Gailen Vick's Bio

Gailen was born in McMinnville, Tennessee where the importance of an individual's word carried as much weight as a contract. Two of his family lines that have been in America for 11 generations, they are Van De Mark's from his mother Lola May (a Dutch family from Holland, who passed in 2012) , and of course his father Sidney Calvin (who passed in 2001) was from Kentucky.  He was raised with his older siblings Connie Diane Vick Smith (who passed in 2010) & Udell Vick (who died in 1967) and his younger 3 siblings, Wanda May Vick Kwiatt, William Sidney Vick (died in 2014) and James Watts. The whole family were raised as Methodist & Baptist.

Gailen was raised in the Kentucky, Arkansas and California. His father was an electrician and worked on projects like the Folsom Dam, Missile Silos (in the mid-west) & Tennessee Valley Authority. His mother was always been a stay at home mother and a great cook, she was a parachute inspector in WWII!

Gailen had a Scoutmaster when he was 11, who answered when asked about how to tell if God was real, he told Gailen to go to the chapel when no one was there and ask in prayer. Gailen received his answer.

Gailen graduated from Pine Bluff High School in 1967 while living in Arkansas. He joined the US Navy within a few months of graduating and was trained as an Electronic Technician. He served on the USS Ranger, an Aircraft-Carrier until his discharge in December 1973.

Gailen met his wife, Stella Marie Hernandez in the San Francisco Bay Area (Treasure Island) in 1969 and married in August of that year and was promptly shipped out for operations off the coast of Vietnam. After returning to his home port of Alameda, California and his first cruise to the western pacific, Gailen and Stella were invited to a Billy Graham Revival by a navy buddy. This began their search for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Shortly there after, Missionaries knocked on their door one evening. In 1972 Gailen and his wife joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where they are active today.

After six years in the Navy, Gailen studied Electrical Engineering at Chabot College & Chapman University. Later while being tutored by IBM and Xerox "file technology" engineers, Gailen reached the position of Associate Senior Engineer. 1980 he transferring to the Marketing department where he started his career that ultimately led him to start several companies. Gailen started his career in 1974 at Diablo Systems in the  Electrical Engineering department. He held several senior management positions in the disk drive industry, with companies such as Fujitsu, Priam, Conner Peripherals, Seagate and Avatar. Today, Gailen founded the Reverse Logistics Association www.RLA.org. Gailen retired in 2016 by his company has conferences/expos held in Las Vegas, Amsterdam, Brazil & Singapore.

Gailen's first contact with the extended Vick family was in 1988, when his sister Connie bumped into a Vick in Tennessee that told her that Vick's were meeting together that year in Vicksburg, Mississippii. In June of 1990, Gailen Vick and O. Richard Wright had the Joseph Vick Family of America formally incorporated in the State of North Carolina. Gailen has served as a President JVFOA and Reunion Events Coordinator over the years.

Gailen's family has grown from the 8 children that Stella delivered over 11 years & now to 32 Grandchildren! With all the traveling to stay in touch with all the grandchildren, Gailen stays fit by bicycling & playing racquetball. Since all of his 8 children are raised, and to overcome the "empty nester" syndrome, volunteering to support the Joseph Vick Family of America and his Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has become his favorite pastime.  Having just returned from a 18 month volunteer assignment with his wife Stella (of 52 years), life has slowed down. Gailen has the distinct pleasure of having served as a Scoutmaster in the Boy Scouts of America and as a member of the 360th Quorum of Seventy's in his church.