Dick Adams:  

Wow, life is full of suprises, twists, and turns. Right after HS, I traveled around the US seeing the sights. We have a wonderful country. I then did one year at a Bible college before I went traveling again. This time I spent 6 months living in Japan, the place of my birth. At that time I became interested in agriculture...no I did not want to be a farmer but I saw many people all over the world in need. On coming back I started at Shoreline CC taking many different types of classes landing on engineering. Lo and behold there was a degree called agricultural engineering. What a way to prepare to go overseas to help. This path led me to Lubbock Texas to enter their AGEN degree program and I loved it. My focus or minor was in structural engineering. While down there I met so many wonderful people but also was the only place I was called a "damn yank". I did not want to tell them that when I said I was from Washington it was not DC and we were not a state during the Civil War. My professors were great, class sizes small, and the attention very personal. I even worked for the department almost the entire time. I would tease people that Lubbock was my desert experience but soon I will be in the promised land. Two summers I worked in DC while attendig a leadership conference. You can not beat the 4th of July on the steps of the capital looking down the mall past the Washington monument to the Lincoln Memorial. The best BBQ are in Texas and with all the fix'ns, Wow! Upon graduating, I again went on an adventure, this time to Europe. I spent 3 months traveling all over Europe and afterwards worked for 6 months on a Swiss farm. Coming back to the Seattle area, I got a job working for the WSDOT and you are right they do not have an agricultural arm. I got into transportation, specifically traffic signal operations. This lead me to a masters program at the UW in transportation then a PE license and for over 8 years I work for the WSDOT. During which I got married to ...Expand for more