Norman Hickman Jr.
By Debe Hickman
1960-1963
Member
of the 82nd Airborne, 2nd Brigade, 504th Infantry. Served in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea and Germany. Honorable
discharge, Specialist E-4.
1963-1967
Eastern
Express – Kansas City, Missouri
Journeyman mechanic
1967-1971
Van
Chevrolet – Shawnee Mission, Kansas
Service salesman, dispatcher and
assistant service manager
1971-1974
ITCO
Corporation – Kansas City, Missouri
Franchise Sales Manager
1974-1982
Northwest
Motor Welding – Phoenix Arizona/Arvada, Colorado
Started as a machinist in the Phoenix
shop. He was transferred to Colorado in 1976 and was promoted to shop foreman
two years later. In 1980 he was promoted to full-time outside sales.
1982-1986
Regional
Transportation District – Denver, Colorado
Started as a third-shift mechanic at
this publicly funded bus company but was quickly promoted to Maintenance
Supervisor where he restructured the existing preventive maintenance program to
substantially improve equipment reliability and miles driven between road
calls.
1986-1999
City
and County of Denver – Denver, Colorado
Superintendent of Fleet
Maintenance. Designed and implemented a preventive
maintenance program for a fleet of 1,750 pieces of equipment. Resulted in a
90% reduction in road calls, an 85% reduction in equipment down-time and
increased efficiency of budgetary expenditures (annual budget of $12 million).
1999-2000
Retired
– Surprise, Arizona
2000-2007
Golf
Cars of America – Sun City, Arizona
Managing partner of three golf car
sales and service locations. The 2005 sales even exceeded Columbia ParCar
Corp’s factory stores! Golf Cars of America was the only dealer in the country
that was given a five year parts and three year labor warranty.
The cars sold weren’t just any golf
car, but had options like cloth adjustable bucket seats, high speed gears,
evaporative coolers for the summer and custom enclosures for the winter, 13”
automobile radial tires and came in colors from Country Club Beige to Kandy
Apple Red.
Taken from the notice sent to Columbia
ParCar’s employees:
“Norm was a tremendous and vibrant
supporter of Columbia and not afraid to speak his mind when he has good ideas –
which was frequent! Because of Norm we have become a better company with
better products and people. Norm will be missed by us all.” |