Ryo Nakamizo
Do you ever feel as though you can barely get all the things you need to get done in the twenty-four hours of a day--let alone find time to volunteer? I bet you do…but this month’s ,Stellar Volunteer Ryo Nakamizo quietly and consistently makes time in his days each month for the Tyler Foundation…even when that means working while others are sleeping! You see, Ryo runs his own IT company helping businesses and individuals fix their computer woes. He says “I don’t have much spare time. Whenever I get a call from a client, I go to their house or office to fix their computers. At home, I fix, build up and import computers and maintain clients’ servers.” Yet Ryo makes time in his day for the Tyler Foundation newsletter. Mark Ferris pointed out, “We’re proud of the newsletter and get many compliments about it, but a HUGE amount of work goes into monthly production. Ryo has been a key component partly because of his excellent IT skills but also because of his patience! He has spent many late nights meeting production deadlines.”
Ryo lives in Saitama with his wife and two dogs. He has a decade of experience with personal computer (PC) software and hardware that began at a Japanese computer shop in Los Angeles, California in 2000. Ryo told us, “I sold PC’s, software and repaired and built computers.” Returning to Japan in 2003, Ryo worked for the same company in Ebisu. There, Ryo interacted with foreigners and gained more knowledge and experience in the hardware and software field. After five years, he decided to establish his own business and through word-of-mouth his business has grown with people calling on him for help with their PC’s, servers and/or other technical devices.
It should be no surprise then that Ryo came to be connected to the Tyler Foundation through his work in IT. He said, “I started to work for the Tyler Foundation when Moon-san, who was working on the website, went back to Hong Kong, around June 2008. Kim contacted me because I was fixing her computer problems at that time.” Mark recalled, “we first met Ryo when he helped us at home on some IT issues. Ryo actually met Tyler once when Tyler was home for the weekend and Ryo was coming to our IT rescue. Later, when he learned of what we were doing with the TF, he agreed to help us with distribution of our newsletter.” Ryo spends hours each month transforming words and pictures into the technical format that enables the finished product that you read each month.
The Tyler Foundation relies on valuable volunteers like Ryo to keep the communication flowing to you, our friends. Mark sums it up saying, “he has made an extraordinary contribution to the Tyler Foundation for which we’re very grateful. Many, many bits and bytes of thanks to you, Ryo!”