 Then |
Richard H. Neergaard Thumbnail Bio |
 Now |
I was born and raised in Manhattan,
graduated from Regis in 1950 and entered MIT with a major in “Business
and Engineering Administration”.
My MIT stay was interrupted twice. I spent 1951/52 at West Point (did fine academically but was low in “military aptitude” (no surprise there!), so aftyer a year returned to MIT. Then in 1954/56 I volunteered for the draft (to earn GI Bill tuition), serving in the Signal Corps, where I learned a lot about microwaves, as an enlisted man, whence I learned a lot about life. I returned again to MIT to graduate – at last - in 1957.
Right after graduation, I married Lois Gardner, a RISD alum (Father Burke came to Lenox MA, to assist at the wedding), and joined Procter and Gamble, working in manufacturing (in the field in which I'd actually been trained!), in the US for three years, then in Europe for 16. In 1978 I returned to the US, to P&G headquarters in Cincinnati, where I retired in 1990, having been with P&G my entire career.
We’ve been blessed with four children and six grandchildren. Our three sons are with corporations, one in R&D/engineering with P&G; the second in general management with Reckitt-Benckiser, a consumer-products company in Europe; the third, with IBM, designing and giving training courses in use of the company's products to its clients. Our daughter lives in The Netherlands, married to a Dutch fellow who has a design and production business for wind turbine blades.
Most significant experiences:
- the toughening of plebe year at West Point
- exposure to the realities of the human condition as an enlisted man in the army
- the broadening, and the great fun, of being an expat in Europe back in the Good Ol’ Days of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s
- serving, during my final years with P&G, as an internal consultant/interventionist for business-unit effectiveness, from which assignment I learned more about
My MIT stay was interrupted twice. I spent 1951/52 at West Point (did fine academically but was low in “military aptitude” (no surprise there!), so aftyer a year returned to MIT. Then in 1954/56 I volunteered for the draft (to earn GI Bill tuition), serving in the Signal Corps, where I learned a lot about microwaves, as an enlisted man, whence I learned a lot about life. I returned again to MIT to graduate – at last - in 1957.
Right after graduation, I married Lois Gardner, a RISD alum (Father Burke came to Lenox MA, to assist at the wedding), and joined Procter and Gamble, working in manufacturing (in the field in which I'd actually been trained!), in the US for three years, then in Europe for 16. In 1978 I returned to the US, to P&G headquarters in Cincinnati, where I retired in 1990, having been with P&G my entire career.
We’ve been blessed with four children and six grandchildren. Our three sons are with corporations, one in R&D/engineering with P&G; the second in general management with Reckitt-Benckiser, a consumer-products company in Europe; the third, with IBM, designing and giving training courses in use of the company's products to its clients. Our daughter lives in The Netherlands, married to a Dutch fellow who has a design and production business for wind turbine blades.
Most significant experiences:
- the toughening of plebe year at West Point
- exposure to the realities of the human condition as an enlisted man in the army
- the broadening, and the great fun, of being an expat in Europe back in the Good Ol’ Days of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s
- serving, during my final years with P&G, as an internal consultant/interventionist for business-unit effectiveness, from which assignment I learned more about
how the world actually works than I had in my entire previous life.
- but my honest assessment of the
most valuable experience I’ve ever had? The moral and
intellectual foundation given me through the privilege of having been
educated at Regis.