After graduating in the spring of 1961, I headed off to Cornell University to pursue a degree in economics; I then followed up with an MBA program at the University of Chicago where I majored in both finance and accounting (CPA in 1971); as we all recall, the Vietnam war was raging in those years and the draft had not yet been replaced by the lottery; so I applied for a direct commission to become an officer in the US Army; finished the MBA in June 1967,was accepted in that officer program, and after my training in GA and Massachusetts, I was assigned to a military intelligence post in Germany as the XO of the unit; returned to the US in early 1970 to begin my professional career - in brief, I spent the next 34 years in several large companies and numerous locations; first 7 years in public accounting (NYC), followed by 8 years in the pharmaceutical industry (NYC and NJ) and then 18 years in the telcom industry (NJ, PA, VA and Mexico) with Bell Atlantic/Verizon; most of my industry positions were in various areas of corporate finance; two highlights of the time with BA/Verizon were being responsible (5+ years) for the purchase and sale of certain smaller companies and a 3+ year assignment as the CFO of a wireless company in Mexico City (highly enriching experience in terms of business responsibilities, culture adaptation, etc.); I retired in late 2003 and began pursuing other interests for the next 13 years; all in all it was a very satisfying business career, and if I had it to do over again, the only change I would have made would be to take an international business role earlier in my career.
Most of those years in corporate finance involved high levels of stress; hence, my post retirement objective was to see what life was like on the "other side of the tracks," and eliminate the pressures; this led to working at "public facing" positions at golf courses, auto dealerships and, to enable me to "give back" my financial management expertise, I have served for many years on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations in the greater Washington, DC and Baltimore metropolitan areas; in addition, I started up and managed my own interior painting business from 2004 to 2011, in brief, these years were quite a change from my career in financial management.
On the personal side, I have three sons (includes a set of identical twins) and six grandchildren whose families reside in MD and NJ; my oldest son is a lawyer and the twins both have positions with the Baltimore County school system; I have had the opportunity to live near a number of cities to include NY, DC, Philadelphia and Baltimore, as well as travel extensively in the US and overseas during my career.
Over the years, my outside interests have always included golf, travel and writing; I had attended the HHS reunion in 2011 and look forward to the 60th year celebration in 2021; at this stage of life, the clear priorities are family, good health and friends; the years at HHS had many great memories, including the post Friday night basketball game gatherings at Jahns and the many close friendships formed.
Finally, my thanks to all those who have created and sustained the monthly HHS newsletter.
