“Just take this day and do something good with it.”

That was Rick Mains summarizing his feelings and, I think, his philosophy at the end of our interview the other day. Many in Tipp City know Rick, but it’s too bad everyone doesn’t. He’s a Tipp treasure.

Rick is currently on the Tipp City Board of Education, his second time around, and he’s pretty passionate about the job. He was on the Board from 1991 to 1995 because he had two kids in Tipp High School, wanted to help, loved going to school events, and knew people on the Board. He especially liked the teachers, superintendent, and treasurer at that time. He spoke to the 1995 Tipp High School graduating class and told them, “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.”

Rick ran again for the School Board in 2021 because he believed there was too much controversy and again wanted to help. Rick believes that “our students are the most important, and we need to give them the best opportunity for education that we can. We also need good parents, and I want to take care of the teachers because they take care of our kids. We need to work with them, not against them.”

I asked Rick why he so compassionately spoke out at one Board meeting against firing teachers and then voted for the RIFs (Reduction in Force) at a later meeting. He said, “I did not want to do it, but that doesn’t mean I won’t do it. When you have operating deficits and can’t cut those expenses any further, what else can you do? I don’t like it, I hate it, but there’s no other way.”

Rick commented that being a board member is sometimes very tough, but he thinks Superintendent Moran’s job is even tougher. He praises Moran for contacting Board members before each Board meeting to ask them if the agenda is OK and to answer any questions they have. This helps the Board members work together as a team and iron out most issues before meetings start. That doesn’t mean members always agree on everything, he said, but they do respect each other’s opinion. Rick stated, “Superintendent Moran believes that what he wants to do is best for the kids, and I think he wants the best for the teachers and administrators, too.”

Rick believes the two biggest challenges facing schools today are technology and funding. Technology, particularly cell phones, fosters cyberbullying and distraction. Funding schools is always tough because it requires citizens to vote to raise their taxes, which no one likes. He suggests that maybe some of the trillions of dollars we’re sending overseas should be spent instead on our schools.

Rick Mains grew up in Vandalia, where he played baseball and football at Vandalia High School. In his senior year (he whispers not to tell anyone), he scored the final touchdown in Vandalia’s victory over Tipp City. He also met his bride-to-be, Hazel, at Vandalia High. Rick went to Wright State and after graduating, joined his father’s CPA practice, with its main office in north Dayton and a smaller office in Tipp City. He and Hazel had since married, and a friend of theirs convinced them to move to Tipp City. When his father died in 1979 at the young age of 53, Rick took over the business. He decided that computers were the future of accounting, so he bought a Xerox Diablo 3200, with two floppy drives, for (are you sitting down?) $32,000.

Hazel loved to type, says Rick (and still does, on her typewriter), so she entered all the accounting data from paper spreadsheets into the new computer, and soon after, Rick decided to close the Dayton office and move everything to downtown Tipp City. In Tipp, he met other small business owners and formed the Professional Partners Group, which bought two lots at the corner of Garber and Tippecanoe Drive. The group had office buildings constructed there, and it’s where Rick’s CPA business and theirs still reside.

Rick and Hazel had two kids along the way and now have nine grandkids, four of whom they often babysit in a room at the CPA office. Rick says watching his grandkids is now his favorite hobby after trying and loving golf and motorcycle riding with Hazel. That is until they were run off the road one day, which broke Rick’s shoulder and seven ribs. 

I asked Rick, who’s almost 72 years old, when he was going to retire. In addition to his CPA business, he’s been involved in, or is a member of, Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, the Mum Festival, JCs, and other Tipp organizations and events. He said, “At one time, I thought I might retire and kind of semi-tried it, but got too bored. So, I’ve just cut back some.”

It is obvious Rick wants the best for our schools and the community. Along with all his other civic contributions, he donates his Board of Education stipend to local Tipp organizations. He said several times during the interview, “I just enjoy Tipp so much!”

“Just take this day and do something good with it.”