"Hi Billy,
I haven't looked at the website for a long time, but if you think it is worthwhile maintaining, I'll split the cost with you. Stay safe.
Love,
Joel"
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Bill Multack
- Male
- Miami Beach, FL
- United States
Bill Multack's Groups
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150 year HP Alumni Reuni…
10 members
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Class of 1968
1 member
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Hyde Park High School As…
3 members
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Class of '63
15 members
Bill Multack's Page
Latest Activity
Profile Information
- Current Home {City, ST}
- Miami Beach, FL
- Attended HP {No, Attended, or Graduate}
- Graduate
- High School Graduation Year {yyyy}
- 1963
- June, January, or August
- June
- Elementary Schools Attended
- Parkside, O'Keeffe
- Education after High School
- University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana - BS Accounting, 1968
- Business
- Retired in 2000 as Chairman, CEO, and President of Fedco, Inc., a chain of discount drug stores and related wholesale companies throughout south Florida.
- Spouse
- Jill
- Kids {Name, Birth Year; ...}
- Spencer, 1975
- Biography
- After graduating from HP, I knew that I wanted to work for IBM designing computers. That fall I was off to U of Illinois Champaign-Urbana to get a degree in electrical engineering. After two years of doing math problems until I was blue in the face, I decided that maybe engineering was not for me (Theoretical and Applied Mechanics cinched it). I had already taken all of the computer classes offered at the time, and switched to ‘Jewish Engineering’ and received a degree in Accounting in June 1968. It took five years, but I wasn’t in a hurry to graduate for reasons known to all of us as ‘Nam’.
After graduation I was hired by IBM in data processing sales. My career there was very successful, but too short for my liking.
There was still a war going on with a lottery for induction into the service. Lady Luck did not treat me as well as she had at IBM and I drew number 4! I imagined myself holding a M-16, covered in mud, surrounded by rice patties and guys with dysentery. My knees went weak. I hurried to a recruiting office hoping to get a direct commission. None was available, but I found a sweet deal with the Navy. They needed experts in data processing and I qualified. For this I got a 30 month enlistment, with a 95% chance of being stationed in Washington, D.C. or Hawaii, no basic training, and entering as a Petty Officer 1st Class (a rank that usually takes 14 years to get). The only thing that I cared about was the fact that I wouldn’t be using my passport.
I really enjoyed my time in the Navy although I never saw a ship my entire enlistment. Stationed at the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Arlington, Virginia, just up the hill from the Pentagon, my primary responsibility was to oversee the conversion from 5 smaller computers to a giant IBM 360. (I watched guys enter data). In addition, one of my unofficial duties was to preview movies deemed possibly “objectionable”, (e.g. Woody Allen’s “Bananas” and “Woodstock”) to be shown aboard ships and at Naval bases. Thankfully, it wasn’t your typical Viet Nam experience.
A year into my enlistment I traveled to Miami Beach to visit an aunt. I was introduced to Jodi Davidson and we were married three months later in August 1970.
I got out of the Navy in August 1971. My father-in-law gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse, and went into the family drugstore business (FEDCO Discount Centers). At that time there were four stores in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. In 1976 I started a new subsidiary, a private label vitamin company; the FDC label is very popular throughout Latin America. We grew the business to over 20 stores, and 5 wholesale divisions. I became president in 1983 and CEO and Chairman in 1996.
Unfortunately, Jodi passed away in July, 2004 after a courageous fifteen year battle with breast cancer. I am an active members in several charitable groups at Mount Sinai Medical Center (Miami Beach) and I have been on the Board of Trustees for over 10 years. In addition, I have served on the boards of two synagogues, and the on the Board of Directors of the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation. I also volunteer as a math tutor in inner city high schools and am now the Vice Chairman of Communities in Schools - Miami. I have been a member of Young Presidents’ Organization, and since I don’t qualify as young any longer, I belong to its graduate group World Presidents’ Organization. For recreation I enjoy scuba diving, skiing, playing bridge, hiking, and traveling.
I have a 37-year-old son, Spencer, who graduated from University of Miami School of Law. He was formally a prosecutor for the Broward County State Attorneys Office, but now is a judge in Miami-Dade County. He is married, and has a daughter - Jolie.
In November 2009, I met Jill Richman, and we got married in January, 2011. She was head of direct marketing for the Florida Grand Opera, and has a son the same age as Spencer. We split our time between Miami Beach and Vail, CO. (Updated 11/14/11)
Bill Multack's Photos
Comment Wall (7 comments)
- At 11:51am on October 12, 2010,
Carlo Jones said…
- Hope that's not the one with front & side views , with fingerprints below !!
Just kidding !!
Carlo
- At 12:06pm on October 12, 2010,
- Bill ,
Can I get to Vail by train? I'm going to get a travel pass with a Pullman sleeping car, and
I've heard about flying into Vail , rather hairy from what I hear from some of my Jet Jockey friends !!
Carlo
PS I have a friend from my HS , that has a home their !! (you)
- At 3:31pm on October 16, 2010,
- Bill , I added a few pictures myself !!
- At 8:22pm on November 10, 2010,
Zbigniew (Ziggy) Nitecki said…
- Well, maybe it is...I suspect, though, that the teaching part is harder where you do it.
In any case, I thought the thrust of my comments was not the math, but the perks (getting around in the world) that go with it.
- At 7:30pm on December 27, 2011,
Robert Robinson said…
Bill,
Before you migrated HP to the current site, I had sent you, and you had posted, a photo of the 1954 Bret Harte graduating class, w/names. What happened to that?
Bob
- At 11:42pm on December 27, 2011,
Bill,
Thanks for the response about the photo. I still have a copy, but I have referred several people to the picture on the old HP site. So I was just curious about its disposition. Hundreds of pictures? Sounds like you need several assistants to help you out.
- At 12:45am on June 6, 2020,
Joel Neuberg said…
- Hi Billy,I haven't looked at the website for a long time, but if you think it is worthwhile maintaining, I'll split the cost with you. Stay safe.Love,Joel
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