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Show l lis5 Yt. 4 , Mr. Richard Steere, retired railroad man, in Moab to celebrate his 90th birthday with his nephew Dick Parsons. 90 Year Old Richard Steere Celebrates Birthday in Moab By Lorain's Hofer Mr. Richard Steere, retired retir-ed railroad man, visited Mc-ab Mc-ab last week to celebrate his 9Cth birthday. Mr. Steere, who is the uncle of Richard Parsons of Moab, was born Sept. 22, 1879 in Fowler, Ohio and now lives in Oakland, Calif. At the age of 17, Steere went to the train yards of the Lake Shore and Michigan Michi-gan Southern Railroad and followed the trainmaster around ar-ound until he was given a job as freight brakeman. At this time, he recalls, there was no training available. He was goven a switch key and a book of rules, and told to go to work. Although he had some knowledge of the telegraph, Steere hired on as a brakeman because of higher wages. At this time his hours were 12 per day ,and thirty days a month. In 1903, with a wife of 18 and he himself only 22, Mr. Steere headed for the greener green-er pastures of California. He had written the Southern Pacific Pa-cific for a promise of a job but was told that it was not railroad policy to hire men .from such a distance. He was also informed that no jobs were open. With a great amount of determination, a typewriter, a guitar, one trunk and $100 in his pocket, " the pair started west. They arrived shortly after that in Las Aneeles. and de spite the prior warning, the He was given a switch key He stayed with the company until he retired as an operating oper-ating official in San Francisco Francis-co in 1945. Telegraph Chief During part of his stay with the company he was in charge of all communications communi-cations by telegraph and telephone te-lephone over the entire Pacific Pa-cific system. He was also in charge of some long line circuits cir-cuits to Chicago, New York, Detroit, Winston-Salem, and Texas. During this time he was in charge of more than 203 telephone and telegrap'.i operators, and he travek-d about 5C.C00 miles per year to carry out his duties. At the time Mr. Steere came from the general office of-fice in Los Angeles to the San Francisco office, the telegraph system was confined con-fined to the use of Morse code. It was through his efforts ef-forts that multiple printing circuits were installed in 192S and these increased the capacity for communication from 80 words per minute by telegraph sending and receiving, re-ceiving, to 240 words per minute by the new system. This transfer involved a $i5 thousand investment, which Mr. Steere remembers as quite large. Traveled With F.D.R. After Mr. Steere was advanced ad-vanced to Ihe man in charge of the communications system, sys-tem, he traveled with Franklin Frank-lin D. Roosevelt on his private pri-vate car, and handled the communication with scores of newsmen wlio followed the president. Mr. Steere now lives with a housekeeper, Mary Louise Hulls, who traveled here with him. The two live on Mr. Steere's half acre of land in the Montclair section sec-tion of Oakland, which Mr. Steere lias owned since 193;?. In the middle of the city the two live on an oasis with trees imported from Wash-ington. Wash-ington. Oregon and Ohio. Mr. Steere does most of his own gardening and works from four to eight hours a day caring for his place. Beautiful View From the sun porch of his three bedroom home he can see both the Golden Gale Bridge and the Oakland-San Francisco bridge. He has an elevator which carries him from his house to his gardens, gar-dens, since all are on a hill. There are seven acirs of undeveloped land adjoining his and from these acres. Mr. Steere and Mrs. Hulls watch wild animals eonv into Unit- yard. Mr. Steere spent two years at Northeastern North-eastern Ohio Normal Col-lego Col-lego and enjoys reading Ku. bert Frost. He recites a Y.re.it ileal or poetry he learned many years ago. He has vi.; tted Hong Kong and Japan and one of his own poems is in a cafe in Mexico. With his investments in the stock market and various ventures in livestock.. Mr. Steere lives in cemfort in a garden midst a city of 400,-000 400,-000 people in a hurry. |