Bio, 2009: Bruce Ricks
The night after graduation, Charley Millard and myself left for the Indy 500 race on Memorial day. We rode our Cushman scooters all night and got there just in time for the race. Probably not the smartest thing to do but sure was fun. We decided to stay and work the summer. We ended up in Michigan, picking cherries and unloading watermelons but had to finally come back to Stillwater to start the fall semester at OSU. I married Judy Cooke (Class of 65) in Sept.1966. Our first child (son,Jeffrey) was born in Stillwater but we left for Morgan City, Louisiana in June, 1970 when I graduated with an Engineering degree and he was only 5 mo. old. Sure didn't make grandparents very happy. I went to work for Transworld Drilling (a division of Kerr-McGee).The training included working offshore on drilling rigs in the gulf. I had worked 2 summers while in college with Halliburton, so I really understood the drilling of wells. I was offered a job with Transworld to go to Aberdeen, Scotland but decided not to go because my family was not getting to move with me. I accepted a job with Swiftships, Inc. building military and oilfield supply boats. I was the project engineer on the last 24 Swift boats that the military sent to Viet Nam. During our time in Louisiana our daughter Dana was born in 1972. In 1974 we moved to Pampa, Texas to work for Cabot Corp. buillding mobile servicing and drilling rigs. In 1978 we moved to Tulsa to work for Cooper Mfg. as a Design Engineer. With the downturn of the oil business be started our own business in 1982 designing and manufacturing replacement parts for oilfield rigs. Bronco Mfg. is the 2nd largest manufacturer of drilling rig replacement parts in the world.
I retired in January, 2008 to spend more time with our 4 grandkids and to build and show custom cars. One of our cars, a 1955 Chevy custom car was sold at the Barrett -Jackson Auction in Phoenix in Jan. 2005. Last year we showed a 1957 Olds Fiesta Wagon and now we are starting to show our new 1957 Olds Convertible. Our cars have won numerous awards and magazine articles. We will be showing 2 cars at the Stillwater Downtown Car Show the weekend of our reunion (Sat. 10am-2pm)
Hope to see everyone at the reunion and car show.
©2009 Stillwater High School Class of 1964