Comments:
Graduated 1974 from SIU-Edwardsville, Cum Laude with a dual major (Mass Communications and Normal Psychology) and a minor in Business Marketing. Most important, SIU-E introduced me to my lovely wife, Ruth, from Belleville. We married in 1974, and have remained married since.
Worked 5 years in the usual whirl-wind of job hopping, first as a TV news anchor at a small Cable TV station in midstate Illinois, followed by a stint as a corporate newspaper editor at Alton Box Board Company. Then, I opened Alton Square Shopping Center in 1978 as the center’s first Promotions Director.
Finally found a steady gig in late 1979 with Southwestern Bell Telephone as a business marketing manager. Spent the next 21 years in two related pursuits… ten years in Public Relations (five as company spokesperson in Springfield, MO), and eleven years as a Product Development Manager in consumer marketing. If you still have a landline telephone (LOL), chances are you use several services introduced by my teams.
Transferred to SBC’s Dallas HQ in 1997, I accepted an early leave incentive offer in 2000 along with 18,000 other (smart) managers.
Since then, I've managed new product development projects with AVAYA, Inc, in Dallas, and later, DELL Computer, commuting weekly from Dallas to/from DELL Corporate Headquarters in Round Rock, TX.
Became bored with 24/7/365 corporate manager life, so semi-retired in 2007 at age 56, to operate my own (small) mail order company, and provide part-time product marketing consultancy for a couple start-up clothing and auto parts companies here in Dallas. Worked a couple hourly-paid service jobs just to keep busy and have some fun.
This leaves plenty of time to enjoy the Dallas climate, play some golf, win a few Nat'l awards shooting Airgun Field Target, write a book (WIP) and bounce the grandkids on the knee (or the one knee that works best).
My personal motto is, "Work is a horrible waste of a perfectly good lifetime." So, I permanently retired on my 60th birthday in 2011, just in time for the Mayan Calendar to run out in 2012. Life’s good... so far.
Update... Still here in 2019. The Mayans weren't that prescient after all. I guess the priest (or priestess) assigned to write calendar 2.0 just died, and left selfish children wanting to "do their own thing" instead. That would never happen in America, right?
I've recently enlisted as an Advocacy Volunteer (grassroots lobbiest) for AARP. My role is to periodically visit my US Senator and US TX Congressional Dist 26 Congressman regarding non-partisan issues of interest to over age 50 Americans.
