Are You A Rockwell Collins / Collins Aerospace Retiree?

The Collins Retirees Association is a non-profit organization. The purpose of the Association shall be to provide a meeting place for the members and their families, where they can find companionship and opportunities to pursue their interests in recreational activities, crafts, education, and activities to promote the welfare of the community. The Collins Retirees Association (CRA) is primarily a group of Collins Radio Co. or Rockwell Collins retirees local to the Dallas, TX area. However, we welcome retirees (or family members) from related organizations who have worked directly for or retired from Rockwell Collins or one of the affiliated organizations that were part of the Rockwell International group or spin-offs from that group. If you have retired or otherwise fit the description above, you may register as a member and receive our newsletters, emails and meeting notifications.

RCRA Registration

NOTE: Your privacy is important to the organization and your personal information will NOT be released outside the organization in the future. In the past, it was the practice to release rosters with name, address, phone, and email to members of the organization. The policy was revised effective July 1, 2018 to only release a roster of active names with associated email addresses (if email release was specifically authorized by the member). Rosters will be released in PDF format only.

INFORMATION NEED

It would be nice to collect historical documents describing the formation of the Retirees Association and it’s history. Also, we are always interested in seeing pictures that commerorate the work we did at Collins, particularly in Dallas area. 

Thank you in advance for looking at your files and trying to find some of the information above. This email account will be monitored by one of the officers  (RockwellCollinsRetirees@rcretirees.com). 

Presidents Ponderings by Tommy Dodson

 Message From Our President…

It has now been over a year since we have been able to get together. We have recently learned that our  meeting location ( Richardson Civic Center) will not be available for our April meeting due to continuing COVID restrictions. Although vaccines are rolling out quickly, it is good for us to be cautious at this time and delay our in person meeting one more time.

However, many have now been involved with virtual meetings and are becoming more comfortable with that venue. As a result, our team has decided to try a zoom session for our April 15, 2021 meeting. Although in person sessions for our social organization are preferred, we thought it would be good to get together virtually in order to reconnect after this one year plus hiatus.

 I am excited to announce our virtual meeting will take place on April 15, 2021 from 10am – 12 pm. I am very pleased that Scott Pingsterhaus, Sr. Director Integrated Solutions Business Development for Collins Aerospace Richardson will be our featured speaker (Click for Bio). Scott leads the marketing/sales team for the Richardson business. Scott will overview the changes with the company as a result of the combination of United technologies and Raytheon last year. Scott will also discuss the current business in Richardson including many of the legacy programs. We will also introduce our new sponsor, Miller& Vess, P.C., who have already been contributing to our organization.

This agenda will take approximately an hour. We are opening the session for two hours to allow questions, discussions and virtual visiting over the last hour. This may be complicated to manage but we will all do the best we can to make it possible to have discussions. The link to the zoom session is provide in this e-mail and is being provided on the Collins Retiree Association website.

I look forward to our virtual get together on April 15. It will be great to catch up even if it is not in person and I hope you can make this session.

Tommy Dodson

We are seeking nominations and/or volunteers to lead the RCRA from Oct 2021 to April 2023

The two year terms for our current officers completes after our April 2021 meeting. We are now asking for volunteers to take one of the three positions. The positions are President, Vice President and Treasurer. If you have interest in one of these opportunities, you can contact one of our current officers with any questions and to volunteer. The officers and their contact information can be found under the contacts section of the website. A quick reminder of our current officers is provided below:

  • President – Tommy Dodson ( 951-313-4264)
  • Vice President- Vacant (Bill Zeigler Acting 214-886-5634)
  • Treasurer – Ted Fredricks.     ( 214-803-6544)

Member Contributions

Member contributions received at the meetings continue to play a major role in offsetting the expenses of this organization. When the baskets are passed please be generous. Another way to help RCRA is to purchase an ad on this site. Any RCRA officer can help you with the details.

New Retirees & Obituaries

Due to privacy concerns, Rockwell Collins does not directly release the names and contact information of employees retiring.  Therefore, it is up to us (all of you and me) to take notice of those retiring and report that information to the RCRA leadership.  Please provide name and contact information of new retirees by email or phone to the RCRA officers.  See the Contacts & Links page for phones. Email: rcretirees@gmail.com. We ask you to notify one of the officers of obituaries/death notices for our members and send a copy to our email account (rcretirees@gmail.com) to aid in distribution of that information to our members.

Website Information

In 2015, Jerry Henninger, a past president of RCRA, engaged his business partner Lance Ochs to develop, maintain, and host the RCRA website, http://www.rcretirees.com. Today, Lance continues to host the website but we’ve transitioned development to Bill Zeigler and on-going maintenance to Eric Pearson. We thank Jerry and Lance for the initial development and for hosting our web site. We also thank Bill & Eric for taking the initiative to reorganize and update the website.

RCRA Meeting is Coming!

April 15, 2021 Meeting
Using Zoom
(See Instructions Below)

Next Meeting - April 15, 2021

Day(s)

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Hour(s)

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Minute(s)

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Second(s)

Collins Retirees Association Requests Donations in Lieu of Requiring Dues

The Collins Retirees Association (CRA) has a few sponsors but must have donations from members in order to pay for meeting facilities and other costs associated with the CRA’s operation. When we can return to face-to-face meetings, we will be forced into commercial venues at a higher cost as the Civic Center is entering renovation. You may donate at the link below using a PayPal account or your credit card.

Thursday – April 15, 2021 Meeting will be held using the Zoom conferencing application.

10:00am Meeting Start
10:30am Speaker – Scott Pingsterhaus 
             Scott’s Photo & BIO
11:00am Sponsor Time
11:15-11:45am Open Discussion

For planning, our meetings are scheduled on the third Thursday of April and October each year.  You can mark you calendar now to reserve the dates.

We will continue to follow local guidelines for large meetings. We have been informed that the Richardson Civic Center will not be taking any reservations for meetings in foreseeable future and likely will not host public meetings when it fully reopens. As a result, we are looking for alternative venues to hold our meetings when large meetings are more appropriate.

Join the Zoom Meeting

Click the link below to open the Zoom meeting in your default browser. Always keep your microphone muted unless you wish to talk. 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83859263353?pwd=K293OGhhVmd4U1piTzBENjB5VG1kUT09

Alternately, open Zoom on your computer and join the meeting using:

Meeting ID: 838 5926 3353
Passcode: 429465

By Phone:

Dial (346) 248- 7799 and follow prompts to enter Meeting ID and Passcode.