Rick Melker:
CLASS OF 1969
John Marshall High SchoolClass of 1969
Oklahoma city, OK
Rick's Story
It's really interesting to read our classmates' stories ... with all of the amazing and not so amazing things people have been doing. I actually think everyone has a great story and I look forward to reading each of them that are posted on this website, so I know that I should be willing to share a bit of mine too.
[By the way, with the reunion coming up this year, it's been very intriguing to check everyone's comments out, refer to the yearbook, put names to faces etc. It sometime's feels a bit stalker-ish ... but not too unhealthy I think. The high school memories are both joyful and painful ... for all of us I'm sure. I know there are many things I said or did that I'm very sorry for now, and many, many opportunities that I didn't take advantage of that I look back on regretfully. Generally speaking though, I know that our John Marshall years were great. What a wonderful school, staff and student body! It is incredible to think of the variety of people in our class and the things they've accomplished personally and professionally. Plus just plain good friends and acquaintenances. I trust we'll be at the reunion and will enjoy seeing many of you there.]
I've been married to Roxanne for 34 years. She's really bright, successful, interesting and entertaining ... so I'm normally just referred to as Roxanne's husband. She's great looking too, so with that gene pool contribution I couldn't help but have a fabulous family. We've two grown children, who each have 3 children, 5 of which are girls. You do the math. Our son and wife had triplets last year, which has really intensified their lives. They live in Dallas, so we don't get to see them often enough. Our daughter and her family live in Edmond now, but spent three years in Bangkok, Thailand, so we're really enjoying their relatively close proximity.
I've been a steady-Eddie at The Williams Companies for almost 30 years, starting in Denver as a petroleum landman, moving to Houston, and have resided in Tulsa for 22 years. I no longer do land work, but am in the "midstream" sector and manage a small group that optimizes the value of our commodity positions at our natural gas processing plants located in the Rockies, San Juan and Gulf Coast areas. I get to work with and mentor a lot of bright young women and men who spend time in my group, which in turn keeps me on my toes and perhaps a bit up to date.
Roxanne has devoted a lot of her talent and energy during the last 5 years in building her Arbonne skin care business. She reached the highest level in the company quite quickly and loves the business, their products and the people she gets to interface with regularly.
Rox and I don't have a lot of hobbies per se, but she loves people and spends a lot of her energy communicating with them ... by telephone, email and Facebook. As for me, I'm apt to end the day wondering what happened to all the time and why didn't I get more accomplished.
I heard once that your God-given passion is that which you could spend all night talking about with your friends. For me that would be travel and perhaps economics and business. Like many of my classmates, Roxanne and I have been blessed to travel to a great many places, and usually have a trip or two up our sleeves to look forward to. So I love people to share their travel adventures and I can usually throw in a couple of anecdotes too. Economic cause and effect has become a great focus in my life since it is such an integral part of my work. Plus, I find it facinating.
When I left Oklahoma after college (OSU), I lost track of most of my John Marshall friends. Tom Douglass and Larry Stubblefield have been the mainstays back to that era, and are still my really good friends. I don't get to see them often enough, but if I was just brave enough to get a good motorcycle and have the endurance to ride thousands of miles in a week ... I coul...Expand for more
d see them more often by joining them on one of their adventures. We do go to a few OSU football games together, thanks mostly to Tom's generousity. (Thanks for all the tickets Tom! You too, Larry!).
Living in Tulsa, I don't seem to happen onto you old classmates - maybe because I'm just no looking.
I think that I probably come off as stand off-ish, but really am just pretty shy. I've really never been able to cultivate good opening lines ... but usually am OK once someone else breaks the ice - ha. In fact it always pleasanatly amazes me when someone comes up to me and wants to visit.
Although you probably don't have these problems, my basic shy nature is exacerbated by the fact that my memory seems to be fading along with my eyesight. I marvel at how often I find myself having to recognize someone at work or church by their profile or voice. The memory problem ... well, I'd like to blame that on the overload of information dumped into my brain over the years. I hate the thought of not remembering someone that I definately should. But at times it just happens.
God has been good to Roxanne and I. We've both enjoyed good health and children that kept their head screwed on straight. My parents are still living (in Denver for the last 36 years). We lost our first parent last year when Roxanne's dad died. Her mother and step dad live in Pheonix and are in relatively good health too. I often wonder how I could have ended up had it not been for the intervention of God's grace in my life ... no doubt a wretched mess.
A little history ... went to Andrew Johnson grade school K-6. Great friends there. It is priceless to run into someone from that time of my life. Jr. High at Hoover. I think that the 5th and 8th grades were my favorite/happiest. During grade school and Jr. High I recall that I was quite a cut up in class. Seems like I got into more of my share of trouble for talking too much and too loud. It's referred to as "hyper" now.
Grew up on Carlisle Court in the "old" Village. I loved the independence we had as young children growing up in that era. I think the only boundaries that I had were those imposed by the transportation mode (walking, running, bike, motorcycle, car - whatever). We moved closer to Hefner Rd. in the 8th grade to Whitehaven Lane.
Going from the smaller Hoover world to the bigger John Marshall world was a bit overwhelming as I look back. And it does seem like The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton) was autobigraphical to our school experience. Quite an interesting book and movie.
The only sports I played were basketball and track at Hoover. Miserable at both. Didn't even know how to sign up for football, although I loved the game. Loved to play all kinds of ball after school like we did back then. No formal participation in sports at Marshall though.
I worked during high school at Humpty Dumpty on Penn and Britton Rd. For years and years and years. In fact all of my high school years and three of my college years. And for lots and lots of hours every week. Many of my friends were co-workers there.
I didn't hardly date. Did I already mention that I was shy? Loved cars. Had the dark blue '63 Impala SS 409. I spent far, far to much of my money on that car, and too much time with my head under the hood of that ... and any car. I can't change oil now. I still do have a keen appreciation for a fine car or motorcycle ... but personally relegate my interest in cars now to merely a means of getting from point A to B.
OK, so this may be the longest profile in the class. Thanks for reading it if you got down to this point. I sure enjoy reading yours. If you see me in Tulsa or OKC; or maybe in Stillwater or Norman ... please come up and say hi. If I'm slow to respond, remember that I'm old and it takes me a while to process information ... but that doesn't mean I don't want to catch up with you - I DO!
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