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Biography of Eldon Quick
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In 1982 Eldon began his second career. His lifelong hobby of building model aircraft for flying and museum display became an official occupation when he joined the new owners of Pacific Miniatures, a fledgling model-making company on the brink of bankruptcy. Today it is the world’s largest supplier of marketing models to the aircraft industry, including the U.S. military. In the mid 80s, in an effort to improve his memory by exercising it, Quick began to memorize some lines from Robert Fitzgerald’s THE ILIAD. The more he acted out the lines, the more intrigued he became. THE ILIAD was not, as Eldon had believed it was, some boring old bit of 2700 year old Western literature, but was very much alive and contemporary, even theatrical. It was the ancient Greek equivalent of "Star Wars," not obscure, not difficult to understand, and most surprisingly, often intentionally humorous and loaded with passion and emotion. It took five years for Eldon to completely memorize Book One of THE ILIAD, working on a line or two each morning while showering, before going to work. Occasionally he would test his memory by having his personal "Muse," his wife Susan, hold book for him while he attempted to recite the 600 lines of poetry word, for word, a job she holds to this day. When ready to perform, he contacted his old college roommate, B. Dan Williams, to assist in the business of production, and Ray Young, to assist in directing, decisions that have proved to be invaluable. Today, Eldon Quick is performing privately for a range of audiences, including colleges, and universities, where students of drama and classical literature have a serious interest. Books One, Two, Three, and Twenty-four are now ready for performance, and Eldon is working on Book four which should be ready in a few years.
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