| Hello, I am Steven Rosenow, webmaster of GilligCoaches.NET. My "obsession" with Gillig school buses - and Gilligs in general, began at a very young age quite oddly, by accident - and I mean that in a literal sense. One day back in 1986 - when I was just entering kindergarten, I rode my very first bus to school. It was an early-60s Gillig, fleet number "1" operated by South Kitsap School District. I didn't really think much of it except that at the time, i thought riding it was the coolest thing in the world since sliced bread and raspberry jelly and peanut butter. I didn't really get hooked until one snowy day that year, when the bus I rode got into an accident. We had slipped off the road making the turn to head to my house (my stop was the next in line) and en route to my house the driver sorta lost control. We ended up landing almost on our side in a ditch, but the driver was able to back his way out of the situation by activating the sanding equipment the bus was equipped with. I suddenly began to get a new appreciation for the type of bus I was riding in, and I've been, as they say, "hooked ever since." My obsession with Gilligs has waned from time to time, and during one of those "peaks" my obsession led me to purchase a Gillig of my own nearly a decade ago. It was a Gillig that I had rode in middle and high school. The Gillig, a 1977, had tandem dual rear axles and a huge, powerful Cummins diesel engine and Fuller Roadranger transmission. The reasons for the purchase was to fulfill that lifelong dream of owning one, and to do a full restoration so I could show people later on down the road what a "real" school bus looked like. Unfortunately however, for financial reasons, I ended up abandoning the project several years ago and ultimately ended up losing the Gillig. In late summer 2006, five years after giving the project up, rumors began circulating that the bus resufaced in a Shelton-area wrecking yard. An attempt to re-purchase the bus (since it was still in intact condition) was made, although unsuccessful. I do have other hobbies, as well. One of my other primary hobbies is designing scenery for Microsoft Flight Simulator. One of my scenery packages for Flight Simulator 2004 was extremely popular, and in addition to working on this website and obtaining another Gillig again, I am also working on a really large scenery package for Washington State for Flight Simulator, as well as awaiting the next release of the long-running franchise scheduled sometime late this year. I also work on model kits (various, although I focus on aviation-related kits), and collect retired traffic signals and streetlights. I also like to watch game shows, such as early-to-mid 80s re-runs of Jeopardy! on GSN. Additionally, I watch Law and Order (all incarnations), Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel, WWE Monday Night Raw, WWE Friday Night SmackDown!, and the VH-1 reality show "Hogan Knows Best." I also love to watch anything related to professional wrestling, especially early WWE videos. I also enjoy racking up the miles on my '96 Ford Taurus GL. As of this writing, I have accumulated 267,540 miles on it. In addition to the above, I became the happy new owner of a 1955 Kenworth-Pacific School Coach in March of 2007, and I'm currently in the process of buying a 1966 Gillig in Montesano. If you wish to contact me, you can use any of the following methods. E-Mail.................................................... webmaster@gilligcoaches.net Yahoo! Instant Messenger................................................ srosenow_98 MSN (Windows) Messenger............................ gilligbus25@hotmail.com** gilligcoaches@hotmail.com** AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)...............................................GilligBus25 ** = I use the first one more frequently. BY SNAIL MAIL Steven Rosenow 19261 North U.S. Highway 101 Shelton, Washington 98584 |
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| GilligCoaches.NET, the Glass Block logo pattern, and all designs and content contained herein are Copyright (C) 2001 - 2006 Steven A. Rosenow, GTCA Productions, Incorporated and its contributors. All Rights reserved. The Gillig Logo, design, and all related indicia are registered trademarks of the Gillig Corporation. GilligCoaches.Net is best viewed and developed using Internet Explorer 6 with a 4:3 desktop screen resolution setting of 1024x768 |
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| Webteam Bios |
| Steven Rosenow Webmaster, GilligCoaches.NET Gillig Coach Historical Society Gillig Coach Club |
| Tim Olsen Assistant Manager Gillig Coach Club Co-Founder, Gillig Coach Historical Society |
| Hello, I'm Timothy Olsen, the assistant manager of the Gillig Coach Club and co-founder of the Gillig Coach Historical Society along with GilligCoaches.NET webmaster Steven Rosenow. I am also the owner of a 1973 Gillig and previous owner of a 1979 Gillig and 1971 Gillig My interest in this field goes way back to early childhood. Riding these "big yellow buses," I was always in awe of how large they were, how they worked, etc. Growing up in this area in the late '80s and into the 1990s, I got the chance, as many school children did, to ride one of these older buses that were in service for more than 20 years. Later, though, I noticed that many districts in the area began to retire the older Gilligs, replacing them with AmTran, Blue Bird, Thomas Built buses, etc. The fact that Gillig had the best safety record of any school bus manufacturer intrigued me, as did their style of construction and overall appearance. With the internet available, I began to search for others like me who was appreciative of those older Gillig buses. In that search, I located a group on the internet led by Steven Rosenow titled "The Gillig Coach Club" and soon became a member. When Steve went on hiatus in 2003, I was soon promoted to the group's "Assistant Manager, to aid in the management of the daily functions of it. It is indeed an honor to be involved in a group whose dedication is the preservation of older Gillig buses and the Gillig family legacy. My dream is to operate a museum dedicated to the transportation history and legacy Gillig has offered for the last 111 years. If you want to reach me, you can do so at T_Olsen@msn.com You can also reach me via IM. MSN Messenger (Or WIndows Live Messenger).................................... T_Olsen@msn.com Yahoo! Messenger ID............................................................................ olsengillig4 Via Snail Mail: Timothy C. Olsen 8961 Illahee Road Bremerton, Washington 98311 MySpace http://www.myspace.com/olsengillig4 http://www.myspace.com/gilligcoaches |
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