Biography for

Nancy (Rickmers) Hall

After graduating from Bowling Green State University in Business Administration, the reality set in that a woman, even as an accounting major, was only going to be able to work in the typing pool. But the baby boom had set in and jobs were available to women in teaching even without a teaching degree. Nancy took evening and summer classes in education and began a teaching career. Ah, how times have changed. She worked as a librarian, library media specialist and business teacher in Warrensville Heights and Lakewood, OH; Hewlett Woodmere, Long Island, NY; Pueblo, CO; and Colorado Springs, CO. Along the way she got a couple of Master's degrees at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, and married fellow grad student Phil. After he completed his course work for his doctorate, they moved to Colorado where she remained for 24 years. Besides teaching, Nancy worked at a city/county health department which included tracing contacts at an STD clinic, at a loan company repossessing collateral on Indian Reservations, and at a frame shop. Divorced, she raised her son, Jared, who entered into an Air Force career after graduation. Jared and Nancy spent many summers traveling in their Toyota pickup truck with a camper shell seeing all the lower 48 states and Canadian providences. Along the way she also toured Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Panama, and Colombia.

In 1994, Nancy met Gary, a civil engineer who worked for the Colorado Highway Department. In 1999, after both took an early retirement from the State of Colorado, Gary accepted a job with an engineering consultant firm and they moved to the Phoenix area. With that project finished they moved into a fifth-wheel trailer and traveled to various job sites for the same company. They spent stretches of time in Texarkana, AR/TX; Denver, CO; Miami, FL; Rochester, MN; Long Beach, CA; and Newport Beach, CA. Gary was offered a job in Wasilla, Alaska with another company so they parked the fifth-wheel and with a 5x8 trailer moved to Alaska. They got there on Tuesday, looked at the house on Thursday, made an offer on Friday and moved in on Sunday. Moving in was easy since they had only a mattress, camp chairs, TV, clothes, dishes and pans. They have been there eight years. During that time Nancy has been the Mat Su district manager for the American Red Cross. Among other things, this entails disaster response to house fires, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, volcanic ash, etc. in a borough (county) the size of West Virginia. She is also active with Rotary, serves on the Wasilla City Council and sits on several advisory councils.

Gary and Nancy have traveled extensively including Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Mexico, Italy, Chile, Peru, Brazil and Argentina. During a recent trip to Argentina, Gary stayed on while Nancy returned home. She got a call one day that said, "Honey, I bought a vineyard." Starting in July, 2010, they will spend much of their time in San Rafael, Argentina. The city has a large community of similar ex-pats so they plan to have a good time. They will maintain their home in Alaska. Their children live in Tokyo, Japan; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Nancy probably will not make it to the reunion.

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