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Chris Bird President/Director |
Chris Bird has been a journalist for 25 years and a handgun shooter for more than 40. He was born in England and his interest in shooting has steered him through the bureaucratic red tape of owning handguns in England, Canada, and Australia. As a commissioned officer in the Royal Military Police of the British Army in the 1960s, Bird was stationed in Berlin, West Germany, and Belgium, serving as company weapon-training officer and winning awards for shooting in competition. After leaving the military, Bird migrated to Canada where he worked as a cowboy in British Columbia while shooting and hunting extensively. He became a journalist and worked as a crime and investigative reporter for the Vancouver Province newspaper and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He has also worked as a salesman, a private investigator, and a shotgun guard for an armored car company in Australia. In 1986, Bird competed in the Canadian Practical Pistol Championships. In the late 1980s, he and his wife sailed a 27-foot boat from Vancouver, Canada, to Sydney, Australia, and back to San Francisco. He is a former police reporter for the San Antonio Express-News. Arriving in Texas in 1989, he worked for the newspaper, mostly covering crime and law enforcement at all levels from municipal to federal. Currently, he is author and publisher of a book called The Concealed Handgun Manual which is now in its fourth edition and tenth printing. The book is on the list issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety to concealed-handgun instructors as approved reading for instructors and licensees. Bird is certified in Texas as a concealed-handgun instructor. He is a director of the Texas Concealed Handgun Association, and a member of both the Texas State Rifle Association and the National Rifle Association. |
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Rick Mackey Executive Vice-President/Director |
Rick Mackey is currently the president of CHL Protection Plan based in Dallas. Rick has over 30 years of management experience in the consumer electronics and insurance industries. Rick is an avid hunter, outdoorsman and shooting enthusiast. He is married with three children and five grandchildren. |
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Frank Niemiec First Vice-President/Director |
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Bill Titus Second Vice-President |
Bill Titus has been a hunting and shooting enthusiast for most of his life. In addition to teaching Texas Concealed Handgun classes, he also teaches Texas Hunter Education, and is frequently found leading canoe and kayak trips on the historic Brazos river. He lives at Ropesville, near Lubbock, and teaches CHL classes in the Lubbock area and in Brownfield at Outfitter's Supply. He is an endowment life member of the National Rifle Association, the Texas State Rifle Association, as well as the Texas Concealed Handgun Association. He retired after more than 30 years with the United Methodist Church, where he continues to work in a part-time capacity. During this time he has been a local church pastor, manager of the denomination's area credit union, a church administrator, and an adjunct faculty member teaching Biblical literature. He holds degrees from Ottawa University (BA) and Saint Paul School of Theology (M.Th.) and has done post-graduate work in organizational administration at Emory University. He and his wife Beverly have five children, scattered from Tacoma, Washington to Clifton, Texas, as well as five grandchildren. |
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James Zipperer Secretary |
James Zipperer is a Professor of Economics at Lone Star College - Montgomery. He holds a Master of Business Administration with majors in Economics and Finance and has 20+ years of construction management experience on multi-million dollar projects. He was released from active duty in May 1970 and received an honorable discharge from the United States Marine Corps at the rank of Sergeant (E-5). Currently he teaches economics and holds the position of Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Institute, a partnership program with Sam Houston State University. This is his eleventh year of teaching at LSC-M after having taught for Sam Houston State for five years, in the TDCJ Windham system for five years, and at Lee College for two years. |
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Merle Niemiec Treasurer/Director |
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Larry Arnold Director |
Larry Arnold has been shooting since he was a Boy Scout. In addition to being a Texas concealed carry instructor, he holds certification as a NRA Training Counselor, Texas Hunter Education Master Instructor and Becoming an Outdoors Woman Instructor. His military service includes four years active duty and sixteen years in the reserves as an infantry officer. Larry has designed an interactive computer version of the Concealed Handgun course, and his pro-gun novel, "The Mark of Abel" has been published by Zumaya Publications. As a writer and desktop publisher he has won many state and national awards in writing and communications contests, including several for the TCHA website. His CHL lesson plan won a First Place national award in 1999. He has also published a number of newsletters for a variety of organizations. He is married and has two grown daughters. Visit him at http://www.talonsite.com. Larry maintains the TCHA website. |
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Bruce Gilchrist Director |
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Dean McCormick Director |
Dean McCormick was born in California in 1949, but with a Texas connection. His dad had been a dust-bowler, leaving Amarillo/Canyon in the late 1930?s. He first got gunpowder in his veins from following an older cousin around on a dove hunt, escaping from a boring family picnic. First formal training was in a police-sponsored rifle club, shooting bullseye with .22 target rifles. After a couple of years with the club, he tested and qualified as an NRA assistant instructor, that being the highest rating available to a shooter under eighteen. After college in Michigan (don't ask why), and Air Force pilot school in Oklahoma, the Air Force eventually sent him to Bergstrom AFB near Austin. Upon separation from active duty in 1980, he and wife Patricia and two kids, Tony and Stephanie, now adults and on their own (although not quite all of their stuff is out of the garage yet), stayed in Bastrop County, near Austin. Dean became a CHL instructor in 1995, as part of the initial cadre, and was in on the formation of the TCHIA in 1997. He wrote a proposed draft of the original bylaws, some elements of which are still incorporated in the current document. He's been active in small ways all through the history of the organization, but first ran and was elected to the BoD in 2007. He teaches in his living room and does the shooting at his own range, a pretty Spartan setup 300 yards from his front door. He teaches on weekends, having kept his day job, which is not shooting-, police-, or security-related. He's an NRA and TSRA member, almost an "of course," but holds no leadership positions in either organization. |
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Mike McNeely Director |
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Gene Schiller Director |
Gene has been an avid hunter since early childhood. He wore out three Daisy Red Ryders before the age of ten. Gene was a self-taught pistol shooter, eventually becoming a member of the National Guard division pistol team for two years. He was one of the founding adult leaders of the first 4-H shooting club in the United States and is still an active shooting coach with the local 4-H club. An NRA certified shotgun coach since 1979, Gene holds a Texas peace officers certification for the past thirteen years and has been teaching CHL classes since 1995. Gene still competes in IPSC competitions as time allows. He is a gunsmith for the local sporting goods store. Gene is married and has three children, one an Olympian in the shooting sports discipline, and one that is captain of the Air Force Shooting team. |