Richard K.  Eckert, Jr.

Tags: Rick Eckert, Hillsdale, La Jolla, Clear Lake, Purdue, Triangle

Rick Eckert is a computer and electronics addict who got his start at the tender age of eight, when his parents gave him a one-tube radio kit for Christmas. One electronic gadget led to another and eventually to commercial and ham radio licenses and an Electrical Engineering degree from Purdue University.

In 1966, faced with the unsettling necessity of employment, Rick headed to Washington, D.C. where he was a patent examiner in the U.S. Patent Office, granting patents in the areas of television systems and remote imaging devices.

In 1967 Rick married Joyce DeLawter, who finished her RN training at the Washington Hospital Center then worked on the medical-surgical floor of Georgetown University Hospital.

In 1972 Rick, Joyce and five-month-old daughter Noel moved to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, living there for a year before returning to the U.S. and settling in La Jolla, California. Back in the U.S., Rick put his engineering career temporarily on hold while he started a real estate investing and property management business, while Joyce resumed her RN career and taught Lamaze childbirth education.

In 1980, while continuing to run the real estate business, Rick bought his first personal computer and started writing commercial educational programs for the Apple II. Later came educational programs for the original IBM PC, the Commodore 64, and Atari 800. Working with his friends at Davidson & Associates, Rick programmed the original versions of the popular educational titles Math Blaster!, Word Attack!, Spell It!, and Speed Reader.

From 1992 to 2000 Rick worked at Tiger Investment Software of La Jolla, California, programming the Windows versions Tiger's programs for the ranking, flagging, and charting of stocks, mutual funds, and commodities.

Today Rick and Joyce divide their time between La Jolla, California and Clear Lake, Indiana. Rick's activities in addition to managing the real estate business include road cycling, the Purdue Triangle alumni board, the Copley Family YMCA teen literacy program, providing free web sites for environmental and civic organizations, and listening to live blues music.