Information & Technology Services

Rick Anderson

Chief Engineer, TV

Herb farming, U.S. Navy (yes, he did see the world), TV engineer (twice), California, Alaska (twice), commercial pilot, Tacoma (twice), commercial fisherman, Southern Pacific Railroad, therapist for Veterans' Administration, Arkansas, maker of Hungry Man dinners (you don't want to know the details), Fraternal Order of Eagles, married 30 years, four children, 10 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, PLU 18 years, gardener, hunter, avid fisherman...

And that's only the beginning. Rick Anderson has undertaken and experienced so much that a few sentences simply cannot capture the breadth and fullness of his life. So here in Rick's own words is a chronicle of his amazing life -- so far:

1938
Born Anacortes, Washington, was raised and worked on 50 acre farm on Lake Erie, 5 miles South of town. Father grew herbs, Golden Seal & Genseng, for sale to Chinese markets in Vancouver, BC, San Francisco & Hong Kong, raised usual farm animals for food & work.

1956
Graduated Anacortes High School, joined US Navy, attended Electronics Technician School at Treasure Island, San Francisco. Assigned to USS Ajax AR-6 heavy hull repair ship out of San Diego, Cal. Ship sailed for Hawaii, Guam, Okinawa, Japan in '58. Toured cultural centers of Japan in Kobe, Kyoto & Osaka, stood at ground zero in Nagasaki Aug 9th - my birthday, 13 years to the day after the second A-bomb dropped.

1959
Honorable discharge from Navy, attended Radio & Television Broadcast Engineering School in San Fransisco days & worked nights as usher in Telenews Theatre on Market Street, lived in $7.00 a week 2 room apartment in the Mission District

1960
Hired at San Jose State College in the Instructional Television Center, doing much the same job as here at PLU plus remote observation of Elementary School Classrooms via Video and Audio.

1965
Moved to Fairbanks, Alaska to work for Midnight Sun Broadcasting, Inc. at station KFAR TV channel 2/KFAR AM Radio 660 as Chief Engineer. Broadcast the North American Sled Dog Championships, The Fur Rendesvous and Idatarod Dog Races in Anchorage, Ak, and the first Midnight Sun AA Baseball game played at midnight June 21st l965 without the use of artificial lights. Built the head-end for the first Cable TV system in Barrow, Alaska in '66, saw the monument to Will Rogers and Wiley Post where their plane crashed and spent a day at whale camp in the Arctic Ocean North of Point Barrow.

1967
Moved to Tacoma, to work for Cable TV Puget Sound as Chief Technician. Assisted in building the first CATV systems for Fircrest, University Place, Lakewood, Sumner, Puyallup & Federal Way & South King county.

1971
Went to work for the Southern Pacific Railroad on the Rail Detectors as Assistant Engineer, travelling the 17,000 miles of track electronically testing the steel rails for flaws in most states west of the Mississippi River

1975
Returned to Fairbanks, Alaska & KFAR TV as Studio Control Engineer during the wild and wooly 'black gold rush days' building of the oil pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez. Attended Cessna Professional Pilot School in Fairbanks on GI Bill, earned Private and Commercial Pilots License with Instrument and Multi-engine ratings. Joined the Civil Air Patrol Auxilliary of US Air Force as Public Information Officer and Search Pilot, flew all over Alaska on searches, exercises & training.

1978
Returned to Tacoma, worked as counselor at American Lake VA Hospital in Alcohol & Drug Treat- ment Center, individual and group and family therapy, admissions & job counseling, Alcoholics Anonymous groups.

1980
Hired back at Cable TV Puget Sound as Trunk Technician, did new construction, fire-ups, proofs of performance and FCC checks on rebuilt and new systems from Federal Way to Yelm and Gig Harbor to Enumclaw, continued to volunteer at the VA Hospital

1983
Moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas to take care of sick family members, worked at Campbell Soup, Inc., making Hungry Man TV Dinners, and engineered at local TV station.

1985
Hired by Pacific Lutheran University as Chief Engineer of Television Department. Have enjoyed 18+ years of service at PLU.

Present
Live in Lakewood with wife Maxine, celebrated 30th wedding anniversary last year. We have 4 grown children with families of their own, 1 daughter in Boston and 1 in Tacoma, 1 son in Orlando, Fl and one in Bonney Lake. We belong to the South Tacoma Fraternal Order of Eagles where Maxine is President of the Auxiliary and we are involved in fundraising for many and various charities including Max's designated group The Arthritis Foundation, hosting dinners, breakfasts, auctions, raffles and other activities. We enjoy our flower and vegetable gardening at home and go fishing in several lakes in Western Wash. We have 10 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. I plan to retire sometime in the next 5-10 years.