Richard Grover:
CLASS OF 1965
Mainland High SchoolClass of 1965
Daytona beach, FL
University of Florida - EducationClass of 1975
Gainesville, FL
University of Florida - PsychologyClass of 1974
Gainesville, FL
Daytona Beach Community CollegeClass of 1971
Daytona beach, FL
Richard's Story
Life
Hi to everyone/anyone reading this,
I just got done reading & updating my "Profile." It's all so dry. Doesn't seem like me at all. What can I tell you that would help you know me?
I love teaching... I think I was born to be a teacher. I am a retired Associate Professor of Psychology and Business at Kennesaw State University, a 29,000 student institution and a part of the University System of Georgia. Every day I have a chance to make a difference in someone else's life. I enjoy teaching seniors a lot because they are easy. They've learned how to succeed in college and all I have to do is teach. On the other hand, the folks that challenge me the most are freshmen. Many are away from home for the first time and are in the middle of all kinds of adjustments. Many do not make it past their first year. I try to teach them the skills that will help them succeed in college and life. It is a challenge, but I like it because I feel that everyday I have the opportunity to make a difference in their lives.
I am a certified facilitator in Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and I teach it to all my students. I have also done several 7 Habits workshops for faculity staff and administrators at KSU.
I've been riding motorcycles for over 50 years, and took several long distance trips including Canada, Lake George New York, Gettysburg,and the Northern woods of Wisconsin While in college Ron Graham and I spent a week touring and camping thought the Smokies, and Ben Rawls and I took two similar trips. When I started teaching, I sold my motorcycle (a Honda CBR 1000F) to put a supercharger on my Mazda Miata (I still like to drive fast!).
A few years later I bought an 1970s Honda CB750, similar to the one I had in college. As I began restoring it, I started getting drawn into developing metal working skills. Now, with a lathe, drill press, milling table, blasting cabinet and welding torches, I've just completed a restoration of a second CB750. I'm looking forward to more restorations and to a lot of long distance riding, beginning with a trip to Oregon to visit Ron Graham, hopefully riding with Ben Rawls.
We have 3 parrots. Lolita, a Sun Conure, is 18 years old, and is sleeping under my shirt as I write this. Binga is a 12 year old Congo African Grey who talks & sings constantly and has a wonderful and ever growing vocabulary and was given to me by one of my students (no "bad" words yet!). Pickle is a 12 year old Hans McCaw and is a rescue bird. Our son, David, graduated from KSU, (where I teach) with a degree in computer science and is now working working for Emory Health Care in Atlanta.
I have few fond memories of Mainland, The only thing I did in high school that gave me any sense of satisfaction or pride was play in the band, and if it hadn't been for the band, I probably would have dropped out. Many years later, I learned I have an attention deficit disorder (ADD). Medication has made a tremendous difference in my productivity and my life. I believe that the difficulities I had throughout my K-12 education gave me some insight into the challenges faced by many college freshmen, and contibuted to my desire to help them succeed.
I had several good friends in high school... Gary Chandler, Dennis Vonderschmidt, Ron Graham and Patty Hoffmann, and I am still in touch with all of them. There are many others I remember fondly, but who I did not know well. I see many of your names on this website, and if I had the chance, I'd like to say "Hi" and find out how you are doing. I guess that's why I'm writing. I just can't see paying to join this website... maybe someday. In the meantime, I'll try to put contact information in this note, and if you have any desire to say "Hi" you can drop me a note. Assuming this website might filter out certain things I will give to ways to contact me in a kind of longhand. hopefully you can fill in the blanks. dgrover at kennesaw dot edu.
Food for thought and myfavorite quote:
Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, yet they give their lives to that little or nothing. One life is all we have, and we live it as we believe in living it... and then it is gone. But to sacrifice what you are, and live without belief, that is more terrible than dying, even more terrible than dying young. Joan of Arc
College
After getting out of the Air Force in 1969, I attended DBCC for two years then went to the U of Fla. where I roomed with Gary Chandler and Ron Graham. I graduated with a degree in Psychology (mostly experimental, running rats and monkeys in Skinner Boxes) Hey... I graduated with High Honors!! quite a change from my days at Mainland... I guess 4 years in the Air Force must have taught me something! I entered the Masters of Education program and in 1975 I received a Masters in Educational Psychology. I worked for two years on a Doctorate in Edu...Expand for more
cational Testing and Measurement and then took a job as a School Psychologist in South Carolina.
