Russ Hicks!

Russ has stuttered his whole life.  He was born in Muskegon, Michigan, when dinosaurs roamed the earth.  He moved to Columbus, Indiana, when he was eight years old and eventually married Stachia, the little sister of his best friend in Boy Scouts.  He got his BS in Electrical Engineering at Purdue University and his MBA at Indiana University.  He and Stachia moved to Texas (as soon as they could!) in 1963 where he worked at Texas Instruments as a Manufacturing Engineer and Senior Systems Analyst in IT where he specialized in dialup communications (remember that?) for TI executives who traveled worldwide.  He and his family lived in Dallas, Lubbock and Plano for TI.  He retired from TI in 1998.  He and Stachia have been married 54 years and have two grown children and five wonderful grandchildren.  Pictures on request…

He met Lee Reeves at a PTA meeting in high school in Plano in 1984.  Lee dragged him into the NSA – against his will!  After much hollering and screaming, Russ finally settled into the Dallas NSA, and attended his first NSA national conference in San Francisco in 1986.  His life was never the same.  He was the chapter leader at least two times in the early years and was dragged into Toastmasters via the NSA in 1988 – again against his will!  He was amazed at his success in Toastmasters, being elected President of this club, then Area and Division Governors in the early 90’s.  He won – and lost – many speaking contests during that time, but eventually won the 1996 Southwest United States Humorous Speech Contest in Albuquerque, New Mexico, over 30,000 other Toastmasters in a ten state region.  No one was more flabbergasted than Russ when this happened.  It was truly a life changing experience.  Russ recently “retired” from active Toastmasters after 25 years and achieved the rank of Distinguished Toastmaster, DTM, the highest educational rank in Toastmasters.

Russ has spoken about stuttering to countless groups, including NSA regional workshops and national conferences, Toastmaster organizations and student SLP classes all over the United States – and once in Canada.  He has attended 26 NSA national conferences.

Today, Russ is the “old guy” in the Dallas NSA, serving as the informal chapter mentor and Chat and Chew groupie.  He has organized and led the new “Discussion Panel” presentations to help expose the student SLPs in four universities in North Texas to the NSA.  Needless to say, the NSA is a MAJOR part of Russ’s life!

The next time you see him ask him about Roy Rogers and the bicycle!

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