Grand Haven Mens Golf Assoc.

Rich was born in Chicago and grew up there as the 2nd child in a family of four boys.  He played neighborhood softball and was on the high school bowling team. 
During high school he worked part time for John Sexton and Company, a national wholesale grocer with ten branches across the U.S. 

Upon graduation, he was offered a position as assistant office manager with a fast track to their corporate office in CA.  He often wondered how his life would have been if he had accepted those positions.

Rich chose a different path, however. He enrolled in Lewis College in IL where he obtained degrees in accounting and education and immediately upon graduation was offered a teaching position which he accepted.  Later that same year, he married.  Rich has a son, Christopher, who is a general manager of a restaurant in downtown Chicago.

While teaching, Rich took night classes and received a Masters Degree in Guidance and Counseling from Chicago State University.  Then, seven years into his career, he was granted a sabbatical leave and completed another degree in Administration which led to his becoming an assistant principal.

During the 70’s, Rich, along with a teacher friend, opened Heritage Tutoring Service. After a successful five years, he sold his half to his partner.  A few years later Rich and a college friend began a business, Stamar Packaging Company.  The main products were cardboard boxes, tape, and bubble wrap along with cleaning supplies.  In addition to other responsibilities, Rich was able to use his accounting degree to keep the books and do the income taxes for these businesses. 

Now to the sports page…Rich participated in several bowling leagues.  His highest average was 196.  Drag racing on quarter mile drag strips was another interest for a while.  He has trophies from the strips in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. 
 
During his teaching career, Rich organized and ran a teacher’s bowling league that reached as many as 80 participants.  He also refereed basketball and volleyball, and umpired softball for the school district.  He coached girls and boys softball teams, volleyball, and flag football.  Something that he looks to with pride is that all of his co-ed volleyball teams went undefeated.  During the summers, he worked for the park district organizing and running a 30-team softball league.

Golf became a serious endeavor when he didn’t have a summer job in late 1977.  He played with a group that had a regular tee time on Saturdays.  The group’s end-of-the-year tournament was held for five days at the Doral Resort.  It was here that Rich had his only hole-in-one (unless you count the five he has had at the driving range) on the Blue Monster from the tips on hole #15 from 174 yards.

Saving the best sports story for last:  In the mid 80’s he organized a 9-hole golf league for the school district.  This is where he first asked his future wife Pat out on a date.  They were married in 1987.  Pat has a daughter, Cynthia, who has an engineering degree from University of IL Champaign-Urbana and an MBA from Cal State Fullerton. She was a corporate executive for a wide variety of high profile companies, working on the International Space Station project, the Getty Museum and Cantor-Fitzgerald to name a few.

Rich and Pat first came to Palm Coast in 2001.  They purchased a town home and became official snow birds.  In 2008, they decided to make Palm Coast their home and purchased a house in Forest Park Estates.  Both Pat and Rich feel most fortunate to be a part of the golf community at Grand Haven.

Two events in 2016 stand out so far for Rich.  First, he was accepted into the Grand Haven Men’s Golf Association, an extremely well-run organization of wonderful, friendly people and secondly, the Chicago Cubs won a World Series title! 

​Life is good.