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The summer after being graduated from Redwood I briefly worked setting up the Merry-go-round for a traveling carnival as a summer job. Those iron horses are surprising heavy and difficult to handle.
After that summer I was off to Dubuque Iowa for college. The University of Dubuque was a very small liberal arts college that had about 600 people in the entire student body, if the seminary students were counted. I attended the University of Dubuque, as a business major, for a year and a half and received a draft notice the second semester of my sophomore year. That brought me back to Marin.
I began to prepare for my induction into the Army and pondered my odds of surviving military service, particularly in time of war. Fortunately I talked to an Air Force recruiter after my pre-induction physical and he explained the advantage of the Air Force over the Army. I listened attentively and came to the conclusion that 4 years in the USAF in relative safety was better than two years in the Army with a high probability of getting shot at in a rice patty in S E Asia. The Air Force recruiter was able to work a little magic and got the draft board to defer my draft notice while I qualified for the Air Force.
So, I joined the USAF rather than getting drafted into the ARMY. I went to Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas for basic training (and of course went to the Alamo on a day pass), Chanute AFB in Illinois for technical school and was subsequently assigned to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) 5th Bomb Wing, at Travis AFB in Fairfield, CA, as a jet propulsion specialist, working on the B52 Stratofortress and KC-135 Stratotankers. Travis was a short 1 hour trip to the Bay Area, so I came back to Marin County most week-ends. I didn't fly and wasn't a pilot.
In the event I did end up going to Okinawa for a 6 month temporary tour of duty (TDY), which was very fun, interesting, and educational. I met some wonderful locals and generally had a good time.
I was granted an early discharge to return to school and attended College of Marin for two years where I took coursed in computer programming, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and business, and made the campus honor society.
After two years I transferred to the University of Wisconsin – Madison and enrolled in the Psychology program.
I was fortunate enough to have some great professors, and took the last primatology class taught by the legendary primatologist Harry Harlow. I was graduated from UW with BA degrees in Psychology and Sociology.
Back to Marin, where I drove a cab in Mill Valley briefly.
Then I went to work at Pacific Stereo where I eventually became a store assistant manager at the Market St. Store in San Francisco. When the Marin Central Plaza in Larkspur was built Pacific Stereo decided to open up a new store in the new plaza, so came I came back to Marin and helped to open the Pacific Stereo Larkspur location in Marin Central Plaza, where the Vitamin Express is now. At that time there was a record store where Trader Joe’s is now. I became the high-end stereo consultant for the two Marin stores, San Rafael and Larkspur.
As Pacific Stereo was experiencing some business challenges I re-enrolled at College of Marin in the Computer Programming department, which started a very long and fulfilling career as a Programmer/Analyst, Business Systems Analyst, Project Technical Lead, etc..
My first paying position as a computer programmer was with Logo Paris, a company in San Rafael that made high-end fashion eye glasses frames.
Then I went to work for Victoria Station restaurant with headquarters at Wood Island in Larkspur. This was a great job, that came with a private office looking out at Mt. Tam, a private assigned parking stall stenciled with my name, discount card good at all VS restaurants, and many other perks. Unfortunately the chain did not survive the evolving food industry environment and they closed all their units and corporate headquarters.
After Victoria Station I did some consulting work for a time and had my own “company”, Eunomia Data Systems. After a year or so struggling to run a business and create software at the same time I heard about an interesting opportunity opening up at Fireman’s Fund in Novato.
I was hired by Fireman's Fund to work on a "new concept" project and was sent out to Denver “beta test location” as the technical consultant on the initial roll-out team.
While at Fireman’s Fund I received a better job offer from NORCAL Mutual Malpractice Insurance Company, in San Francisco, where I worked for about ten years, eventually becoming the lead Business Systems Analyst. I was in charge of all applications used by the Claims department, policy rating programs for the Underwriting department, and risk mitigation programs for the Risk Management department. When the Claims department decided to entirely replace their legacy system I lead the project to define the new needs, identify outside vendors, and was the “single point liaison” to the vendor developers in New York for the actual implementation of the new system.
Then I was recruited to return to Marin and work for a company called Resource Phoenix as a programmer/analyst and Project Technical Lead in charge of major projects such as Y2K remediation. When they entered the area of financial support for emerging “Dot Com” companies they created a new division, RPC.Com, and I moved over to the new Division, in the Implementation department, as the primary client liaison.
The "dot com implosion" was disastrous for Resource Phoenix and they closed the entire RPC division, including my department.
But I quickly found a new position with Mulberry Neckwear, a company that manufactured men’s silk neckties and such, as their IT specialist/department. They were using a PC based software package developed and supported by a vendor company in Cairo, Egypt. It was not working the way they needed it to, and was “crashing” several times a day. They originally intended to totally replace their existing software system, which is why I was hired. But within 6 months I had their "legacy" system working so well that they decided to keep it, thus I worked myself out of a job. They have since gone out of business, undoubtedly due to imprudent business decisions like letting expert talent go.
So, my last computer related position was with a company that administered class action settlements, as the IT specialist for the Finance department. A couple of years ago they were purchased by an international corporation and began the usual merger and acquisition “streamlining and consolidation” process. As I was close to retirement age I used the "merger" as my opportunity to retired from the IT world.
Since being graduated from UW I kept up my interest in Psychology and Sociology and, over the course of time, became a board certified Hypnotherapist, licensed Neuro-Linguistic Programming practitioner (NLP), a certified Emotional Freedom Technique (ETF) practitioner, a certified Life Coach, and various other sundry and related skills, and have a small but rewarding coaching practice. (see web site: BestChapterOfYourLife.COM)
A few years ago I became interested in Real Estate and sat for my Agent license. After earning that license I decided that it was worth the extra effort to progress to the Real Estate Broker designation. Six months after obtaining my Agent license I sat for and passed the Broker exam – one of the hardest exams I can remember. I am now the Broker of record for Marin Land Company in Tiburon (415-435-4428, MarinLand@AOL.COM). I am having enough fun right now that I have no plans on retiring any time soon.
And so it goes.......
