Welcome to my website!

I would like to welcome you to my page by first introducing myself. My name is Richard H. Maxwell. I was born, in March of 1974, to Eddie and Patricia Maxwell. I grew up in the little community called Rock Creek which is nestled just outside of Hueytown, AL. I graduated from Hueytown High School in 1992 and like most kids, I did practically nothing with my life except party and work just enough to get by. These were without a doubt the hardest years of my life. I was too inexperienced to be able to sufficiently support myself, and I learned a lot of hard lessons during this time in my life. These years have definitely had an impact on who I am, and how I see things today.

I returned to school in 1994 and began the General Motors Automotive Standard of Excellence Program (GM-ASEP) at Bessemer State Technical College (BSTC). I was required to work in a dealership while attending school, and was awarded a preset number of credit hours for OJT that were combined with my classroom training. However, after failing to meet certain requirements for insurability, I dropped out of the program and started building my background in customer service. I obtained employment with a local retailer and worked my way up to an Assistant Operation Manager position in the warehouse. I then transitioned into a position providing support to several local warehouses, as well as the corporate warehouse, maintaining inventory levels and assisting with special projects. I moved to Florida in late 1996, after getting married and worked to build a general contracting business along the coast. I also worked in various restaurants and retail stores in the evenings to supplement my income and keep some level of health insurance.

In 2001, I got divorced and moved back to Birmingham, AL. I decided that since my whole life had changed due to divorce, I was going to go back to school and learn a skill that wasn’t so physically demanding. I went back to Bessemer State Technical College and began their Associates Degree program specializing in Computer Networking Systems. I really seemed to excel in this curriculum. Moving at an accelerated pace, I began testing out of classes and assisting with teaching while tutoring my peers who needed help. In November of 2001, I secured a position with Tele-Tech Holdings in Fairfield, AL. providing technical support for Verizon Online Dial up and DSL customers. After working there for 2 months I met my second wife who was also working at Tele-Tech. It didn’t take long for us to hit it off and become serious. We got married in January of 2002 in Gatlinburg, TN.

In March of 2003, after finding out that I was going to be a father, I enrolled at ITT Technical Institute. I was fortunate that the majority of my credits from BSTC were found to be acceptable by ITT Tech, which saved me some valuable time. I went on to pursue Technical Project Management classes for three quarters, then transferred into their new Information Systems Security Bachelors Degree program. In January of 2004 my son Destin was born. I maintained my perfect 4.0 GPA for the vast majority of my time at ITT Tech and was inducted into the National Honors Society’s Alpha-Beta-Kappa chapter, as well as being invited to be apart of the Director’s Advisory Committee. Early on I saw how maintaining a job that paralleled my education helped me fast track both facets of my career. It was during my final three quarters that I became so involved with work that my grades slid to a 3.76 GPA. I was getting a cram course in systems administration, network security, project planning, project management, as well as disaster recovery from my employment. Most of my experience has been with medium sized companies that employ less than 500 employees and fewer than 5 domains. I am studying, in the evenings, to gain my MCSE and CCNA certifications. I intend to back fill with other certifications that were included in my study materials. I have done work for Birmingham-based companies such as Colonial Properties Trust, Cardinal Health, BBVA / Compass Bank, Kamtek, and Southern Company.

In November of 2009, the economy took its toll on my family. After being laid off and under-employed for 10 months, my marriage also ended. Given the fact that we were not bringing in enough money jointly to cover the cost of the house, I decided to let the house go. There just wasn’t any possible way I could keep the house on just my income being under-employed, and there wasn’t anyway Vicki could do it by herself either. I had already depleted all of our savings during the previous 13 months just fighting to keep it on what money we had coming in jointly. The divorce has been hard on me, but it is for the best. It has been very civil compared to most divorces, and we have intentionally kept any bickering away from Destin to minimize any impact it has had on him. My ex-wife and I still get along, so that helps. Overall, he seems to be handling it very well.

I enjoy getting outdoors in various activities. My son plays for the 75 lb. Hueytown Jaguars, and loves it. He also plays baseball at the same community park in Hueytown. I own a 4x4 Toyota that I take off-road with my kids. I am an active member of a club called Central Alabama Off-Road Society (C.A.O.S.) that host events that benefits different charities as well as the preservation of woodlands for recreational use. I have a pop-up camper that I use to go camping with my son as often as possible. My son and I also enjoy fishing every chance we get, so I am considering moving closer to Logan Martin lake so we can go anytime we want with out much trouble or preparation. Hopefully, with all of this activity, I will soon be back at my ideal weight and will be able to enjoy even more activities than I do now. I have seriously been considering joining the National Guard for career reasons, so that is another motivation for losing weight.