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Vic Appel

Vic Appel, the genial long-time chair of RFSA's Exercise Group, and newly appointed co-chair of the Finance and Investment Interest Group recently explained his ulterior motive in agreeing lead the exercisers.

Vic says he used to be a skinny kid, but now has a hard time keeping the weight off so he plays a trick on himself to motivate him to exercise regularly.  He volunteered to head the Exercise Group.  Therefore, he feels compelled take part in its twice-weekly sessions at the Recreational Sports Center.

Back in his skinny kid days he ran track at his Long Beach high school and was awarded an athletic scholarship to UC Berkeley where he majored in economics with a minor in history and political science. In those days Berkeley required all men to take two years of ROTC.  Since he entered college in 1949 when World War II was long over, he thought it would be safe to accept the offer to continue with advanced ROTC for two years beyond the requirement and receive the princely payment of $50 per month.

"I graduated with distinction June 5, 1951," he reported, "and on June 6, 1951 I got snapped up for service in Korea.  That was not what I expected to happen."

However, in exchange for two years in the military, he said "I was entitled to the benefits of the GI Bill which paid to send me to Ohio State University for a masters and doctorate in psychology."

After graduating from OSU he landed his first professional job in Sacramento, a split appointment in the psychology department and the Counseling Center.  "I soon learned that two half times jobs added up to one and a half jobs, not one full time appointment."

Therefore, he accepted an offer to join the counseling faculty at UT in 1965 "because it allowed me to teach directly in my field of counseling psychology."

When he left UT in 1992, 27 years later, he said he wasn't ready to retire "so I opened an office and hung out my shingle as a practicing psychologist specializing in career assessment and career counseling, a beautiful melding of my background in economics and psychology."

There, he said his training and knowledge of the world of work "enabled me to help people unhappy with their jobs discover alternate careers."

After ten years in private practice, he retired and now indulges in his hobbies of travel, gardening and raising exotic fish.