Richard Rierdan, Ph.D.:
CLASS OF 1955
Hawthorne High SchoolClass of 1955
Hawthorne, CA
Richard's Story
I was a good student in high school, but not a very attentive one. I spent as much ( if not more) time figuring ways to cut classes than I did attending them. A friend of mine worked in the attendance office (no namesâ¦even after all this time a gentlemanâÂÂs wordâ¦etc.}. I worked out a method of switching the notes she wrote for those written by my mother, and for three years or so I roamed free, The roof came crashing down late in my Senior year, however. Wally Nyman (a nice manâ¦I miss him) discovered that I led the entire school district in unexcused absencesâ¦combined. There was some discussion about expelling me, but since my grades were in the top ten percent of the senior class, that evidentially presented a problem. Instead, various scholarly awards and recognitions I had earned were taken away. Oh well! It was worth it. I really would have liked that UCLA scholarship in ethnomusicology, though. I did end up at UCLA, and earned a Ph.D. in English Literature in 1970.
The pressures of finances and children required me to leave to take a leave of absence from UCLA before my dissertation was finished.. I went to Atlantic-Richfield as a Senior Systems Analyst and Project Supervisor. During my career there, I led the team that developed the first database for the world=wide pay-at-the-pump system.
Later I became Director of Training and Education, and among other things, was responsible for ARCOâÂÂs first Affirmative Action Program.
IâÂÂve lived in and around LA most of my adult life, with some periods in Hawaii.
As a child. I was moved across the country from Boston to LA. I guess I didnâÂÂt that much. I had the opportunity to finish my dissertation at Berkely. I elected to stay at UCLA.
I have had several jobs in my life that I liked a lot around LA. Each of them has helped to shape my life into what it has become today:
The first and most significant was starting at thirteen working in the butcher shop on Felton Avenue for Jess Meinike. He was an old German from Wisconsin, and built like a refrigerator. He could lift a whole side of beef on his shoulder, and continue a conversation without taking an extra breath. He taught me the meat business and a lot more. He was stubborn, and I was too. In our five or six years together, he fired me at least three times, and hired me back the same number, each a story in itself.
Jess was an ale drinker. Finally, one night on his way home, the cops stopped him and he spent the night in jail. The next morning I came in to open up the shop before school, as I often did, and Eva, JessâÂÂs sweet wife, called to tell me what had happened. She wondered if I had any ideas that could keep him at least sober enough to get him home at night.
Well, being a sophisticated high school senior by this time, of course I had a solution: Since Jess left early and left closing the shop to me most every night, I had the shop to myself. I went into the cooler where Jess kept his bottles of ale, carefully prized open teach bottle, pored out about half of each bottle and replaced the missing contents with,,,Seven Up. God knows why, but he never noticed. The ale, of course, assisted my friends and I in our early experiments with ...Expand for more
alcohol. Jess continued to make it home. Eva was profoundly grateful.
I have been fortunate to have several; advisors and mentors after Jess, as I have been swept along, As I write this , I realize that one of the first advisors that impacted me was Mr. Goodfellow in the counseling office at Hawthorne. I never had him as a teacher, but he helped me sort out my relationship with my mother in those early days in a way I have never forgotten
There have been so many others I can only acknowledge the most profound, One is Fred Otto, who taught me the basics of Reichean Body/Mind Therapy. His influence led me into a career I have pursued, both part and full-time, for over thirty years.
There was Don Sime, Dean of the Pepperdine University School of Business and Management, who took a chance on me in 1970, when I was ready to leave ARCO. I subsequently became one of the Founding Faculty of the School, and retired as a Distinguished Emeritus Professor.
I have been married three timesâ¦certainly not what I expected in high school, but there you are. My second wife, Katherine, died of cancer in1987. Had she lived, IâÂÂm sure we would still be together. She was Black, beautiful and brilliant She is the one person from my past I would like to see again. My third marriage was an expensive, somewhat painful adventure, and is a story for another day.
I have two beautiful and wonderful daughters from my first marriage,, both of whom have two wonderful children of their own. Each of them married good, smart and capable guys, so the future looks bright. We are all quite close.
I live alone in a big, hundred year old house in Altadena, CA. It is painted bright yellow and sits on an acre of land, much of which is planted in flowers and vegetables. I am assisted in its upkeep by a wonderful, old Mexican man named Enrique, who is possessed of at least three green thumbs, and the common sense of a Greek philosopher. I also have a desert tortoise named Waldo, who wanders around eating the tops off my carrots and squash.
My other assistant, Emelda, has been with me for many years. She comes in once a week to do the laundry, talk about her life etc.She also dusts and picks up after me, although I am fairly neat. She is a Caribbean woman, and is close to retiring back to St. Lucia, I think. I still continue to maintain a small practice in mind/body therapy here in my home. IâÂÂm slowly letting it wind down.
My current interests are somewhat varied. My health is pretty good and I spend some time keeping it that way. I read a lot and spend time managing my investments. I own property here and there, mostly in Hawaii. I donâÂÂt have a television, and seldom attend a movie. I do have a computer ( I have three) and I carry an Iphone, although I havenâÂÂt quite figured it out yet. My eleven year-old grand-daughter may be of assistance here. I play drums and washboard in a number of jazz bands, and host a small group of musicians at the house on Tuesdays. IâÂÂm mostly a vegetarian, although maybe a pescitarian would b closer since I do eat fish.
There is much more I could sayâ¦Anyone who reads this is free to enquire further. I would like to hear about the experiences of others.
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