Rich “The Big Kahuna” Christiansen is secretary for the PebbleCreek Senior Softball Board.
Lee Ayers
Rich “The Big Kahuna” Christiansen has many responsibilities as the secretary for the PebbleCreek Senior Softball Board. In a recent conversation, Rich told about his life and work background before moving to PebbleCreek.
Rich grew up moving around the country and the world as his father was posted to various Army bases and stations across five states and five countries – 10 schools in 12 years graduating from Zama American High School in Japan. Rich went to work for NASA after getting engineering degrees from Cal Poly and Stanford. Before retiring to Arizona, Rich served as the Deputy Director at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
“I hadn’t played softball since I was a young engineer managing aeronautics and space research projects for NASA in Washington D.C. some 22 years ago. Playing in city leagues on the Mall amongst the museums and monuments with thousands of spring and summer tourists was interesting but nowhere near the quality of play as we have here at PC,” says Rich.
Key duties of the Secretary are documenting the meetings and keeping records of key decisions and policies for the Board of Directors. This function is essential to the sustainability of any strong organization such as PCSSA.
Besides recording minutes of Board meetings, the league secretary posts league scores, team rankings and upcoming game schedules twice a week down at the ballpark. Keeping up award plaques and other league displays are his responsibilities as well. This past year, Rich has resurrected the practice of writing articles to publicize league activities and has been focusing on the many talented people in the league along with its activities. “After two years of playing ball here I was looking for a way to contribute back to the league. The opportunity came up to run for a Board position and I was happy to give it a go. It may not be rocket science, but the camaraderie is much like that in mission control.”
Rich is a very popular player, bringing positive attitude to the league. His work as our secretary is most highly respected.