Richard K.  Eckert, Jr.

Tags: Rick Eckert, Purdue, Triangle, La Jolla, San Diego, Clear Lake, Indiana

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 led to a commercial radiotelephone license, a ham radio license, 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 worked as 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.

In 1980, while continuing to run the real estate business, Rick bought his first personal computer and started writing commercial programs on the Apple II. Later came the original IBM PC, the Commodore 64, and the 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 with Tiger Investment Software, programming the Windows versions of the Tiger programs for ranking, flagging, and charting of stocks and commodities.

Today Rick and Joyce divide their time between their homes in La Jolla, California and Clear Lake, Indiana. Rick's activities in addition to managing the real estate business include cycling 2000 miles per year, assisting the Purdue Triangle alumni board, working with the Reality Changers teen literacy program at the Copley YMCA, providing free web sites for environmental and civic organizations, and listening to live blues music.