After working as a School Psychologist for 5 years, I entered the M.B.A. program at the University of South Carolina. I received my degree in 1984 and moved to Atlanta Georgia.
Workplace
Just before leaving the U of Fla. I married the former Sharon Cronin on January 2, 1977. We moved to South Carolina because I was tired of school and I was recruited by a small school district . I worked as a School Psychologist in Gaffney, SC and bought a house in Spartanburg, SC. After two years, I accepted a position with Greenville, SC school district and bought a house in Greenville. After three years, I resigned and returned to school and the University of South Carolina and earned a Masters in Business Administration in Organizational Development. I moved to Atlanta and accepted a position with The Psychological Corporation as a Sales Representative, selling standardized and psychological tests to school districts in Georgia and South Carolina. I loved having an expense account and a company car, but didn't like working by myself and traveling so much.
After two years, I accepted a position with the Georgia Department of Education. I remained with the DOE for 13 years, holding a variety of positions, ending as the Direction of Federal Programs. In 2000, I accepted a position with Kennesaw State University where I taught a variety of courses as an Associate Professor of Business, and Psychology.
We moved three times while in Atlanta, finally settling Dunwoody, just North of the city where we stayed for 18 years. For 10 years, while working for the DOE, I also worked on weekends as a motorcycle safety instructor for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation. During that time I trained almost 2,000 beginning and experienced motorcyclists. I also worked summers for American Honda as a demo rider, traveling to various motorcycle events around the country.
I have written several grants was awarded one that allowed me to work with schools on Guam to help them implement a service-learning program. In my last year of teaching I was proud and humbled to be recognized with the Keisler award for teaching and service.
Military
I entered the Air Force in 1965 shortly after graduating from High School. After basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX, I attended the Bombing/Navigation Systems Electronics school at Lowery AFB in Denver, CO. I was trained to maintain the Bombing, Navagation and Terrain Avoidance Computers on B-52s along with the related radar systems.
After a year of training, I was transfered to Westover AFB in Springfield, MA. While there I purchased a MGA and spend weekends driving the great mountain roads in the area, and trying to keep the electrical system working in the car. I served a 3 month tour at Andersen AFB on Guam, where B-52s were flying missions to Vietnam. I flew several missions as an on-board technician. Returning to Westover, I traded the sports car for a motorcycle - a Yamaha 305, and spent the autumn riding the mountains.
Transfered to Clinton-Sherman AFB in the middle of nowhere (Oklahoma), I rode my motorcycle 30 miles one way to the nearest truck stop that served pizza. I went with my wing to Kadana AFB on Okinawa working on B-52s I flew several missions and also went with the B-52s on a Typhoon Evacuation to Thailand for a few days. I returned to Clinton Sherman AFB after a 6 month tour of duty, took a month's leave from the 10th of December to the 10th of January and returned to the Air Force to discover that I qualified under an early out program, and got out of the airforce 10 months early on February 10th, 1969.
In additition to giving me time to mature, providing opportunities to "see the world'" helping me grow up and helping me get motivated, the my service in the Air Force also provided me with the G.I. Bill, which paid for a large part of my college education.
Retirement
I retired in May of 2014. My wife, an Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse Practioneer, retired in October. We sold our Dunwoody home in February of 2015 and moved into a rental home near Jacksonville Beach while our house is being built in Palencia, a development just North of St. Augustine. We expect to move into our new home in September. Sharon and the parrots get a courtyard garden. I get an air conditioned shop for me and my motorcycles :-) Life is good.
One last thought, this a sonet by William Shakespere:
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought,
I summon up rememerance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many things I sought,
and with old woes new wails my dear times waste.
Then can I drown an eye unused to flow,
for precious friends hid in death's dateless night.
And moan the expense of many a vanished sight,
and heavily from woe to woe tell o'er,
the sad account of fore bemoaned moan
which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think of thee, dear friend,
all losses are restored and sorrows end.
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