Biographical Page of
Billy D. Rusk

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Address

School / Profession

Spouse

Children

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

Grandchildren

Three grandsons: Justin (b. 2/1/89), Christopher (b. 6/12/89), and Zachary (b. 9/2/93); all sons of Gregory

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 summer of 1961.  We married in Dallas 11/22/61.   After many years of working full-time and attending college part time, I finally graduated with a physics major and math minor in 1966.  Later jobs included ECC Corporation in Euless (Engineering Manager), Varo Semiconductor in Garland (Product Design Manager), owner of a North Dallas residential real estate firm (Bill Rusk, Realtors), program manager and product design designer at TRW Optron in Carrollton, Operations Manager of Teccor Electronics in Irving, Texas (semiconductor manufacturing), and (presently)  business management consultant with Thomas Group, Inc. in Irving Texas. 

My current job as a management consultant requires me to travel to distant client locations each week.  Over the past several years, I have worked in Indianapolis, Rochester, Hartford, Albany (NY), Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego, Wisconsin, Phoenix, Mexico, Bangkok, and Taiwan.  Past clients include manufacturers of television, semiconductor, cosmetic, oil-field equipment, hospital equipment, security device, automotive electronics, and plastic products.   One of my most recent assignments was working with the Automotive New Product Design Engineering Group of Delphi Delco in Kokomo, Indiana, where I worked with engineers who are designing the latest "gee-whiz" state-of-the-art gizmos for the next generation automobiles. 

I am presently working in Minneapolis on an assignment for SciMed Life Support Systems, a leading manufacturer of medical products including cardiovascular stents and balloons.  This project has taken me to Spencer, IN and Galway Ireland.

Ida previously worked for The LTV Corporation as a paralegal.  She is currently taking courses at Richland and El Centro Junior College that lead to paralegal certification.  In addition of being a great mother and wife, Ida has made straight A's in all of her paralegal courses.  One of her proudest recent accomplishment was earning an "A" in college algebra and contract law.  For the contract law course, Ida wrote an exhaustive paper explaining the law suit between Microsoft and Sun MicroSystems relating to the Java programming language.  Often she "pulls all-nighters" studying--something I could never do.

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 Indian Princess program (with Julie).  I was Scout Master of Richardson  Boy Scout Troop 51 and 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 Hawaii Islands.

We have been members of Community Bible Chapel in Richardson for about 20 years.   Although I am a ham radio operator, I have not been active in a while.  I enjoy working on family genealogy and working with computers.  We  have a farm near Myrtle Springs which we enjoy visiting on weekends.  About my only "hobby" is genealogy, computers, and constructing web pages (I also have a genealogy web page).

High School Memories

Mr. Adams, Mr. Roberts, Mrs. Riley, Coach Caskey, Coach Robertson, Mrs. Francine Hoffman (when she chaperoned our senior trip to Galveston), 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 Janelle's uncle's orchard, my old 52 Ford, my old Cushman motor scooter, "running" trot-lines with my mother and dad at the old "T&P Lake," "White Christmas" performance in the old High School auditorium.

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

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