On a questionnaire he filled out at a 1984 reunion of his eighth-grade class at Riverview School, Dennis Rader offered his philosophy of life.

"Do it now - Life is complicated and short so stay young at heart as long as possible: It was so easy in '59."

Life is indeed now complicated for Rader, who has been arrested as a suspect in the BTK serial killings and booked on suspicion of eight counts of murder.

And the 59-year-old Park City, Kan., resident is a complicated man, according to people who are his friends, neighbors and former co-workers.

He is arrogant, by-the-numbers, rude and confrontational, some said.

He is efficient, nice, friendly, a regular guy, others said.

During the '70s and '80s, Rader worked at ADT Security Services. Nobody who worked with Rader during his 15 years with the company could stand him, according to several former co-workers.

"I don't believe the gentleman was well liked at all," said Mike Tavares, a former co-worker at ADT, where Rader worked from 1974 to 1989, when most of BTK's victims were killed.

Rader was born March 9, 1945, one of four brothers. He graduated from Heights High School in Wichita in 1963 and from Wichita State University in 1979.

Except for a four-year tour of duty in the Air Force from 1965 to 1969, he spent his entire life in the Wichita area, and has lived in the suburb of Park City since 1971.

He is married, has two children, is active in the Boy Scouts, and is president of the church council at Christ Lutheran Church near Heights High.

Rader worked in the meat department for Leeker's IGA in Park City, and was an assembler at Coleman Co. from 1970 to 1973.

When he worked for ADT, he held several positions that allowed him into customers' homes, including installation manager.

"He would've been in a prime position to get very intimate knowledge about them," said Tavares, who worked with Rader for 2 1/2 years.

Officials with ADT could not be reached for comment.

Tavares and others recalled Rader as blunt, by-the-book, egotistical, arrogant, rude and demanding.

Tavares recalled a confrontation with Rader that ended when Rader cursed him.

"He told me to go pound sand. ... I was so dumbfounded, I just stood there. I couldn't believe that somebody would talk to me that way," Taveras said.

Another former co-worker remembered that Rader beat on the hood of a company truck during a confrontation with another employee.

Neighbors in Park City, where Rader was a city code compliance officer, described Rader as a control freak who enjoyed the power of his office. Others said he was just doing his job.

Park City resident Sarah Gordon said she and her sister Heather Herrera had a run-in with Rader last summer at their garage sale because they didn't have a license for it.

"He told us we had to have one, and then he told us: `You don't want to mess with me. I'm nobody to mess with,'" Gordon said.

Gordon said Rader followed her sister to Park City Hall, where she obtained the license.

Linda Day, one of Rader's neighbors, said she saw him measure a neighbor's lawn with a ruler one day. He called the city to have the lawn mowed because he thought it was too high, Day said.