Richard Stephens:
CLASS OF 1968
Miami Killian High SchoolClass of 1968
Miami, FL
University of Miami - Marine & Atmospheric ScienceClass of 1978
Coral gables, FL
University of MiamiClass of 1978
Coral gables, FL
Aims Community CollegeClass of 1976
Greeley, CO
Richard's Story
I'm retired, living in a small town in western North Carolina, about as far from the shores of any south Florida beach as I could imagine.
None of this was planned and all of it must have its purpose, because I am happy and doing well both psychically and physically.
I am repairing older person's and those disadvantaged people that are in no position to afford competent computer repair and software configurement at no cost or fuel costs (these days).
I find great satisfaction in not only repairing but showing/teaching the owners what went wrong so they may keep their equipment clean and running, and protected.
I do all the hardware installation; the cable hookups and router or Internet connecting, and leave the lion's share of the tedious home-office
tech work to my partner/wife who is Microsoft certified to do so. I hate waiting on a phone for hours.
We tried to set up a business with free classes and banks of rental computers (repaired) that kids could learn to begin web designing, but didn't get enough local interest.
If you own a computer, and it 'Blue Screens", you know how frustrating that is to call someone you've never met to come get it, or even worse to fix it in your home as you miss hours from work. Normally, I can talk you through fixing it yourself, after work, over the telephone, and you've saved $50. to $75. per hour technician time. Need more memory, update it, better antivirus than you have? Pull all the wires off and drop it at my house, pick it up on your way home. I got tired of people getting ripped off, so I will do the work for the price of the parts. My payment? That it works perfectly, and I didn't rip anyone off.
I always wanted to be a architect when I grew up. My family and friends thought that was a great idea. As it turns out, they were disappointed. I was drafted into the Army two weeks out of high school, and went to the Navy recruiters and tested to see if they would take me instead. They said I aced their tests and what did I want to be, and all I cared about ...Expand for more
was NOT going back to school since I had just gotten out of 12 years, so I asked for their fastest, shortest school and that was aviation jet mechanics.
Join the Navy and see the world the posters proclaimed! Yeah, I got out of boot camp and was sent to Jacksonville, FL care of NAS Cecil Field, base support overhaul facility, J-65 engines. I loved my job, and excelled at it. I just didn't realize the tolulene fumes I was breathing everyday from the cleaning facility next to our shop was having a detrimental effect upon my health, and after two years I developed seizures. I had just gotten married to my high school sweetheart when this hit me, and I was medically discharged after extensive testing.
Not to be beaten, I went back to my favorite schooling area in Colorado where my Dad was living and working for the state and enrolled in the community college in Greeley. I obtained an AA degree at Aims CC and then transferred to Univ. of Miami to their pre-med program with very little remaining of my GI Bill entitlement. I was told after the second semester that I could not win approval to Miami's medical school, so I changed my major to Marine sciene and finished their bachelors requirements for graduation.
I would have worked research and development in fisheries if the economy hadn't been squeezed so hard at the time in the late 70's. Instead, I applied my bilogical and chemical knowledge to a well run laboratory in mid-Florida where I moved from Miami, and worked as a chemical analyst and microbiologist for the next 12 years. This was in Sebring, the town in Florida of the 12 hours of Sebring endurance races.
I had gotten remarried after the tragic death of my first wife Barbara, and my wife Dee and her 5 yr. old son Shane were happy in a new house on ten acres of pasture land way out in the middle of nowhere across from a huge fishing lake. I worked very long and hard to pay for that idyllic scene, and looking back it seems a blur of years working and enjoying only on the weekends, but it was essential and happy.
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