Videographer Records the Life Stories of World War II and Korean Veterans

From Patch.com: Videographer Records the Life Stories of World War II and Korean Veterans
Dick Sutherland doesn't sit on his laurels. He's an active member in his church, Montrose Zion United Methodist, and he runs two businesses with his wife Beverly.

He is also active in the World War II-Korean War Roundtable, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. The Roundtable hosts guest speakers the fourth Thursday of each month at the Kiwanis Community Center in Fairlawn.

Sutherland is concerned that schools don't really teach kids about these wars anymore. "I'd like to see the schools teach this in social studies or American history," he says.

He'd also like to see schools take advantage of what the Roundtable has to offer. The public is invited to its monthly meetings, and the group encourages parents to bring their children.

For the Roundtable, Sutherland has been videotaping the life stories of veterans through the business that he and his wife run, Pic-Tur-This Video, since June of 2002. "This is like plasma for me, even though I wasn't active in combat," Sutherland says. His recordings are made available to the public through the University of Akron's Archival Services.

"We call this a living history," Sutherland says.

A Navy veteran of the Korean War, Sutherland didn't see combat. He enlisted in the Navy soon after graduating from high school in 1948. He always wanted to fly, so he went into Naval Air, where he eventually became an in-flight instructor.

He was discharged in 1952 and started working as a technician for AT&T in his hometown of Portsmouth, Ohio. The self-described country boy was promoted to sales and relocated to the "big city" of Cleveland, where he met his wife. Over his years at AT&T, Sutherland worked in Toledo and Columbus, and eventually found his way back to the area as a national sales manager in Akron.

"Every four to five years, you were moved someplace," Sutherland says.

When college graduates started taking all the big promotions, Sutherland was downsized. "I wound up making more money taking a step down." Five years later, he left the company and retired at 53 years old.

Since then, Sutherland and his wife have been juggling an Amway business and Pic-Tur-This Video.

The soon-to-be 82-year-old has been an active participant in Bath Township, more specifically the Montrose area, for the 32 years that he and his wife have lived here. He's helped coach football at Copley High School, where his two sons graduated, and he's been on the Bath Township's Trustees Advisory Council.

It was at Copley High School where he got his start as a freelance videographer. He used the school's equipment to video tape its wrestling matches and football games.

Incidently, that's also when he was tapped to help coach football games. While his two sons, who are 18 months a part, played football for the high school, Sutherland was a volunteer assistant coach between 1983 and 1992. "I enjoyed every minute of it."

Sutherland and his wife started videotaping weddings and receptions as a fluke. A friend asked if they would record her wedding and wanted to know how much they would charge. They didn't know at the time, so they settled for a meal.

Now, 25 years later, the business is flourishing. And it goes beyond the boundaries of Montrose. "Have camera, will travel," Sutherland says. "We've gone as far as Canada."

And it offers more than video recording. Beverly Sutherland carries along her needle and thread to help brides keep their dresses perfect for their special days.

Sutherland and his wife do everything together, he says. "We even went to the doctor together this morning."

They have lunch together every day. It's a habit they started about eight to 12 months before he retired from AT&T. "After work, there was too much happening with the kids.

"We both vowed that neither one of us are going to die. We are going together," Sutherland says. Besides, "I told her she can't die, because I don't understand her bookkeeping."