Michael Clow

Hello Polar Bears,

Wow, over 50 years since we graduated and we can recall over half a century. Where does the time go? My 95 year old mom, living in Charlevoix, says "older age is a privilege denied to many". Then I guess we should all be thankful as already we are missing some of our classmates.

Here is a quick synopsis of the last 50+ years. I attended Wayne State University with major in Biology & minor in Psychology (mostly pre-med classes). Nursing school to become an anesthetist and dropped out after a year realizing I did not enjoy being around sick people or medical hierarchy.

Back to truck driving (used for income during college) for a few years and then moved into distribution management of warehouses for Abitibi-Price & Lucas Industries. Got bored with corporate life and opened my own business in 1985.

The Yachtsman sold sailing apparel and was the largest single store dealer of Patagonia clothing for 18 years until I closed it in 2003 to open TheYachtsman.Com which only sells sailing clothing and not Patagonia.

Met a wonderful lady, Kathy Pitus, in 1991 and we got married in 1993. She really loves the water so we enjoy sailing together. You can check out our sailing website at http://desiresailing.org.

Fun includes sailing, skiing, computers, teaching business classes at Oakland Community College and local sailboat race management at North Star Sail Club, Albatross Yacht Club (2009 Commodore) and Charlevoix Yacht Club.

I got restless, again, and accepted an offer to work with my long time sailing buddy, Harold Stackpoole, at Global Mapping Strategies as a GIS Analyst and Business Manager. The GMS corporate sport was sailboat racing so how could I refuse? And it was fun to work with people in their 20s and know that I still had skills in the corporate world. We worked with Big Data and GIS digital cartography. When GMS was sold to IHSMarkit I stayed on for another couple of years and then retired in 2021. I am still dabbling with selling foul weather gear for sailors as it pays for a beer here and there.

Now that I am retired I am working on the last third of my life. I might do a bit more teaching as I want to help/encourage others to start their own businesses and to sail.

It would be great to hear from others & especially any of you who might share similar interests.