Robert McAvoy:
CLASS OF 1971
Royalton-Hartland High SchoolClass of 1971
Middleport, NY
Robert's Story
I live in the St. Louis area. Graduated from Geneseo, then got my Master's in Industrial Psychology from Western Michigan. Moved to St. Louis. Met my wife in London, and married Natalie in 1990. We have 2 boys-almost 17 and almost 16. Now semi-retired. Golf a lot, work out (run and swim). Management Consulting for 29 years.
I always wanted to be a person who would not be poor when I grew up. My family and friends thought that was a great idea. As it turns out, they were right.
Run and run hard for 6-8 miles is one way I blow off steam or need to just think.
The wildest thing I ever did was pretty tame...Barry, Jim, Randy, Joe and I went to DeSales and to Lockport Sr. High to meet girls..got caught and then suspended.
If I'm going to work somewhere, I need to have the right salary, ability to create change, and opportunity to improve my client to be able to deal with the day-to-day.
My heroes were Robert Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Mickey Mantle, Bobby Richardson, and Lou Gehrig.
My interests include Baseball, Football and Hockey. Recently I have been looking for the Rolling Stone Magazine Top 500 songs list
The biggest surprise was that I figured I would be married at age 27, and it took me 10 more years to finally get married. I am so glad I waited. Tell your kids to wait.
I love my home. It is big, more than big enough. We have a pond and waterfalls with goldfish. Our yard is not too big (for mowing) but big enough for the dogs to run and we have woods behind our house.
From my kids, I learned the need to be more patient, to not try to live vicariously through their lives (that is the hard one) and to remember that they are not you. I learned my kids are more important than me.
My favorite teachers were Mrs. Covey(when I was in Barker), Mr. Finger and Mr. McCarty and Mrs. McWilliams. And also Mrs. Flatt.
If I won $100 million, I'd give 10% of it to Charity/Church, then spend the rest on investing, setting up retirement accounts for my kds and helping relatives be more comfortable.
I lived in a dorm for 13 of the 14 semesters I was in college. I was an RA for 2 years, a dorm director for 1 year and an Asst. Dorm director for 1 year.
To be truly happy, I would be with my family, living life with them. John Lennon once wrote "Life is just what happens to you, While your busy making other plans..."
My current age is 55. When I was 12, I thought that people my age now would be working too hard, paying a lot of bills. I was so completely right and wrong.
My first crush, in kinde...Expand for more
rgarten, was Patricia Kinyon. She later went to Geneseo with me, but we rarely say each other. She is back living in Barker.
My best friend would tell you I'm a good person who cares about his friends, but people who don't know me very well would probably describe me as a bit of a "Jokester Smith" (remember our Biology teacher?).
The way I dress. I don't often wear suits, but the ones I have are stylish and they still fit. I like jeans and comfortable shirts or sweaters. I believe in shopping on sale at Kohl's.
When I was in grad school, I worked outside a toy store in Kalamzoo, dressed as a giant dog...the kids loved me.
I share my home with my wife and kids, which I find heavenly.
I still have my MVP award for Football from my Senior year. My sons (I coached) won a few hockey championships, and I have a big trophy from that. I also won longest drive (golf) award in a tournament.
What would I do differently? I would invest sooner and more when I was young, but I did OK compared to most. Perhaps I would have tried to go to a nore "well-known" or "prestigious" college.
In 10 years, I hope to be giving advice to my sons (if they want it), be completely retired....but maybe teaching. I'm going to get there by continuing along on my plan..
My oldest friend was and is Jim Fagan. I think we clicked because we had a lot of similarities. We were smart, liked sports, lived in the country, I wanted to farm and he did farm, we were simialr size, both extremely good-looking, Catholic. We had a similar economic background, and did not have a lot. Both from big families. Jim was just a great kid, and even today is a great man taking care of his family. I am proud to call him my friend.
What about me would surprise everyone at a high school reunion? I am pretty much an open book, but the fact I am retired might be one thing. That I did not get married until I was 37 (but a lot of people have met my wife). I am not sure....
My first job was at a farm, where I got paid 8-10 cents a quart to pick strawberries. What I remember most about it is I ate a lot of strawberries.
One childhood memory I will always remember was in 1968. I went to bed at night, once I found out that Bobby Kennedy won the California primary and it looked like he was about to win the Democratic nomination. I went to school and Stephanie Whitney (another RFK fan) were excited about the win (talking about it in Mr. McCarty's math class)...only to find out later that Kennedy was shot and killed. A day ingrained in my memory.
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