Oliver Ward RUSLING

   User ID: P00049979.

  General Notes:

Letter Ward Robert Rusling to Brenda Jefferson 11/7/1996

----Our parents were married in November, 1942 in New York City. Our Dad was in the US Army at the time. He was assigned overseas duty in England some time in late 1943 to help keep the Hun from our doorstep. I was born in January of 1944. After the war, our parents settled in Los Angeles, where my Father worked for a retail pharmaceutical company, Owl Drugs (later acquired by Rexall). In 1947, John (named for St. John's Hospital where he was born, although not a Saint himself) came along. About that time my Father went to work for Occidental Life Insurance Company (bought out by Trans America many years later). That job change brought about the "nomadic era" as our family constantly moved, as our father advanced upward in the company. We lived in LA, Denver, Albuquerque, back to two places in Denver, and three places in the Philadelphia area in the next ten years. The family lived in Merion, Pennsylvania (suburb of Philadelphia) for about 13 years before moving back to LA, so I think Diane, John and I all consider Philadelphia as the place where we grew up.

Neither of our parents were college graduates, but both of them had a high regard for education. As a result, when it came time for us to go to college, it was not a question of "whether" we were going to go, rather "where". John (UCLA) and I (University of Pennsylvania) are both degreed Mechanical Engineers with Master's degrees in Business (University of Southern California). We were "upstaged" recently when, little sister, Diane received her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Southern California.

John has worked in technical sales management for most of his career and Diane taught in LA for a number of years. After spending four years in the US Navy, I was married in 1972 (divorced in 1994), and settled in the LA area. I have worked my whole career in manufacturing, at various aerospace and commercial companies. In 1973, John and his wife, Jody, and my wife moved to San Marino (a suburb of Los Angeles). We've been there ever since, living a few doors apart.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation. Sales

Oliver married Grace Marie SMYTH, daughter of Peter Francis SMYTH and Ella Cecelia LYNCH, on 29 Nov 1942 in New York, New York, New York, USA. (Grace Marie SMYTH was born on 19 Jul 1918 in Yonkers, New York, died on 29 Aug 1996 in Duarte, California and was buried in Hermosa Cemetery, Durango, CO.)

Oliver next married Private