Menstuff® would like to acknowledge those who helped.
We couldn't have gotten where we are today without a lot of help along the way.
To Dan Nickles: if he hadn't walked with me and talked me through a divorce and my suicidal thoughts, I don't think I would be alive today. And, while I wish it had been different, if he hadn't kept so isolated and eventually ended his own life, I doubt that I would have ever seen how isolated we all remain - yes, even the men that do a lot of men's work and personal work. I think we still keep isolated. So, thanks, Dan, for your friendship. This web site is dedicated to you.
To Mert Preston, George Simons and Jed Diamond, who agreed to serve on the board of The Naitonal Men's Resource Center since our incorporation in 1994.
There were also people who pitched in when I needed help on an issue, or to categorize the 3,500 books in the library: Thanks to Mark Harris and friends, to Mike Meredith, Sanford Anderson, Deanna Washington, John Robinson and Gary Topper. To those who helped get the bookmobile on the road: Scott Prusso for designing and building slanted book shelves in the back of an old RV that held over 1,000 books. To Michael Mora for hours spent installing two industrial solar panels so we could run everything late into the night in a local community without the noise and smell of the generator. To Bill Naiditch for doing our taxes. To Marilyn Milos who dilligently went to the post office every couple of weeks, for the 4 1/2 years I was on the road full-time, packed up my mail, and sent it to General Delivery wherever I was headed. To those who sent along a little extra, and some a lot (they became "Benefactors"), to help out: Susan Adler, Alan Acacia, William Alton, Sanford Anderson, Asa Baber, Elizabeth Barrett, Ron Chicoine, Janice Daugherty, Charles Davis, David Decker (and the U.S. West Foundation for a matching gift), Brian Dilorenzo, Glenn Gelfenbein, Dan Griffith, David Gruben, Harper's Bizaar, Ron Henry, Kenneth Hilgart, Judy Hinckley, David Householder, Fred Jealous, James Jones, Michael Jude, Bill Kauth, Rusty Lutz (but not to IBM who turned us down for a matching gift), Chad Mears, Jon Miller, Donald Morrison, Bill Naiditch, Leann Nassar, Spencer Nassar, Tino Plank, Mert Preston, John Renner, Percy Ricketts, Frank Rothacker, John Shanteau, George Simons, Dennis Synder, Bruce Spring, Russell Sutter, Jim Turner, Tom Valentine, and Deanna Washington.- To all a big THANK YOU!
To Metro Disc in San Francisco and Jack Jannes Design in San Anselmo, CA for many hours of design work, to Copy Rite in San Rafael, CA for a great printing job, and turn-around time on Menstuff®, the quarterly. To Eric Kritz and his HP Laser Jet for loaning me his office and computer for about 72 hours straight every three months to "get Menstuff® out". And, to the subscribers and advertisers who, literally, paid the way:
To Bill Elbring for getting us started in the techno age with AOL. To Karl Nix and Allen Ng who got our first web page up and running. And, to Spencer Nassar, who brought the web site to life as you see it today and for continuing to be our webmaster, and to his children, Audrey and Kathryn, who reminded us both to get out more - "Let's go for rice and beans."
To the people who stopped by the bookmobile in some small rural town to "check it out" and stayed to talk. To the truckers on the highway that were "man enough" to contact us on the CB to talk when they knew someone on the channel might recognize their voice. (We had a sign on our wheel cover "Real Men Ask For Help. Let's talk: Channel 17 or 19." The channels are the East/West and North/South trucker channels.) Thanks for talking. It was good for both of us.
And, to those "just plain folks" out there who wrote letters or sent e-mails of thanks and gratitude. I can't tell you how many times I've taken out that folder when this work really got overwhelming, when the deadline was there and the layout still needed work, when it didn't seem like there were any more words in my mind to put on paper to fill that last page before giving it to the printer. Or the night before the upload is due to the web site and no one has sent in any event information. Or those times when it felt like there wasn't anyone out there who cared about men's lives. This work can be very isolating sometimes and those words of encouragement have really helped. Thanks!
The latest chapter started on March 3, 2014, five days before my 74th birthday. I had a stroke and was air-lifted to Portland, OR to spend three days in the ICU and two more weeks in a hospital rehab program, followed by 4 months of out-patient rehab before I could regain my independence and re-qualify to drive. This gave me five months to think about the future. One of the big decisions was to cut back on some of my activities to reduce my stress level. Part of this was to find someone to take over menstuff.org and someone else to take over the 4,000+ men's books collection in The Men's Study. So, starting September 1, 2014, Michigan State University's Changing Men's collection has agreed to take over the books from the library. We are still in negotiations for the take-over of the web site. Thanks for continuing something that has been growing since 1985. - Gordon Clay
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