A 42 year member of the USAWOA, Dick was born 29 September 1946, in Bellefonte, PA, He was raised near State College, PA where he attended Penn State University. He was drafted into the Army on 4 December 1968, but enlisted for guaranteed training as an Operating Room Technician. He attended Basic training at Fort Dix, NJ, with AIT at Fort Sam Houston, TX, and OJT at Fort Belvoir, VA. His first duty station was with the 85th Evacuation Hospital in Phu Bai, Vietnam. He became the company clerk for the medical company.
He next served at Fort Polk, LA, as the company clerk of their medical company. Dick reenlisted and transferred to Office of Personnel Operations, the Pentagon, and served three years with PERSCOM before transferring to the 25th AG CO, Schofield Barracks, HI.
Dick received a Direct Appointment to Warrant Officer in May 1977 and was transferred to Fort Carson, CO. Served with the 4th AG CO in subsequent assignments as the Enlisted Assignment Manager, assistant to the SIDPERS OIC, and Chief of Enlisted Records Division before being transferred to Germany in 1983. He served with the 2nd Armored Division (Fwd) as the SIDPERS OIC, and as the Chief of Enlisted Records in Garlstedt, Germany. He transferred to the 176th Pers Svc Co in Bremerhaven, Germany in 1988 and served there until the unit deactivation in 1993.
He then transferred to the Field Systems Division, MILPERCEN, in April 1993 and served there in the development of Army personnel systems software until retirement from active duty on 31 January 2000. In February 2000, he accepted a contractor position with FC Business Systems to work on Army personnel systems software. FCBS was bought out by General Dynamics IT years later. When the extended contract ended in August 2009, he retired from active duty.
Dick joined the USAWOA in 1977 and has served as a chapter secretary and chapter president with the Pikes Peak Chapter, at Fort Carson, CO. He joined the Lord Fairfax “Silver” Chapter in 1993 and has remained an active chapter member since then. He has served as the chapter treasurer since May 2000, and as the Adopt-a-Highway coordinator since March 1998. He is also involved with the Rebuilding Together DC-Alexandria project and other chapter events like car wash fund raisers and holiday gifts for needy military kids, etc.
He has two daughters and two step children. Three of them live in Virginia and one daughter lives in Hagen, Germany.