I attended Woodrow in 1974 my sophomore year. My family moved to Garland and I graduated from North Garland in 1976. I have always considered myself a Wildcat. All of my childhood memories are of the friends I grew up with attending Mt Auburn, J L Long and Woodrow.
After high school I worked at a bank for 3 years. In 1978 I went to work for Otis Engineering in Carrolton. My older brother (Bobby) and dad were already working there. During 1977 - 1980 I was Mr Disco. You would find me at Flannigan's or Scotland Yard 4 or 5 nights a week. I am afraid to admit it but I was one of those guys with the skin tight pants with no pockets and a silk shirt with gold chains. In 1981 I finally came out of the disco fog. I met my wife Danette that year and we were married May 1982. Late in 1986 I was laid off from Otis Engineering. I was a casualty of the oil recession. In 1987 I began working for a electronics firm (Amkor/Anam) in Irving. During the 3 years I worked for this company I was able to do a lot of travelling. I was able to visit Seoul (Korea) and Wales. Made numerous trips to Colorodo Springs, St Paul (MN), Kokomo (IN) and Coral Springs (FL).
In 1990 I made a big decision to move to IL. My wife was born in Joliet IL. Her parents lived in Morris IL, which is a small town of 11,000 about 60 mins south of Chicago. I loved the small town atmosphere. We came up once or twice a year to see her parents. Each time we came I began to love the area more. Finally, everything fell into place and the opportunity to relocate came up and my wife and I decided to make the move. I was able to get a job with MAN Roland Inc. They are a company that sells printing presses. The presses are manufactured in Germany. I work in the parts department. We sell spare parts and also provide warranty parts. I have been with the company for 11 ½ yrs. I am now a Supervisor of Parts Editing. A couple of years back I was sent to Sweden for 3 weeks to work at one of our partner offices to help them on their installation of SAP. We recently installed SAP. I was one of the key people involved with the conversion. I am what they call a SAP Superuser.
I answer questions and solve probelms with the system. Plus document and write my department's procedures.
My hobbies are golf, reading Sci-fi, surfing internet, vegetable garden, playing fantasy baseball and gambling. I have run my own fantasy league for the past 8 yrs. My son (Ryan) is graduating this year from high school. My daughter (Heather) plays for a travelling softball team.
Where I live there are 9 gambling boats that are within 2 hrs from my house. Four boats are only 20 mins away. We haven't won any big money yet, but we always have fun playing the slots.
One of the best experiences I had was in 1997. I had to work at our office in Los Angeles for 2 weeks. Our editor there was out with a bad back. This was around labor day weekend. it actually fell in between the 2 weeks I was there. I was luckly that my rental car was a "red" Mustang GT 1997. During the labor day weekend I drove up and down the famous Highway 1 along the coast. From San Diego to San Francisco. The following year I won airline tickets at the company christmas party. We used the tickets to fly to Tampa and take a 5 day cruise in the Carribean with the whole family. One of these days we plan to take another cruise.
As you can see my life the past 25yrs has been full. Danette (my wife) has been a major reason for that. Her love and support over these past 19 years has got me where I am today.
Well that's all for now. I plan to try and make the reunion in Oct.
Billy Ray (Wildcat forever)