I first want to thank Michael for all the great work he’s been doing. While I’ve remained in touch we some of my LHS classmates, his updates and all these spotlights have made me feel even more connected.

I always loved my time in Livingston – from Harrison to Mt. Pleasant and then LHS. I have so many great memories and of course a lot of crazy stories, but that’s a tale for another time. After graduating from LHS, I attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick and even though it was only an hour or so from Livingston, I lived on campus and it could’ve been hundreds of miles away as far as I was concerned. I’m sure you all remember that the NJ drinking age was changed to 18 about that time and that, coupled with the fact it was the 70’s, made for quite the college experience. My fraternity was on tap 24/7 and had parties nearly every weekend. And the spring breaks in Fort Lauderdale even put that to shame. It was amazing that I was able to keep my grades up, but fortunately I did, and after graduating with my degree in Economics I went on to law school.

It was at law school where I met my wife, Lori. We had a great group of 14 friends and ten of them ultimately morphed into married couples. But it wasn’t clear that that was going to be the case with me and Lori. In the beginning we were best friends, although very few men at that point in life want to be “just friends” with a girl and I was no exception. We would often go out to bars and Lori would point out girls that she thought I should try to meet. She truly had no idea that I wanted to be more than friends with her and it took me about a year to build up the courage to finally tell her my true feelings. But, as luck would have it, just as I was about to tell her she started telling me about this guy she was in love with. So, it was back to the drawing board, but fortunately her other relationship didn’t pan out and a few months later we went out for drinks on St. Patrick’s Day and after getting a bit tipsy our relationship “changed”. We got married the year after law school and went on to our legal careers.

Lori never really liked being a lawyer and after we had our three kids (a boy and then two girls) she decided to be a stay-at-home mom. But she soon became restless and enrolled in a Master’s in Education program and then went on to be a middle school language arts teacher for 15 years. She found her true calling!

After our first kid (a boy) was born we moved from Edison to Westfield and although we did move within Westfield once, we stayed there for about 25 years. We had two more kids (both girls) and were very happy there – it was a really great town to raise a family. I worked in NYC for virtually all of my career, although just like most other NJ commutes, the commute sucked! Well, you can’t have everything.

Every year we went on a big family vacation and those times spent with my family were the best. These included many cruises, multiple trips to Aruba and vacations to Alaska and Hawaii. The Hawaii vacation was particularly special for a few reasons. First, my three kids were coincidently all graduating at the time: my son from NYU Stern School of Business, my oldest daughter from Columbia Law School and my youngest daughter from Penn State and so it was a great way to celebrate. It was also a landmark trip for another reason. Our two oldest were married, and our youngest brought along her future husband and having the whole crew together in Hawaii was pure magic. I think Hawaii and Alaska are two of the best places to visit, offering fantastic (but very different) life experiences.

We’re so lucky that all of our kids have great spouses and there’s one aspect that makes it even better (or worse depending on your perspective). I’m a Jets/Mets fan and of course my son now suffers that fate. And against all odds my two daughters married guys who are also huge Mets/Jets fans – so we’re all cursed! We currently have four grandkids (two boys and two girls) and as crazy as it sounds for a retired couple, we built a seven-bedroom house down the Jersey shore in Long Branch for the sole purpose of attracting our kids and grandkids. So far, our scheme has worked and nearly every summer weekend our family comes for the weekend. We’re lucky that all of our kids are local. 

I always felt extremely fortunate with my career. I loved being a lawyer and also enjoyed every job that I had. My career focused on the financial services industry and involved both law firm practice and in-house positions at banks.  It also took me on many business trips to great international locations like Paris, Tokyo, Egypt, Morocco, Spain and Turkey to name a few. My wife wasn’t able to come with me as much as we would have liked due to childcare issues, but she did manage to go on a few of the trips. My first business trip ever was to a conference in the Swiss Alps. A colleague at the time said, “bring your wife – everyone is bringing their partners”. There were about 100 people at the conference and the only people with spouses/partners were me and that colleague and so much to her chagrin my wife hid away for most of the conference. Fortunately, after the conference we went directly to Paris for a vacation and that got me out of the dog house.  

I’ve been so fortunate to have never had a job I didn’t like and my last one as the US General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer of a global investment bank was the best of them all. During my tenure, my role expanded beyond a pure legal role and I ended up being in charge of three divisions (Legal, Regulatory Affairs and Corporate Communications and Marketing) and managing about 100 people. I worked for an amazing company, had tremendous colleagues and just loved what I was doing. But, at the same time I recognized that the 24/7 commitment was taking a toll and so I decided it was time to retire. I was convinced to stay on a year more than I wanted, but I finally pulled the trigger last year.  This was a tough decision because I love working, but it was made a bit easier because I have stayed on in a part-time “consultancy” role, which has become the best of both worlds.  I get all the enjoyment without any of the stress. Most importantly, I’m now able to spend a lot more time with my family.

However, life in the city wasn’t always just about the work and the commute; I’ll never forget where I was on 9/11. I was commuting to work on the PATH and we were about to go into the WTC but were diverted to mid-town NYC due to “a plane hitting the WTC.” When I got to mid-town, I walked from the PATH station to Penn and although I did see some flames from downtown Manhattan, stupid me didn’t think anything of it and just hopped on the subway downtown.  I got off the subway at the WTC and as soon as I got out to the street, I saw a mob of screaming people running right at me. I had no idea what was going on (at the time I thought it was a gunman) but I turned and ran with the crowd and ended up entering Chase Plaza. Security then ushered us to the basement and then we were told that the twin towers were falling. Well, we were in a building that was right next door to the WTC and so my only thought was that we were going to get crushed. Information was quite sparse but we eventually did learn what was going on and saw a video feed of the buildings falling straight down. Chase Plaza started to fill up with the WTC debris and so they kept shuffling us to lower levels. After a few hours, the dust was all over us and we looked like a bunch of ghosts. The air also wasn’t great and so we ultimately had to leave the building. Going outside was quite disorienting. Although it was 1 pm, it was nearly pitch black and I was walking in about a foot of dust, similar to walking in a foot of snow. I walked for miles and won’t bore you with the details of how I got back to Westfield but suffice it to say it was a bad day.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed throughout my career is helping other people land jobs, from entry level to executive positions.  Often, the positions were with companies I was working for, which I viewed as a win-win, but it wasn’t always that way. I’d say I placed upwards of 50 people over the years and maybe it was the fact that I wasn’t getting paid for this that made it more rewarding.  And watching so many of them blossom over the years has been an unexpected benefit.   This “volunteer recruiting” is something I continue to do even in retirement.

I will use my time in retirement to spend more time with my family, travel and give back to the community. Our next big trip is in December – we’re going to Australia and New Zealand for 3.5 weeks. In terms of giving back, among other things, I have been focusing on “financial literacy” for high school and college kids and have begun working on some volunteer programs.  

For anyone who wants to reach me, you can email me at rich.skoller@gmail.com. I look forward to seeing everyone at the reunion next year!