I joined the US Navy and had basic training in San Diego. My first duty station was Naval Torpedo Station, Keyport,Washington where I also met my bride, Dottie Fultz, the love of my life. While at Keyport, I was chosen to be an Armed Forces weekend participant. I was picked by the Bremerton Chief of Police, "Slats" Lewis to be the honorary COP. I spent the weekend responding to a wide variety of incidents. I always kept this career option in the back of my mind. The Navy selected the USS Hollister in San Diego as my next duty station. After several months and shakedown cruises we deployed to Bremerton shipyards for an overhaul and modernization. My daughter Christy was born in Bremerton Naval Hospital. After a couple of years, I was mustered out of the Navy in Treasure Island, San Francisco.
Dottie, Christy and I settled in Sunnyvale, CA and I went to work at my father�s second service station in Palo Alto. Rick Jr was born and then Reggie (and then we were five). I decided to get in shape to join a police department, so I worked as a milkman; and ran through my route everyday.
Out of 300 + candidates for Palo Alto Police Department, I was fortunate to be one of two hired. PAPD in my estimation was the best progressive and well-trained department on the Peninsula. I worked patrol, traffic, undercover, back to patrol and then onto the detective bureau where I spent the most of my career. I thoroughly enjoyed my law enforcement career. I worked several high profile cases and had several career type cases that a lot of officers rarely touch upon.
I retired from PAPD because of health reasons, it was clear I had to. Several years later, I had my first heart attack while working as fraud investigator for Insurance Crime Prevention Institute based in Westport, Connecticut. I was promoted as the area supervisor and then as a national audit supervisor involving a lot of travel. After five years with ICPI, I was recruited to work for The Maryland Insurance Group as a fraud investigator which entailed a lot more traveling for the next five years. ICPI and The Maryland gave me two additional retirements.
San Mateo County District Attorney's Office hired me as a fraud investigator in their newly formed insurance fraud unit. I accepted the job under a one year grant. My title was Inspector the same as the other DA investigators. "Clouseau" I was not. After the grant, I became a licensed private investigator and partnered with two retired PAPD investigators who were classmates of mine in the Academy.
The most important part in Dottie's and my life are our children. I credit Dottie for raising our children to be great kids. Dottie worked at Kaiser Medical Foundation in Sunnyvale for nineteen years while I worked different shifts in Patrol. And, all the surveillance and over-time cases I had to follow-up on in the Detective Bureau. It seemed at times I was hardly home.
Christy is the executive secretary to the principal at Britton Jr. Hi in Morgan Hill. Jay her husband is employed at Lockheed in Palo Alto and gave us Jaime ( a junior at Sonoma State) and Travis ( a senior at a Christian school). Rick Jr is a Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Officer (a cop-fireman) Heather a domestic engineer gave us Samantha ( a freshman at Diablo Valley College), Courtney ( a junior at San Ramon Valley Hi) and Erin (an eighth grader). Reggie is the general manager for several nightclubs in San Francisco and Lisa gave us Summer (a freshman at Evergreen College). Reggie and wife Nesli reside in San Francisco. And then we were thirteen. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
