Anyone remember this guy?

[Bruster]

From Mercury?

[bernie]

Sure - that's Dick Paulsen. Had about 40 years with Mercury, retired several years back, but I am sorry to say he has passed on.
Was very active in the local fishing club, Lighthouse Anglers. His daughter still works at Mercury in the service department.

[gofish7070]

Do remember Dick Paulsen, very nice fellow,,,,,,,,, Bernie have managed to lose Sam S. phone # if you would forward it on, would be very welcome and great to see @ OFF next moth, J

[willabee]

Sure - that's Dick Paulsen. Had about 40 years with Mercury, retired several years back, but I am sorry to say he has passed on......

Wow.....I never would have guessed that was Dick in that photo, he had a jet black flat top the last time I saw him..... of course that was about 35 years ago!!

Dick was the foreman of an enginering lab in Fond du Lac at the same time I was foreman of the Racing Division in Oshkosh. Every now and then they would build a powerhead or something that they wanted tested or raced. Dick and I would coordinate the movement of the equipment, any special handling instructions and test results. Sometimes he would drive the stuff to Oshkosh himself just to get out of the office.

I remember him teasing me about my "life of Riley" job. He said all we do is go to exotic places and get a tan while we watch women walk down the beach. I told him life at a boat race was great, but it was also one hell of a lot of work, but he wasn't buying that. I decided to show him otherwise.

I told Garbrecht that I was going to be a little short of skilled help for the upcoming Parker 9 Hour.....1969 I believe. I asked if he could pull some strings to get Dick freed up for about two weeks. Gary made that happen and I called Dick and told him to pack his bags, I'm taking him to "Exotic" Parker, Arizona to live "the life of Riley". I hooked the 21' Molinari (Bill Sirois) with twin stackers up to Mr. Kiekhaefer's new Chev Caprice wagon powered by a 427 and drove to his home in Fondy. We started down the road and I saw he was about to light one of those little cigars. We made a pact right then.....I'll buy the cigarettes if he doesn't smoke cigars in the car.....done deal.

I think we were in New Mexico when I let him have the wheel for the first time.....he had told me as we were driving that he had not done much trailer pulling! Anyway, I just told him to keep it between the lines while I caught a little shut eye. Something woke me up and I asked where the heck we were. He said we were just coming into Truth or Consequence, N.M. and were about to find out which it was going to be.....truth or consequence. I asked what that meant and he said we were about out of gas so he had pulled off of the highway to find fuel! We made it into town only to drive past the first station we saw because he didn't want to put some off brand into Mr. K's new car.

Anyway, we had a fun trip. He met a lot of very nice people, we burned some steaks at Sports Valley, had some Coors and he found out first hand what really happens at a big marathon. He had no problem admitting after the race that he was pooped out but was glad he had come. He often talked about that trip and the enjoyment he had received from it, but never asked to join me on another.

The boat we pulled.....

[hotdaddy27]

Cool Story!

Thanks.

[Bruster]

I met Dick at the Tomahawk AOMCI meet back in '99. He was very interested in my boat when I pulled it in the building where the Mercury display was set up. Dick walked over and introduced himself to me. Hmm... Super BP huh? Can we look inside? Sure, I said as we pulled the wrap off. He looked at one side of the motor went to the other side and said "that's a 1500XS". Yep, but I think it looks better dressed as a Super BP on this boat than an XS. He laughed and replied "there were only a handfull of people who could tell the real difference here anyway." RIP Dick

[JP Love]

Your nice Willabee,,,, JP

[jackie wilson]

Your nice Willabee,,,, JP

DAMN FOOL-------don't go saying things like that, gets him all excited and then he tries to be something he 'ain't------------NICE.
Just leave him be----------a walking Websters on powerboating history and the crankiest OLD curmudgeon ever.
NICE-----------IN YOUR DREAMS MISTER LOVE !!!!!!!!!!!