Who is Rick Garcia, and why is he concerned about who died before 40?

Rick Garcia is a school teacher and water polo coach in Ventura, California. On his last birthday he celebrated the fact the he turned 41, while many famous people continued to be dead. He's married with two small children, a house, a car, a dog, an extensive cd collection, and a thoroughly middle class, middle brow existence. For no apparent reason, age is starting to become an issue in his life.

A graduate from Downey High School in Downey California, Cerritos College in Norwalk, California, and UCLA, Rick began his teaching career at Nimitz Junior High School (Huntington Park) in 1988. There, a friend who at the time was pushing 40 made a comment that he was now at the age when famous people started to die. Rick held that thought until May of 2004, when he came up with the idea of "Dead Before 40".

Between 1988 and 2004, Rick wandered and worked in schools in East Los Angeles (Eastman Ave), San Luis Obispo (subbing all over the county, especially in Cayucos), Temple City (Oak Ave), and San Gabriel (Gabrielino), as well as worked on radio station KOTR in Cambria and Nordstrom in Glendale. He lived in Los Osos, Pasadena, and now Ventura.Rick also earned a variety of teaching credentials from CSU Domiguez Hills and CSU Los Angeles.

Now working at Oxnard High School (where he has been a Resource Specialist and the Water Polo and Swimming Coach for the last 8 years), Rick enlisted the help of another teacher, and created "Dead Before 40" in June of 2004. Realizing that he had purchased a great deal of space, Rick decided to add both "Rick's Ventura" and "Rick's Thoughts" to the site. The other teacher faded, and Rick learned web design to get the site up.

Do You Know Rick?

Feel free to write! Rick answers all his e-mail, and is interested in what you think.

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