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| Click on image to view more 2015 photos |
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Dick visiting with Gaynelle Dressel
2015 Golden Gathering
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Below you will find a fine write-up timed to honor Dick at his retirement.
Kudos to our Classmate!
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Herm Deiss at the 2010
PIA Oregon/Idaho Convention
This
year two of our all-time favorite people, Dick
Hays of American Hallmark Insurance Services
and Ron Manza of Fullerton & Company are
leaving us. Both men are retiring.
Dick has been an unfailing supporter of this
publication and his input and compliments over
the years has been greatly appreciated. He is a
big loss to us but is an even bigger loss to his
company.
His boss, Rob Wilson sent out a memo to the company explaining Dick's impending
retirement. "I have often joked that Dick knows everyone in the state of Oregon who has
sold or even thought about selling P&C insurance, but it is not a joke. He really does
know everyone, and most importantly, everyone likes and respects him. With his
knowledge, expertise and relationships plus his strong commitment to integrity and hard
work, he will be impossible to replace."
Dick sent Industry & Association News a goodbye note that we are proud to share
with you.
I just want to tell you all how much I have enjoyed my 48 years in this great and glorious
business of insurance. It is time now for me to slip out the back way at least for a short
while. I have so enjoyed being associated with the great professionals of this business
and at times even the not so professionals.
PIA is a great voice for the main street agent and the people that make up the Western
Alliance have been and will continue to be a great voice for the Main Street agent. It has
been my pleasure to be associated through the K-KLUB almost since its start and the
people it has put me in contact with have been priceless. I retire in a week but who
knows it may be the longest 10 minutes in my life.
May 2011 be a great year for all the professionals that are involved with the Western
Alliance from staff to agents to company people. Have a great year in 2011!
By the way, Dick Hays was the PIA Oregon/ldaho's Company Person of the Year in
2010.
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| Click on image to see more photos from 55th Class Reunion |
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Dick enjoying a visit
at the 2013
Golden Gathering
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Dick at Izzy's
August 2012
Saturday evening gathering
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| Click on Dick's image to view other gathering photos |
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Below are photos of Dick taken at the 2010 Golden Gathering. On the left he is with George Burnett. Both Dick and Ron Finley drove up to Newberg to attend the Saturday evening get-together at Izzy's as well as the ADEC gathering the next day.
Click on either photo to find others taken the weekend of August 8-9.
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Dick and Joy boarding the Willamette Star
July, 2008
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| Click on image to view other photos from 50th Reunion |
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Here's Dick's bio sent in to us in January of 2008. Photographs follow.
I continue to work and plan to as long as I can. A possible retirement date is 70. For years I owned my own independent insurance agency, meaning I did business with several companies. In 1995 I sold my agency in Ashland, Oregon, and went to work as Regional Manager for an insurance company. At that time Oregon was my main focus. Later I added Idaho and Washington and then, in 2003, was elevated to company Vice-President and hired someone else to handle Southern Idaho. I travel a lot in my work and my wife travels with me many times. In 1996 we moved back to the Willamette Valley to be more centralized and nearer a major airport. We presently live in an over 55 senior community in Salem.
My wife, Joy, and I met at George Fox College and married September 2, 1959. We have two sons, Steve and Gary. Steve is 46 and is married with three daughters and lives in Oregon City. He is Sales Manager for a specialty pipe and fitting company for the natural gas industry. His wife, Cheryl, sells for a facility rental company. His daughters are; Breanna, a student at Oregon City High School, Jaime, in junior high and Grace in grade school. Steve graduated from the University of Oregon. Gary, 44 is married and lives in Keiser, just north of Salem. He is a Senior Adjuster for SAIF, the Oregon owned workers compensation company. Gary is married and has four daughters, Tabitha, 21, and married; Sarah, 10; Heidi, 8, and Katherine 7. Gary's wife, Wendy, also works for SAIF. Gary graduated from Southern Oregon State College. Both Steve and Gary are Eagle Scouts.
I have been active in the community throughout the years. I have been President of Chamber of Commerce's, an independent blood bank, industry groups and Council President of the Boy Scout Council in Southern Oregon and Northern California. I also served one term on a city council. Joy has been very supportive of me all through these things and also worked by my side building our insurance business. Over the years we hve loved to travel and have been fortunate to be able to travel to Europe twice, Cruise the Caribbean and see much of the United States as well as parts of Canada. Our last trip this September allowed us to tour the battlefield at Gettysburg, Amish Country, Niagara Falls, Philadelphia and the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. We also enjoy shorter trips in our motor home just to relax. Our favorite destinations are the Oregon Coast and Wallowa Lake in North Eastern Oregon. We both read a lot and I find this the past time that relaxes me the most and sometimes read 4 and 5 books a week when we are parked in the motor home.
I often think back on our high school years and by and large remember them as four of the greatest years of my life. I enjoyed the activities and all of the students. I remember our class as being a good group of people that I enjoyed being with. Perhaps our good friend, Bob Dent, voiced it best the last time Joy and I saw ihm before his death. He said and I quote "We were very fortunate to grow up in Norman Rockwell times." I have not been in close touch with most but constant touch with Ron Finley since he finished his service years after college. I was fortunate to announce his dual wrestling meets at Oregon for a few years and my son, Steve, carries that on and has announced for nearly 25 years. For several years before their deaths I spent time with Bob Dent and Calvin Holtan. I can't leave out my special friend "Big Red" Linda Osborne and just recently working on the reunion a very special friend, Jeanne Ochsner.
We are looking forward to our 50th reunion and excited about seeing old friends. The fun part of working on a reunion is talking to people you haven’t talked to in some cases 50 years and talking about old memories. It has been hard to hold the meetings sometimes as we have laughed about those great times many years ago.
Dick
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Dick Hays and wife, Joy
2007
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| Ron Finley with Dick at the 35th Class Reunion |
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The Hays' seven granddaughters
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