John Burkholder, 9MGA Communications
This probably sounds like an often heard story, but 9MGA’s go-to website guy, Gary Geiser, didn’t volunteer for the position. Gary was drafted by Frank Rigerrio when he joined 9MGA a couple of years ago. Frank was looking for volunteers, Gary said OK, saw what the website job entailed, thought he’d enjoy it and has been handling 9MGA’s website maintenance and updates ever since with the support of Weebly, Robson’s website developer.
That’s not to say that Gary is a tech geek. Quite the contrary. Gary’s background is in the grocery industry: purchasing and auditing. No, Gary is husband (he and wife Barbara, both native Texans, celebrate their 50th anniversary this August!), father, grandfather and golfer in that order, first and foremost. But like so many of the great people here at the Ranch, Gary finds it hard to say no when asked for a helping hand, whether that’s with 9MGA, friends, neighbors or Habitat for Humanity, for which Gary has served on the boards of the Smith County Habitat in Tyler, TX and the Benton County habitat in Bentonville, AR for many years.
Gary and Barbara, both graduates of North Texas State University (today that’s University of North Texas) and their two sons and seven grandchildren have called Dallas home practically forever! They’re big sports fans and root for the Cowboys, Mavericks, Rangers, UNT, A&M and Arkansas (that’s a story for another time). Living at the Ranch gives Gary the opportunity to do the things he loves most: spending weekends with family, traveling with Barbara, and golfing, running, walking and photography. As you can guess, Gary is a busy guy.
Gary shared his funniest golfing experience, which played out on a course in Bella Vista, AK where he encountered a “shallow gully that ran across one of the fairways.” Sound familiar to what we have here on Wlidhorse Golf Club? Anyway, as Gary explained, “On one end of the gully was a small rock to divert water. My second shot was low and hit the rock about 40 yards away and bounced back and came to rest one foot from me.” See, we’re not the only golfers whose course has gullies (excuse me, “environmental protected areas”) where our golf balls hit the rocks and where our shots only go one foot.