Biographical Page of
Billy D. Rusk

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School / Profession

Spouse

Children

In order of birth: William Todd, Gregory Neil, Julie Annette

Grandchildren

Five grandsons: Justin and Zachary (sons of Greg), Michael, Ryan, and Kevin (sons of Julie).

From Graduation to Present

I started college at The University of North Texas (then NTSU) in the summer of 1958.   I worked for one year as student fireman while going to college.  In 1961, I started working for Texas Instruments and continued attending college part time.  I met Ida at the Dairy Maiden in Wills Point during the summer of 1961.  We married in Dallas 11/22/61.   After many years of working full-time and attending college part time, I graduated with a physics major and math minor in 1966.  Later jobs included ECC Corporation in Euless, Texas where I designed semiconductor products (most notable, a device called a "Thermotab"), Varo Semiconductor in Garland (designed rectifier products), owner of a North Dallas residential real estate firm (Bill Rusk, Realtors), program manager and product design designer at TRW Optron in Carrollton, Quality Manager and subsequently Operations Manager of Teccor Electronics in Irving, Texas (semiconductor manufacturing), and most recently  senior business management consultant for with Thomas Group, Inc. in Irving Texas where I spent over 6 years consulting with the US Navy.

The job at Thomas Group requires me to travel to distant client locations each week.  For over 17 years I worked in (in order) Indianapolis, Rochester, Hartford, Albany (NY), Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego, Wisconsin, Phoenix, Mexico, Bangkok, Taiwan, Ireland, Washington DC, Patuxent River, MD, San Diego, Corpus Christi, TX, Pensacola, FL, Great Lakes, IL, Norfolk, VA, and more Navy bases than can be listed here.  Industrial clients have  included manufacturers of television, semiconductor, cosmetic, oil-field equipment, hospital equipment, security devices, automotive electronics, and plastic products.  While consulting with the U. S. Navy, I worked with teams that made major improvements in the training process for Naval aviators, maintainers, and aircrew.  American Airlines has done very well by me.  Over the past 17 years I have flown over 2 1/2  million miles with American.

Ida and I spent lots of time with our children when they lived at home.  I was active in Indian Guides (with the boys) and the Indian Princess program (with Julie), and was Scout Master of Richardson Boy Scout Troop 51 where I enjoyed camping and backpacking with Greg and the other scouts.  One of our happiest moments was seeing Greg receive his Eagle Award.

Ida has accompanied me on many of my trips while working at Thomas Group.  We especially enjoyed traveling to Europe in the summer 1997 on a Martin Luther Reformation Tour.  Due to illnesses and other complications, we traveled very little in 1998.   In May 1999, Ida and I traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we enjoyed seeing El Yunque--a lush tropical rain forest and San Cristobal and El Morro--old Spanish Forts.   In August, 1999, We vacationed in the Hawaiian Islands.  Ida spent a total of six weeks with me in 2000 while I worked on a project in Galway, Ireland.  While on this project, we also traveled to Scotland and London.  I left Thomas Group in 2010 and have since been free-lancing.

We have been members of Community Bible Chapel in Richardson for over 30 years.   Although I am a ham radio operator, I have not been active in a while.  I enjoy working on family genealogy and tinkering with computers.  My only "real" hobbies are genealogy, computers, constructing web pages, and working on our family farm near Canton, Texas.  I own my Dad's welding shop in Wills Point and spend occasional time there working on farm equipment.

High School Memories

Teachers: Mr. Adams, Mr. Roberts, Mrs. Riley, Coach Caskey, Coach Robertson, Mrs. Francine Hoffman (when she chaperoned our senior trip to Galveston).  I remember Mrs. Hoffman's typing class, playing football, losing a game to the referees at Terrell, our high school play, senior trip, playing trombone with Pat Clemmons (Wilson), painting the water tower, stealing peaches from an Elmo orchard, my old 52 Ford, my old Cushman motor scooter, "running" trot-lines with my mother and dad at the old "T&P Lake," and "White Christmas" performance in the old High School auditorium.

Ah, for the good old days.  I would give a lot to re-live just one of my younger days.

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