all of this, my family and my friends I have been blessed.
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