Larry Eiker

"Wes"

Student Council 55,56; L Club 55,56; Football

53,54,55,56; Track 53,54,55,56;

State Music Contest 54,55

I have been married and divorced twice. The first marriage lasted five years to my college sweetheart and the second marriage last twenty-six years to a widow banker from Virginia. Both were very pleasant ladies. My sister, Sara Jo Shettles, lives in Liberty.

1956-1957 Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg, Missouri. Ran for the freshman class president and got beat. Ran on the varsity track team and got beat. Changed schools.

Swam on the varsity swimming team for three years. Very active in campus, state, regional and national organizations.

1961 U.S. Army, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Six months active duty. The Army thought I would make a good cook. Left the reserves in 1966 as a E-6, Staff Sgt. in an Army Security Agency at Arlington Hall Station, Virginia.

1962-63 University of Maryland Graduate School, College Park, Maryland. Major: Government and Politics.

1963-64 Secondary School Teacher, Fairfax County, Virginia. TA Edison High School. Taught: Virginia and US Government.

1964-66 Agent, Prudential Insurance Company, Fairfax County, Virginia. Qualified for their National Business Conferences.

1966-67 Secondary School Teacher, Columbia Station, Ohio. Taught World Geography and World Politics. Coached football.

1967 Married a widow banker, Peggy Gouldin, from Melford, Virginia. A very nice lady.

1968-69 University of Maryland Graduate School to finish my Master Thesis on Urban Renewal in Cleveland, Ohio and received my Masters Degree.

1969-78 City Manager. Started as the Assistant City Manager of Gladstone. MO. I held the position as a City Manager in Centralia, IL, Washington, NJ, De Soto, MO, Lisbon, MA, and Miami Springs, FL. Also did small contracts for Metro Dade County, FL. and the Commonwealth of KY.

1979-88 Federal Government. Contract Specialist at the U.S. Army Missile Cmd., Redstone Arsenal, AL. Earned my Professional Designation in Contract Management and completed a Program in Contract Management. Yawn, exciting, no.

1989-96 Independent Consultant, Self employed. Contracted to various defense contractors doing business with the U.S. Government in the aerospace industry. Some of the contractors are: 1. Lockheed Missile and Space Company, (Iuka, MS), Westinghouse-Airship Industries, Ltd., (London, England), Mansour-General Dynamics, Ltd., (Saudi Arabia), Sirkorsky Helicopters, (Stratford, CT.), Fluor Daniels, Inc. (Cincinnati, OH),Lockheed Aircraft Center, Greenville, SC. Universal Studios, Orlando, FL., Raytheon (E-Systems) in Greenville, Texas, M.D. Helicopters in Mesa, AZ, Siemans-Westinghouse in Lafayette, LA. and other small contractors in Huntsville, AL.

I have been semi retired for the past seventeen years. For my semi retirement, I contract a job somewhere in the world. I then go there and see the sites, eat their food, enjoy my stay and complete the contract. Good pay, tax deducts, per diems, and they even pay for travel. Not a bad way to see Europe, the Middle East, India and many States in the U.S. When real retirement comes, I will live on my income from the rentals and when things get tough, sell a house. Nothing has changed in my life since we last wrote letters. I am in a rut as you can tell.

Still enjoy eating and cooking. I love lobsters from the NE, stone crabs from the SE, peanut fed country ham from VA, burgoo stew from KY, scones from the UK, camel steaks from Saudi Arabia, Yak from Canada, biscuit and red eye gravy from the South, vegetable dishes from N. India, grain dishes from N. Italy, and my own cooking with various sauces, herbs, and spices. Notes of interest, the United Arab Emirates serve very good Black Angus steaks. Also moving toward various Italian tapas dishes instead of big sit down dinners.

I also collect wood, stone, crystal, bone, stone and etc turtles from all over the world. The collection is over two hundred now and growing. Colleen McCorkle Morris picks one up each time she goes off on a trip. At last reunion, 2005, she gave me one from Mongolia where she had just returned.

I also love to travel. I have visited over thirty countries on three continents and counting. Since the last letter I have visited Saint Petersburg, Russia, Prague, Chezk Republic, Paris, France, Quebec City, Montreal, Toranto, Canada, Baltimore, MD, and just got back from Vergennes, VT. Of course I stop along the way to see the other cities I pass through like Port Huron, Canada. Went back to the University of Maryland last October and attended a week of classes in my field of study. The University made a list of classes that were the upper level courses and told the professor to treat me like a student. It was a blast. I read all the time how students are so much smarter now and I just wanted to see if that is the truth. All I found was there were more students in my Department, with more courses and more Professors. So there has to be more students and more students mean more smarts in the class room.

I did enjoy running but now I have replaced two knees worn out from forty years of athletics. Anyone that has knees that hurt all the time, get rid of them, and get some new ones. The feeling is great. So the 250 road races along with the snow skiing, football, swimming, soft ball, and scuba diving I have done in my years was fun while it lasted but it over and gone now.

The car accident in 1956 is still a memory. Three years as a life guard at the Elms still brings back smiles. Seeing what the college politics have done since I helped organize the National College Democrats in 1959 is very enlighting. Wish I had the ability to play one more alumni game at William Jewell. 1960 ended that idea. I am smaller that I was twenty years ago. I am down to 275 from the top of 300