RICHARD “DICK” MAUCK

E-mail: pmauck@cfl.rr.com

 

After Graduation from Grant, I apprenticed in the Tool and Die trade.  In 1953 I met Patricia DeNardis, a nice girl from Grayslake High School.  We married September 15, 1956 and in December, 1957 we had our first son, Patrick.  Just after Patrick came along I was called up for the draft and as a new father was exempted from military service.  Cindy (1960), Debbie (1962) and James (1965) followed Patrick.  We lived in Antioch at first, then Lindenhurst until 1976, then rural Round Lake until 1986.  We then moved to beautiful Rock Lake, Wisconsin just north of Antioch.  Since, 2000 we live in Wisconsin in the summer and in Clermont, Florida in the winter (which incidentally is in Lake County, Florida.)

After years of working at tool and die job shops, I started to work at Baxter in the early seventies.  I retired July 4, 1997.  My very own Independence Day.  We built a new house in Clermont, Florida in 2000.  Patti, my wife retired after 30 years of Federal Service, and we are now living our dream life migrating with the birds north and south.  We bring our two cats and a canary with us, along with 2 computers, papers and a vanload of stuff.  Patti says the trouble with two houses is that everything is in the wrong house.  I would like to just stay put down in Florida, but I hate to admit the heat got to me a bit, and my wife couldn't handle all the insects in the summer.  Then there is this thing about being away from the grandchildren...  This spring here in Wisconsin is too cold for me, after 90+ degree weather the last month or so in Florida.

This year Patti and I will be married 46 years.  All of our children are married and we have 7 wonderful grandchildren (four girls and three boys).  Our oldest granddaughter was born in 1985 and the youngest, a grandson was born 1999.  We don't expect anymore, but then we are not too far away from great-grandchildren, are we?

My mother, Margaret Mauck, just passed away on January 31, 2002 at age 87, from second-hand smoke cancer.  We sold her house that she and my dad built in Round Lake Beach in 1948.  My dad died in 1965 from smoking related emphysema.  Some of you may remember my younger brother, Bill (Grant 1954).  He, too, died in 1992 from cancer after years of heavy smoking.  So of my family, there is just my brother Roy and I and our families.  Neither Roy nor I or my mother ever smoked, but smoking sure has impacted our lives.

During my younger years, I started to play volleyball on a league and ended up doing a lot of coaching.  Can't make those jumps anymore, but it still is my favorite game.  I joined the Waukegan Men’s Garden Club in the 1970's and stayed with it as an officer until I retired.  I enjoy gardening and love to grow daylilies and hostas.  If golfing weren’t so expensive, I do more of that, too.  As a Florida resident, we can buy annual passes to all the theme parks in Florida.  We visit the parks often for exercise and entertainment.  Come to visit us, sometime.