The latest in our series…

People of the Park: Dan Tuchenhagen

By Dale Dauten

I talked with Dan Tuchenhagen by phone in late April. He was in Nebraska and told me he regretted being there, saying, “It’s 32 degrees and windy.” When I asked why he hadn’t waited longer to leave The Resort’s balmy April, he laughed and said, “The usual senior citizen reasons, medical and dental appointments.”

(Photo: Dan with his wife of 57 years, Carolyn.)

As for what we learned about Dan, his story begins in small-town, mid-American— Scribner, Nebraska, with a population under a thousand. (Photo below.) Dan’s dad and uncle owned a hardware store and that’s where Dan spent much of his youth. (Dan tells us, “Tuchenhagen Hardware is on the left, about 5 storefronts up from Mel’s Bar.”)

By the time he went to Scribner High (Class of ’55, 30 students), Dan was spending much of his time as helper to an electrician wiring houses for electricity. While he says he was “a glorified go-fer, small enough and not afraid to enter the crawl spaces with the mice and spiders,” he got to share in the excitement of residents who were getting their first electric refrigerators, stoves and washing machines. Those experiences led him to decide he wanted to be an electrician, and he decided that the best way to accomplish that was to enlist in an electrician training program offered by the U.S. Navy. So, at 17, he signed on for what was known as a “kiddie cruise,” a special three-year program. He ended up working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on a new aircraft carrier that would eventually be commissioned as the U.S.S. Saratoga. (Photo below)

It was much later that the Navy ran its famed recruiting ads with the slogan, “Join the Navy, See the world,” but that’s just how it worked for the kid from Nebraska. He had tours of duty that allowed him to visit London and Paris, among many other cities. On a visit to Rome, he found himself getting a blessing from the Pope. (Dan is on the far left, the tallest person in the crowd as Pope John XXIII is carried past.)

BACK IN THE STATES

After completing his time in the Navy, Dan returned to Nebraska, enrolling in the University of Nebraska, his time in the Navy having led him to aspire to a degree in Electrical Engineering. But, along the way, he decided that the engineering courses meant too much math and so he ended up with a Business degree.

Even before the two married, Dan was into a new career. Right out of school he landed a position as a National Bank Examiner, a Federal job with the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, part of the Treasury Department. For 30 years, Dan was out, checking up on banks with national charters, and that meant he spent most weekdays in bank offices and most weeknights in hotels. The department transferred the Examiners every five or six years, so Dan and family lived around the country, starting nearby, in Omaha, and ending up in San Antonio.

THE RESORT CONNECTION

It was during their time in San Antonio that Dan and Carolyn had houseguests, a relative of a coworker. These guests were from Montana, driving a small motorhome and pulling a ranch pickup, and explained that their travels would end up in Mesa, Arizona, where they’d stay the winter. Dan recalls questioning the wisdom of that plan and the visitor responded confidently, “Come see it.” Dan and Carolyn took that challenge, making plans to do just that.

That winter they visited the park and that old Resort magic captivated them. When Dan retired, in 1993, they decided to split time between Nebraska and Arizona and bought a park model at The Resort.

Dan jumped in with his new lifestyle: “I went right to the tennis courts and the softball diamond. Those were things I’d missed out on, being in a different community every week.” And he began to get involved with a new passion: computers. Here was a man who’d once helped bring electricity to his neighbors in the farm country of Nebraska, now helping bring technology to his neighbors at The Resort. He was an early volunteer for a new club, The Resort Computer Club. “Back then it was dial-up,” Dan recalled, “and people were just starting to email.”

Now, almost 30 years later, if you’ve had a computer question and go to the Front Desk for advice on where you could find help, odds are you hear, “Call Dan.”

THE BEST ADVICE/THE PERFECT DAY

We like to ask the question, “What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?” Dan thought about that and said, “My grandfather, who lived to 97, liked to say, ‘Always make friends. And make sure you always have younger friends.’ And when we accepted our seventh job transfer, friends gave us a wall hanging that quoted a poem by Joseph Parry:

“Make new friends,

but keep the old:

new friends are silver

but old friends are gold.”

And when we asked another favorite question, “What would a perfect day be like for you?” Dan didn’t have to think: “Tennis in the morning and golf in the afternoon.” He added, “I still love to get out on the tennis court, but now these young girls – girls in their sixties and seventies – are starting to beat me.”

Spend some time with Dan and we think you’ll agree that Dan will always have plenty of friends, of every age.

PHOTOS FROM AROUND THE PARK

Before she left for the season, Activities Director Margie Koboski sent along some photos from recent events around the park.

GENESIS PROJECT

On March 30^th, the M Street North residents gathered at Adam & Cecelia Baumstarck’s place to dye eggs for the Genesis Project Easter Extravaganza Feast. Sixteen dozen eggs were dyed for the meal. (Adam has been a volunteer at Genesis for six years. Genesis is a project that helps feed the homeless in Apache Junction.)

Shuffleboard classes

Water Volleyball

And, lastly, work on maintaining the fountain outside the main buildings…

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:

If you’d like to volunteer to be the subject of an article, or have someone you’d like to learn more about, please let me know.

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