This young man knows computers
Published: July 16, 2008
By Norm Martin

If you believe all the computer wizardry is confined to the Silicon Valley in California you might check out the owner of West American Technologies in Wedderburn, Oregon. Eric Ragsdale is a savvy graduate of Phillips College in Clovis, California where he received a degree in Computer Information Systems.

Eric admits he was sort of floating around trying to get the keel of his personal ship on a straight course. He got married, divorced, and was feeling some pangs of desperation when he entered college, got his degree and headed down to Atlanta, Georgia to accept a job offer. He worked seven years for AT&T as a support analyst, felt the blow delivered from a pink slip as thousands of workers in the computer industry were dumped like spoiled beef into a dump; churned and stumbled out of the muck and found his footing again.

"There's a better than average job market in Atlanta," Eric related. "I worked as a Lotus Notes Administrator/Domino Developer for the Georgia State Assembly; a Software Developer Specialist for Hewlett Packard, and a computer programmer for Metropolitan Life Insurance. I finally wound up contracting out to St. Judes Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee as a telecommuter. After that contract expired I decided to come back to the Pacific Ocean side of the United States."

Eric was born in Ventura County, living his early years in Camarillo and Thousand Oaks, California. "I enjoyed the ocean when living in California so I decided to give Oregon a look see. Smallness was of interest to me, as I was tired of the big metropolitan areas like Los Angeles and Atlanta. But there was always that consideration about making a decent living; could I make that in Gold Beach?" Eric wondered.

He sacrificed the opportunity to fill up his bank account contracting for the bigger jobs. "I wanted the solace of a small community," Eric continued.

"The ocean, river and abundance of pine trees made the bucks in my pocket take a backseat to the quieter lifestyle."

If working 10, 12 and sometimes 15 hours a day wasn't enough to keep the blood flushing in his veins, Eric donates his volunteer services to numerous organizations, including the Oasis House, Curry County Fairgrounds, Friends of Curry County Home,Health & Hospice, Curry County Anadromous Fishermen, Friends of Justin and the North Bank Cedar Valley Fire Dept.

Eric recently purchased a home six miles up the North Bank Road near Libby Pond.

"When I first came to the Gold Beach area," Eric remembers, "I was struggling in an effort to put down some roots and make a living to boot. My first contacts in the computer business were setting up websites for some of the Rogue River fishing guides; Skip Baldwin, Chris Young and Dave Anderson were a few of the guides I contacted.

They were terrific in working with a complete newcomer to the area. Those are gifts a small community presents you, friendliness and giving," he confided with pride.

Ragsdale came to the Gold Beach community in 1999 and now has a business site across from Lex's Landing and next to Rollin' ‘n Dough. He specializes in website designs; SQL programming; Graphic Designs; Perl Programmer; complete in-shop computer services; Hardware/ Software/ Networking Training and Diagnostics repair. He also builds and maintains both R5 and R6 servers and administers and updates servers and databases.

Citizens around town have formed a mutual admiration society for Ragsdale, not only as a textbook sharp computer guy, but just a gentleman who gives back to his community tenfold.