Dick Bartlett
All the years prior to
retirement Dick Bartlett had been too busy. Too busy with
work, too busy with family and too busy with traveling with
little time left to be involved in anything else. One of
his retirement goals was to become an active, volunteer
member of his community and he has certainly achieved his
goal. Way back in 2001 he met Jan Borson who invited him to
attend the Grand Opening of MainStreet Oceanside. He liked
the ideas, concepts and goals of MainStreet, volunteered
& has continued to be a star volunteer ever since.
Some of Dick's other volunteer involvements are
Neighborhood Watch and helping to expand & develop the
North Beach Village Group. He is on the Board for MOCHA,
which is a new opera company, founded by Martha Brewer the
daughter of Burt and Gay Brewer, the owners of the
Oceanside Music Academy. He is also a member of the Project
Area Committee (PAC) for the City of Oceanside.
Dick was born near Chicago and grew up in Illinois and
Texas. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a
degree in History with an emphasis on the American West.
While in college he married his high school sweetheart Inez
and after graduation moved to Dallas and went to work for
the 3M Company. Five years later Dick joined Conn General
Reinsurance and after 15 years went with Frankona
Reinsurance,which later was purchased by ERC, a GE Capital
Company. From Dallas to Kansas City and finally to
Philadelphia where he retired in 1999. Throughout his
career he was constantly traveling as much as 200 days a
year. As Dick says, "travel is what I am", and that is why
he & Inez still continue to travel throughout the U S
and to many places in Europe.
Dick & Inez have 4 children, 8 grandchildren & 2
great grandchildren. His daughter who lives in Oceanside
was instrumental in Dick & Inez moving here. After
retiring they spent 3 months in Virginia helping their son
& daughter-in-law set up a sports camp for children.
From there they traveled to Austen, Texas, where they
always thought they wanted to retire. However, the heat was
a little too much. On Thanksgiving Day 2000, they came to
visit their daughter in Oceanside, took a walk after
dinner, saw the house on Cleveland for sale, contacted the
owner, bought it, and became permanent Oceanside residents
in January 2001.
Dick is a member of the MSO Board and has served as
Secretary & Vice Chair. Many special events find him
involved from start to finish, which consumes many, many
hours. Dick is there for the Freedom Days Parade to keep it
moving & on time; for OFest he is the person
responsible for organizing, training, and supervising the
youth who do all the venue maintenance and he and Inez even
help fold the monthly Newsletter when necessary. A call for
volunteers always sees Dick step forward.
MainStreet Oceanside feels blessed to have Dick as a
volunteer. We could never begin to thank him for his many
hours sharing his talent, time, education & wonderful
smile.
Article by Mary Milew