Rick Wangen
Wow, 20 years! Its sounds so weird to say that. I still feel like
I'm 18 although when I look in the mirror I realize I'm not. Of course
my wife says I act like an 18 year old when I hook up with my old Los
Alamos buddies. Its funny how you can slip right back into the old
juvenile behavior when I get together with the boys.
What have I done since high school, well here it goes...
After graduation, I went to Europe and spent about 4 months
backpacking and traveling around via euro-rail. I was in just about
every western European country plus a few eastern countries as well. It
was an absolute blast. My travel bud was Mike Schillaci and somehow we
survived for 4 months on bread, cheese and lots of beer. It was quite
an adventure for an 18 year old.
After returning to the states, I enrolled for a year in a small
junior college up in Seattle before finally returning to UNM to finish
out my degree in political science. I was a homer I guess because I
just couldn't handle not being with most of my high-school buds back in
NM at UNM. Roommates during the college years included Greg Potter,
John Davis, Ken Hansel, Isaac Varella and Will Verzino. We had some
great times and somehow I finally finished up my degree.
In 93, I started working at the Lab as a graduate research assistant.
It was around this time when I met my wife Shelley. One night after
work, several of us went over to The Inn to shoot some pool and have a
few drinks and in walks this girl that just took my breath away. Well
to make a long story short, she hardly noticed me but my persistence
paid off and we were married in December of 1994. John Davis, Dave
Motley and Rich Ruminer were my men-of-honor at our wedding, which took
place in Seattle.
Not long after getting married, Shelley and I decided it was time to
move on from Los Alamos and start a new life up in Seattle. I had
dabbled in some internet development while working at the lab as a GRA
and this was the time of the dot com boom and Seattle was the place to
be. We moved up to Seattle with no jobs and somehow I was hired on with
a company called Peak Systems within two weeks of arriving. It was a
crazy time of very long hours and wild stock explosions. I stuck it out
and was eventually rewarded with partial ownership of the company. I
have to give all the credit of my success to my wife. She is the one
that keeps me going and keeps my act in line. If it weren't for her, I'd
probably still be lifeguard at East Park Pool and hanging out at the old
fire dive.
In November of 1999, the greatest thing that ever happened to me took
place, the birth of my little angel McKenna. What a gift from God she is
and it's just a joy being her Daddy. She is now 6 and our time is spent
going to her various activities ranging from soccer, t-ball, Brownies
and cheerleading. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that I have two
wives now.
In 1997, my company landed a large contract in support of the 2002
Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. I was doing a lot of traveling
between Seattle and Salt Lake. While there, I ran into an old buddy
from Los Alamos, Matt Walters, who was living there at the time. I ended up hiring Matt to run the
project out of our Salt Lake office. It was a lot of fun having one of
my old LA buddies working with me. Sadly when Matt passed away suddenly
in 2001, I decided to move to Utah to finish up the project as a tribute to Matt's legacy there.
It was a bittersweet experience. I moved the family for about a year and a half
to Park City and the Olympic experience was the pinnacle of
my career so far but It was very hard not having Matt there with
us. It was an incredible time for both myself and my family. It was
very hard when it ended and if I could of figured out a way to stay in
Park City, we probably would have. There should be more Olympics for us
in the future since my company already has a contract with the 2010
games up in Vancouver, Canada.
In 2005, we found ourselves missing NM and that green chile. I had
managed to keep up my contacts at the Lab and in September of 05 I was
offered a job as a Deputy Group Leader in the Information Resource
Management Division at the Lab. We picked up our belongings and moved
back to Los Alamos after about 10 years of being away. Was it the right
move?... time will tell I suppose. I'm currently fulfilling my role at
the Lab while still doing consulting work with my company out of
Seattle.
It has been a lot of fun reconnecting with old friends now that we
are back in LA. We spend a lot of time now with Travis and Missy
Ireland, John and Jennifer Hopkins (you should see those girls boss Hop
around!) and Mick and Karen Matuzak. All of us have kids and it's a joy
to watch them all play together. The guys get together and play lots of
golf and the wives spend their time getting together for book club,
bunko and scrapbooking. Somehow the women seem more organized than the
men at getting together, something the guys will have to work on.
I can't wait to see everyone at the reunion. The 10-year reunion was
a blast and the 20-year should be even better. Please drop me a line,
as I'd love to hear from you. I hope you all enjoy the web site and
please everyone get your bios done. Don't make Susan and I look like the
only idiots here.
Rick
rick.wangen@peaksystems.com
505-412-1837
