convention. This award is similar to a Lifetime Achievement award and honored Dad for his lifelong industry efforts. • In 2005, Nutrition Business Journal presented Elwood another Lifetime Leadership Award. They noted his hard work, vision and commitment to inspire a large company and entire industry in areas of retailer support, overall quality and taking proactive measures toward environmental preservation. • In 2005, NOW’s analytical scientists gained industry respect when our newly developed method for HPLC testing of glucosamine was approved by the non-profit AOAC (American Organization of Analytical Chemists). This means that a method that NOW created was accepted by AOAC, after a 2-year validation process, to become the official standard test for the industry. BILL RICHARD LEAVES HIS MARK After years of being passive stockholders, two of Bill Richard’s progeny joined the NOW team as full-time employees. After eight years with EVEREN Securities, daughter Beth Pecenka left her position as Senior VP, Equity Research covering the Specialty Retailing and Supplement Manufacturing sectors, for an all-too-short break to have three healthy, energetic boys. During this so-called break, Beth also worked as a NOW consultant to provide industry and competitive analyses. Since August 2003, Beth provided expertise in strategy and business development, as well as later leading our marketing group. Unfortunately, a messy problem caused Beth to leave the family business she loved in 2015. Bill’s son, Mike Richard, finally took Elwood’s advice to retire from the U.S. Navy and return to the business. Mike served 25 years, rising through the enlisted ranks and obtaining his commission as a Naval Officer. Mike’s experience in operations & logistics, personnel, and administration has already had a positive impact on the company. Easygoing by nature, Mike was extremely happy to learn that we no longer hand-pack desiccated liver powder like he did in his teens. Sadly, just as Mike and Beth were settling in to their roles at NOW, their father, Bill Richard, passed away April 25, 2004 after fighting a battle with cancer. I truly feel that Bill would have listed his children’s increased participation in the family business as one of his proudest accomplishments. Their decisions to join the company full-time was a result of “talking shop” with Bill often about NOW and his vision lived on through them. CHOLESTEROL BE GONE! Having become a 40-something in 2004, I had a blood test at our local health food store in May, 2004 to check up on my health. I had not been tested like this for at least 10 years since I am normally in very good health and almost never visit a doctor. I expected a very clean bill of health because of my healthy lifestyle, regular basketball, multitudes of vitamins and immersion into health foods from a young age. The report shocked me when it showed my total cholesterol was at a surprisingly high 269 and LDL (bad cholesterol) was at 195. Though every other part of the test had very healthy results, I had never anticipated any trouble with cholesterol, especially at my age. Fortunately, there is so much information available to naturally reduce cholesterol that nobody needs to get hooked on statin drugs, which warn of many negative side effects. 2003-2005 97