User:Rick Gleason

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My Interest in Family History

Hello, I'm Rick Gleason a family historian researching and documenting my genealogical roots for more than fifty years. I'm happy to be part of the WeRelate community in my continuing efforts to enhance my research and to share what I have learned. In this capacity I have written several short biographies on various family members and continue working on others.

Biography

I was born in the small community of Clearfield, Pennsylvania part of Clearfield county. My family has deep roots in the area where nine generations have made their homes and created lives for themselves and their families. My father died when he was 31 and I was subsequently adopted at the age of two by his sister. I grew up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington D.C. just six miles from the White House and 225 miles from my birth place. I knew from about the age of twelve, when listening to my first transistor radio, that I wanted to be on the radio. Those dreams were fulfilled beginning at the age of fifteen as a board operator at a Classical F-M radio station in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Later at age eighteen I joined the Air Force and served as a firefighter before being accepted as a staff member of American Forces Radio and Television. I would train at the Department of Defense Information School (DINFOS) at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis. During my years in the Air Force I worked part-time at several radio stations in California as a D-J. I went on to serve at Da Nang Airbase in South Vietnam before my discharge and then enrolled at Brigham Young University where I majored in Broadcast Journalism. While in school I worked at a variety of local radio stations and later at KTVX-TV in Salt Lake City where I worked in television production for their two evening newscasts.

After college and married with a young family, I went on to work as a television news reporter and anchor. My employment took us to Billings, Montana where I helped to put KHMT-TV on the air for the first time and worked as Promotions Director. I then went to Missoula, Montana and KECI-TV as a news reporter covering Missoula County news and was the station’s sports anchor. Later I would move to Bend, Oregon where I reported, produced and co-anchored newscasts at KTVZ-TV.

I made my home in Washington state for 32-years and worked in several vocations including as an owner of several businesses with experience signing both sides of a payroll check. For several years I returned to broadcasting and worked at 104.1 KXDD, 100.9 Cherry FM and KIT-AM in Yakima, WA. While there I worked in a wide variety of capacities from country music and oldies D-J, to talk show co-host and Imaging Director. In September of 2015 I finally moved to Las Vegas after planning for the change for 3 years. I made the move for primarily two reasons: First to live in a warmer, dryer climate and secondly to pursue my talents playing the great game of poker.

I've been a family historian researching my genealogical roots since a teenager and now have an online database of nearly 26,000 names, all with sources, photos, documentation and thousands of accompanying notes. When not researching family history I enjoy writing on a variety of subjects and occasionally posting to my blog, "Stories I Share With Friends." Other activities include watching movies, listening to music, reading, Apple computers and other gadgets, traveling and spending time with family and friends.

I have a wide variety of interests and am a regular contributor to social media as well as Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.

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Please contact me with any comments, questions or observations. -- Corrections and additional information is always appreciated!
Email Address: mailto:ricksgenealogy@gmail.com

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