Classification Talks: Bob Tucker and Heidi Boas

Bob Tucker was born in Newton, MA and grew up in Wellesley. He described this time as idyllic adding that his mother was like June Cleaver. “I would come home from school, hop on my bike and be gone all afternoon” he said. Summers were spent on the Cape in Dennis where he learned how to swim. Then his parents started sending him and his sister to what is now Cape Cod Sea Camps for 8 weeks every summer.

 

College wasn’t that great for Bob. He admits he flunked out of Worcester Tech, then went to Lowell Tech but it just wasn’t the right fit so he dropped out and went to work at the Sea Camps. He always enjoyed photography and decided to become a professional photographer. He started FocalPoint Studio with a friend (who ended up leaving the business after one year or so). He worked out of the house to start then moved into a couple of other locations before moving in to Post office Square in Orleans.  Now, he owns his own building on Route 6A in Orleans, across from Orleans Marketplace.

 

Bob reflected on the things he would like to have done: teach tennis; play guitar; act (he’s active with Cape Rep) – to which he added “I wish I’d started acting a lot earlier in life”. He drove a school bus for Nauset while getting FocalPoint off the ground and it was a crazy day: get up at 5 AM, drive the bus, then go to the studio, then go back to drive the bus in the afternoon, then go tend bar. Bed after midnight. Get up and do it all over again!

 

Heidi Boas, classification nurse practitioner retired was born in Germany. She was invited to join the Rotary Club of Bryan TX in 1987 (where she is still an active member) the year after women were first admitted to Rotary clubs. Her TX club is a 100% Paul Harris Club with 120 members. Everyone contributes monthly to The Rotary Foundation which makes it possible to grant Paul Harris Fellows to new members that join. She said Rotary has been a “silver lining during my work life.”

 

Heidi was born in Germany in 1947 at the end of WWII. She said after the war ended, things were difficult. She commented that everyone had a little PTSD then, including her father. As a result, a few years later her parents divorced. She was the oldest child, graduated early from school and went to work as a nanny when she was 17. The wife of the family was a nurse midwife and Heidi found that interesting. She was admitted to a nursing school where they taught in both German and English. Here she learned that there were jobs in New York City, which is how she came to the United States. After all, in Germany nursing was a dead-end job; but in America it is degreed position.

 

Heidi has been in the United States for 47 years, becoming a US citizen in 1985. She has been married to her current husband, Harold Boas, for 25 years.  She commented that Harold is tenured at TX A&M and, for her, moving to TX was culture shock: she was over qualified for work there!