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Bob Hinrichs
Retiree Party
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Life
Begins
at Retirement
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Bob Hinrichs
started his railroad career in April of 1977 as an electrician helper.
Bob decided to pursue the railroad career after receiving a Bachelor of
Science Degree from Chadron State College and working at Clark Hord
Printing about five years. In February 1978, Bob received his
journeyman status and worked second shift in heavy repair for a few years.
Most of Bob's 32 3/4 years of railroading has been working in Coded Cab
Signals (CCS). There was a period from the mid '80s to the early
'90s where Bob worked 3rd shift Start & Check. The last 15 or 16
years he has worked 1st shift, starting out with a year in light repair
then back to CCS. While on 1st shift, Bob was an assistant local
chairman for Terry Wingett, Gary Hyde and Bob Norton. Bob served on
the staff starting the monthly magazine "Beyond the Rails" and when editor
Joan Johansen retired, he became the editor. Bob served several years
as peer trainer for CCS and became certified to teach those classes.
Bob and wife Kathy have three grown daughters. The two oldest,
Jennifer and Sara, live
in North Platte and the youngest, Renae, lives in Omaha.
Bob has many hobbies as follows:
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Photography, his most important hobby for the past 45 years, having many
thousands of 35mm slides. When Bob retires, he plans on scanning
them into the computer. He also has plans of burning DVDs of his many
reels of 8mm movies and boxes of video tapes.
- Over
twenty-five years ago, Bob organized and still sings with the quartet
called the "Gospel Lites". That has been a very rewarding
ministry. Music has always been a big part of Bob's life. He
served as the church choir director for over ten years and has been in
the choir about 30 years. Bob also plays in a church bell choir
since it started about 8 years ago. Bob has been a member of the
"Heartland Singers" for 16 years.
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hobby is driving and maintaining his 1966 Buick Wildcat GS convertible.
This convertible is one of 196 GS convertibles ever built and has a little
over 46,000 miles on it. Bob has owned it for 13 years. Bob
is presently in the process of converting a 1986 Chevy S-10 pickup to
run on an electric motor and battery pack instead of using gasoline.
This quite an undertaking and Bob hoped to get it running before he
retired, but reality set in now knowing he will have to finish the task
after he retires. Bob also owns a 1935 Chevy that needs a full
restoration, another "after retirement" project.
- Between
all Bob's hobbies, he collects recordings of Big Band music. With
the invention of the internet, the collection process has made his hobby
much easier, now he approaches having recorded nearly 5,000 different
songs.
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Some
Fun Thoughts from Shermie |
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Bob, something to think about: The
trouble with retirement is that you'll never get a day off and
you'll be the wife's full-time job. |
We look forward to hearing about
your hobbies and maybe viewing some of your work via the retirement
link here on the website in the future. Keep in touch always,
shermie@charter.net |
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