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I attended the University of Wisconsin following graduation, with Dave Canty as my roommate. He was, and is now, a "night owl"; I was, and am now, a "morning person", and our friendship suffered for a few years as a result. Forty years later, he is the one friend from high school that I have regularly kept in touch with and maintained a close friendship with over the years after we reconnected in New York City on a business trip I took in 1981.
While at the UW, my #54 draft number in McHenry County coaxed me to join ROTC. I think I was the only Air Force ROTC corps commander in UW history ever tear gassed in an anti-war demonstration. But the Kent State shootings ignited the UW campus in 1970, and I had to get involved. I married Linda Rohde, my college sweetheart, and we had four wonderful kids in a marriage that ended in separation and divorce in 1990.
But that took me down a pathway that lead me to the love of my life, Lynn Hurley, who I knew from work, but did not date until six months after I was legally separated, in November of 1990. I fell in love with her on our first date, on Tuesday, November 13th, 1990, and have celebrated a rest-of-our-life long romance with her ever since. Her two kids slowly came to accept me in their lives, and we are having an incredible journey together as we just celebrated our 971st Tuesday since that first date. We married on September 11, 1993, a date tarnished by the tragedy of 9/11. But each year we celebrate that date, and focus on the events of 1993, not 2001.
I planned on a career in Social Work. But after a stint as a classification interviewer at Lackland AFB, interviewing 14,000+ new recruits in a little over 2 years, I decided maybe that wasn't for me. I read the book Atlas Shrugged, which changed my perception of business, and then volunteered to serve in an underground Minuteman III ICBM launch control center (remember the cold war???) to take advantage of a program to earn an MBA degree while manning the front line of our strategic deterrent. Fortunately for all of us, WW III never happened, and I was able to complete the degree.
With sheepskin in hand, I left the Air Force in 1978, and spent a career in the medical devices industry in various finance, marketing and sales positions. My resume lead me to a role at GE as a Global General Manger for one of their healthcare businesses. It has been a fascinating career working with the leading edge of healthcare technologies in a variety of product areas with companies like Datex-Ohmeda, GE Healthcare and now TomoTherapy. I have the responsibility today of bringing TomoTherapy's incredible cancer treatment technology to the Asia-Pacific region, and am currently engaged in developing our market in Australia and New Zealand, as well as growing the business in India, China and elsewhere in Asia.
Career Update (2/2019) Living in Charleston SC area. Managing Radiation Oncology Centers through a JV with the Medical University of South Carolina. Joined Nashville based Alliance Oncology in May 2014.
A highlight of my work has been the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the USA and every continent except Africa. Thanks to frequent flyer miles, Lynn and I have been able to travel together on numerous occasions, and this has filled our lives with a rich patchwork of unforgettable experiences.
Our favorite vacation is to see an area by bicycle, and we have peddled our way across the Isle of Wight, along canals in Holland, along rivers in Quebec, on the Spanish coast in Catalonia, the Green Mountains of Vermont, Central Park, and all over Wisconsin. This fall it will be the Napa Valley.
Latest update is our family is up to 11 grandchildren now.
Lynn and I love the outdoors. She motivated me quite soon after meeting her to cease my life as a couch potato of sorts, and since she was a runner, well...I ran after her. A couple of NY Marathons later, I stuck to tamer things like cycling, canoeing, skiing, golf and building sandcastles. I have tried to stay connected to community theater and have been in a number of productions, but unfortunately, my travel prevents me from making the required time commitment. I fulfilled a lifetime dream in 1999 and earned a private pilot's license, and to me there is nothing so relaxing as "slipping the surely bonds of earth and dancing the skies on laughter silvered wings".
If I have learned anything in the last 40 years, it is that the little things matter most. I savor every moment with Lynn and try not to ever take time with family and friends and those precious grandchildren for granted. The expression "Carpe Diem" from the film "The Dead Poet's Society" has always resonated within me as a mantra of sorts. Simply live every day as if it is your first, your last and your only.
update 2023: I retired in 2018 and last fall moved back to Madison, WI where we have lived off and on over the years. most of my kids and grandkids are here, so it is a great place to enjoy retirement. We are still going strong, with family and friends, golfing, bicycling, kayaking and enjoying the outdoors together occupy our days. I have no idea how I ever had time to work!
