Dick has been involved with the KDTC since about 1990. He started out by coming our classes with his Springer "Bo" and enjoyed the classes very much. In fact, he liked it so much that he went on to work with "Bo" in all the CD classes that were offered and then went to compete with him at AKC Obedience trials. In the first 3 trials Dick & Bo received their CD and in two of them they placed. Also, at one of the trials, Dick & Bo earned a score of 195 which turned out to be KDTC's 1992 Highest Scoring Sporting Dog.

Dick was training Bo for the open ring when he got Springer Rage and had to be put down. Currently he and Carol, his wife, have a great Belgian Tervuren, Ch Starbright Mon Fil Valentino, call name Tino. He finished his championship in 2000 and now they are concentrating on obedience. Tino has a great personality and is a joy to own.

Dick's other big interest is drag racing. He has a rear engine dragster and races all over the country in the Super/comp class. That means he has to do the 1/4 mile from a dead stop in 8.90 seconds. Dick built a new motor over the winter and now goes 8.90 seconds at 175 MPh. It is a big rush and Dick loves it a lot. Carol is the crew-chief for the car and she runs the computer in the trailer to compute how much to slow the car down with the on-board computers in the car. When Dick didn't use the on-board computers in the car to slow it down, the car has gone as quickly as 7.57 seconds at over 177 MPH in the 1/4 mile. Dick and Carol go to about 7 National events and 8 or 9 divisional Points meets per year; mostly in the summer.

When Dick's not consumed with racing, during the non-summer months, he is a beginning obedience instructor; usually doing a double class with John Beeman. He really enjoys doing the classes and seeing first hand just how much progress the new students make over the 8 weeks.

Some of the other club activities that Dick has been involved in include helping with the Dog Walk-A-Thon, helping with mat roll-up and investigating new club location possibilities with Steve Stahr. He has served 2 terms as KDTC club president.

Being a member of the Kalamazoo Dog Training Club has been a very enjoyable experience for Dick and he hopes to be a useful club member for many years to come.