Marty Pepper

After Graded I went to Tulane in New Orleans to study engineering. I was looking for a place that was halfway between Michigan and Brazil culturally and geographically. New Orleans fit the bill, with its colonial architecture, spicy food, strange accents, Carnaval (MardiGras to the locals) and music. (Bobby Freeland, Peter Gillespie, Glen Harrison, Jim Fletcher and Tom Meyer from Graded were there as well).
I ended up making my career in the barging business. I needed a summer job in my sophomore year and I found a small, family-held barge line looking for a draftsman to do piping diagrams of barges. I ended up working for them after graduation for two years and then went to Harvard Business School to try my hand at the West Point of Capitalism. I was a pretty average student there, but managed to distinguish myself by publicly debating Senator Paul Tsongas against the Chrysler bailout in 1980.
After Harvard I went back to the family-held barge company in New Orleans, but since they hired me and didn't adopt me, I ended up hitting the ceiling at age 36. So I pulled up stakes in 1990 and found a job on the West Coast in Washington at another family-held barge business. In the process I got married and raised three kids in three states in three years, moving between New Orleans, Portland and Vancouver.
The kids thrived, the outdoor activities were fantastic, but again my career kind of stalled when the owner brought in his #1 son. So I left in 1997 and got a job wth a big, publicly-held barge line in Louisville that was growing out its business into international. I stayed with them as their SVP of Marketing and International until 2005 when I was let go after new ownership took over.

No worries. I started my own consulting firm and thats what I do now...helping shippers find river transportation solutions and helping barge companies expand overseas.

I like being my own boss and I don't mind the uncertainty. It seems to energize and motivate me more to think about possibilities and live by my wits. Today I am doing work in Argentina, Brazil, and Mozambique. My clients are a mixed bunch of US and international outfits.

I travel on my schedule mostly and have had the good fortune of going back to Brazil to see Graded, some friends and "matando saudades". I will probably work a few more years or until the kids' college bills get paid and then who knows.

After ten years of consulting and travelling my last contract was terminated and so I am probably going to hang it up this year and start planning the next phase of living.

Where to start? How about a list of my favorite memories?
1. Vladimir's calculus class with Vicky, Teddy, George and Albert.
2."Horace and Sophie" with Albert Reuben as my love interest
3.The way the fog rolled around the hallways in the morning
4. Braniff Meet the year we won the Cup
5. George Hennel, Melinda, me and Nan Walker getting picked up by the military on the beach in Guaruja
6. Senior bus trip to Salvador sitting next to Beverly Steely .
7. George H lending me and Karen S his car to "explore" Salvador's beaches one night.
8. Late nights pasting the "Voice of the Graded" together with George Traikos at Miss Ryan's apartment.
9. Miss Ryan complaining about the late nights pasting together the Voice at her apartment.
10. My graduation speech to the Senior Class. (The word "orgasm" was actually mentioned)
11. Playing "I don't want to stay Heeeah I wanna to go back to Bahia" at graduation on the twelve string.
12. Watching Howie Westfield demonstrate how to steal second base. (you had to have been there!)
13. Cutting up with Tina Baker, Jeannie Weisskopf and Sandy in Mr Westfield's German class way up in the projection room.
14. Betsy and Lynn and Melinda. (not at the same time)
15. The BIG F**G "G" Mr Pletz made us run first period before we were awake.
16. the smell of the freshly mimeographed pages Miss Ryan would hand out instead of actually teaching
17. Mr. Bobbert yelling at Steve Pepper in the light booth to turn on #1. (he was otherwise occupied with what we never found out)
18. Chilling with the monks in their dorm at the monastery where Mr Wendling sent us for a field trip whose purpose was lost on me.
19. Senior class party at Conrad Derr's house.
20. Pool parties at David Sage's house
21. Sophomore class party at Peri Coelho's house
22. Blackjack parties with Bobby, Cress and Conrad at his penthouse on Paulista.
22. Driving Mom's Aero-Willys 2600 at breakneck speeds up Giovanni Gronchi to see if I could coast into the parking lot without braking.
23. Walking endless kilometers in downtown Sao Paulo at all times of the night never once being afraid.
24. Reading "O Pasquim" and feeling like a real revolutionary.
25. Brazil's World Cup victory celebration in 1970.
26. The No PDA rule invoked at the Sao Paulo Golf Club after I was caught kissing ("the horror!) my girlfriend in the lobby
27. Playing "war games" in the library with George instead of going to class. (how many times did George and I sink the Graf Spee)
28. The Lincoln High School cheerleaders uniforms ( ok, under the uniforms)
29. movies for 2 contos and at least 150 theaters to choose from
30. watching Hennel, Traikos and Teddy try to best Vlad at simultaneous chess. (only Teddy could do it)
31. pitching with Paul Gruppo behind the plate (he was bigger back then!) and Kit Friedman on third