Candidate for
US Representative; District 2

I am Randy Lee Conover. I am the first-born of a wonderful couple married for 30+ years before death caused their temporary seperation. In the family, Mom and Dad always put us kids ahead of themselves, often doing without themselves to provide for us. While we were their pride and joy, they made sure that we learned respect for others, proper discipline and appropriate behavior, an appreciation of the value of education, and a love of God and country. We may have been poor financially, but were rich in so many other more important ways!

I am a life-long resident of Clermont County, Ohio. My family heritage is multi-generational American on all four grandparents' lineage. Their's were Dutch, English, Scotch, and Irish.

Though I never served in the military myself, Dad made sure I developed a strong respect for those who had. He was a disabled combat veteran of World War II, a corporal in the U.S. Army artillery at Eniwetok, New Guinea, the Philippines, and the occupation of Japan. He was not alone in my family's military heritage. His Grandfather served in the American Civil War as a sergeant in the Union army. Greatgrandpa was also a disabled vet, wounded at the battle of Shiloh, and again at Vicksburg. Apparently, my surname distant ancestor migrated to America from Holland in time to fight for our nation's freedom as part of the New Jersey Line in the Revolutionary War, sometime thereafter migrated again to become one of the earliest settlers in the Cincinnati area, and along the way Americanized the family surname from its Dutch original. Like most Americans of these periods, we were farm families.

So far as I know, I am the first of our branch of the family to graduate from high school, college, and to achieve a post-graduate degree. I was inducted into the National Honor Society in high school. As Mom and Dad were certainly not able to pay my way through college (though they certainly helped as they could), I had to work full-time jobs (at one point three at a time) to pay my way. During this time, I twice worked in a factory doing assembly; worked for the Ohio State Parks in the camp area, doing maintenance and security patrol; worked in a county hospital primarily in the Emergency Room but also on the floors doing patient care; and was with the Ohio State Highway Patrol as a Radio Dispatcher.

Upon college graduation with certification to teach, I signed a contract with a Clermont County school district where I was a 3rd through 7th-Grade academic classroom teacher of regular education and special-needs students for 31 years. While most of the top students were placed in other classrooms (I tended to get those kids who "need a man"), I am proud that of the graduating class of 2000 the #1, #2, and #4-ranked academic students were my former classmembers all of whose achievements were not because they were naturally-gifted whizzkids, but because of their developed superior work ethics. I coached and refereed high school sports briefly during this time. For better than 25 years, I voluntarily provided videography services to the school district (which I still am doing), taping well over 100 events a year during almost half of those years. These videotapes/DVDs have been used by coaches to help teach skills, keep young athletes safe, and assist in getting college coaches interested in our student athletes. On several occasions, they have also been used to settle disputes - one of my DVDs having been significant in helping the Ohio High School Athletic Association during a disciplinary hearing (I am told that this use helped make a first ever decision of its type). For my video work, I have been honored by being inducted in my district's Athletic Hall of Fame. I was a teacher applicant from Ohio for the Teacher-In-Space Program (the program unfortunately resulted in the shuttle Challenger disaster). During several years along my teaching career, I was honored with inclusion in Who's Who Among America's Teachers, having been nominated by my former students. During my tenure, I also received several "perfect attendance" and "exemplary service" awards. Unfortunately, district economic factors caused my retirement (while I was at my most skilled time of my career, loved teaching, and wanted to continue to at least 40 years service).

To make up for my lack of military service (due to being classified as ineligible because of a history of health issues: allergies, my draft call coinciding with a major troop reduction in Viet Nam during which few draftees were being approved, and low draft lottery drawing positionings), I served within my community in several capacities. I have been a scoutmaster in the Boy Scouts. During the last several decades, I have coached and refereed youth sports for 25+ years. I served the community as a Firefighter/EMT-Paramedic for a decade, rising to the rank of Deputy Chief. During this time, I was significant in upgrading and modernizing training and procedures and in rewriting the by-laws reorganizing the organization. For this service, shortly after that retirement, I was honored by being made a Lifetime Honorary Member of the department. I was with my county's Civil Defense Agency for 10+ years serving in responses to numerous community emergencies from before the blizzards of '77-'78, through the years of response preparations in readiness for the Zimmer Nuclear Power Plant. Here, I was significant in numerous activities of the agency including assisting in writing plans for various potential community emergency scenarios, responding to calls both inside the county and as mutual-aid elsewhere in the state (in recognition of our agency's high level of capabilities), and as Radiological Defense Officer preparatory for nuclear radiation emergencies resulting from possible Cold War and/or Zimmer situations. During my tenure I am proud to say that our county agency was among the only such agencies to successfully pass in its first try Federal testing of preparations in response to future emergencies at a nuclear power plant.

During the past decade, I have been actively involved in presenting living history of the pre-1840s period of American history. I am involved in several groups which study the lifeways of the people of that Founding Period of our American nation and then assume a personna derived from the ways of life and thinking of the historic people who lived then. This is another means of public education. The last two years, I have particularly focused my personna and public presentations around the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

I have been a member of the United Methodist Church for 45 years, and attended that church during life before being old enough for membership. I am currently (and have been for many years) a Trustee, Lay Leader, and the Chair of the Pastor-Parish Relations Committee within my local church. I have served for several past years as our churches' lay delegate to several sessions of the Methodist Church Annual West Ohio Conference where church legislation, activities, and financing issues are decided into church law.

Finally, even though I was registered as an independent voter then and for several years prior, when my brother's job caused him to need to relocate in another state, the major political party in which he held a position as an elected precinct committeeman came to me asking that I fill the vacancy created by his leaving. I served in that elected position for several years, leaving when I saw that the party was not fulfilling its promises to the voting public, the party leadership was not interested in listening to its base, and that therefore it would loose control of the Congress, the White House, and in numerous state offices. Unfortunately, my prediction of these things have come true to the increased detriment of our country.