Thoughts of a Principled Citizen

Life is a collection of predisposed genes and experiences. Since the genes are birth given and not yet changeable, I have attempted to capture many of my life experiences in an effort to explain the evolution of my state.

I was born into a loving family with limited financial means, but a strong work ethic. Both parents sacrificed to get college educations (Dad hitch-hiked from Oklahoma to Michigan to go to college), while raising a family. Like many rising careers, the savings gene outpaced the spending gene (probably the depression effect), providing for a reasonable, challenge free retirement; though shortened for my Dad as he passed only two years after retiring. So, the lessons that were taught included hard work, finish high school before marrying, marry before having children, deferred material bliss (live within your means), help others along the way and walk the talk (set good examples). These and other lessons stuck with me through some deeply poor times, broken marriages, struggles with children and some tough job situations. In other words, life was not just a smooth road because I came from a good family with good middle-class values.

Some early life experiences, that I recall, helped shape what would become the evolving me. I was a good student, receiving solid reinforcement for learning lessons well, doing the homework on time and stretching a bit beyond the comfort zone. I recall good examples at home with occasional help on projects from Mom and watching my Dad read in many of his spare moments. I also recall receiving good reinforcement for molding a ceramic elephant and a poster painting of a Trojan warrior. So, both the academic and creative spirits were reinforced early in my development. Organized sports did not exist at the grade school level, limiting activities to neighborhood baseball and some hoops. More time was spent hiking in the woods and fields as we rented a home at the edge of town. A BB gun and home-made bow and arrows were standard.

We lived at a very limited level by today's standards, but did not know it nor felt impoverished at the time. I remember that we had a penny box, where we collected any spare pennies to save for a vacation. A vacation in those days was a visit to the maternal grandparents (and staying with them), who were 90 miles away. A really big vacation was traveling to Oklahoma (over 800 miles away) to see the paternal grandparents. Occasionally, Dad had a business trip where the family could tag along. The swims in the motel pools and dinner out were real treats.

Of course, a very defining time for me resulted from Dad's decision to take a position to teach public administration to government workers in what was then South Vietnam. Dad was part of a team from Michigan State University, who were under a State Department contract in support of Ngo Dinh Diem, who later became the first President of the country. For a kid whose travel limits at the time were trips to see grandparents, this was literally and figuratively the "other side of the world". To be a budding teenager, travelling completely around the world, living in a foreign country for two years, visiting 13 countries from Asia to Europe and seeing how people live and think in widely separated cultures...not the stuff you can just read about to achieve the depth of the experience. I was at a perfect age to drink deeply of the experience and absorb an incredible amount of life's lessons. Clearly, the seeds for my travel later in life were planted in this era.

We formed our own Boy Scout troop during our stay overseas. Through travels by ship, plane, military transport and bus, we explored Vietnam in a semi-supervised manner. We met local tribes, hiked in the jungle and mountains, camped military style, learned how to work in teams and worked our way up the scouting hierarchy. I made First Class scout by the time we left Vietnam. As a side-note, I rejoined scouting back in the States for a brief time, but it just could never measure up to the intensity of the program we experienced overseas.

Schooling was a lynchpin activity. It consumed our days from 7 AM to noon. All activity stopped "in country" for a break during the heat of the day until 3 PM. Even Dad's offices were closed, with him returning to work until 6 PM most days. Our afternoons were free, so we pedaled our bikes everywhere including the pool, marketplace and friends' houses. My brother and I pressured Dad to buy us motor bikes, unsuccessfully. There were no organized sports programs. The academic side of the equation was handled by a correspondence curriculum, the Calvert System out of Baltimore, Maryland (typically used by students of diplomatic officials in remote settings). We had a teacher in a classroom managing the program. She handled 7th grade through 12th. My "class" of 7th - 9th had 11 students. I recall the curriculum as being pretty hard (probably partly due to the big difference in going to junior high from grade school), but manageable with lots of effort. I was very impressed by the art history course. I must have learned it well as my Mom was fond of describing me as the family's tour guide as we traveled home visiting the monuments in Europe.

Back in the States, we settled into a middle-class life of school, learning to drive, learning to dance, dating and thinking about college. I was a good student (B+) and enjoyed learning. I briefly tried football and basketball, but having missed the formative years, was way behind the experience curve. I took up tennis and swimming, both sports learned in Vietnam. Swimming was a bit of an anomaly as I had a strong fear of drowning until I learned to swim in Vietnam. While the hormones were prominent, no great loves from high school.

I enrolled in Michigan State University partly because it was convenient (down the street so to speak), Dad worked there, I easily got a job at the Library and lived at home. I majored in Political Science with a minor in Sociology and Anthropology. Then life got complicated. I met a girl, Kay Louise Gallap. She worked at the Library. She was cute and seemed to enjoy my company. We dated awhile and decided to get married (1963). Looked like we might be on our way under the PHT program (Putting Hubby Through on the wife's salary), but along came Laurie Ann (1963) and we sustained life on my part-time work and student loans. Christina Jo (1965) followed soon thereafter, confirming child rearing status for my wife.

My graduating class was the last one that had compulsory ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps), a requirement of Land Grant Colleges, and while I enjoyed the military history component, I rebelled at the no credit marching class in the winter. In searching for an alternative, I found the Navy Reserves local branch, where you could get paid for the Wednesday evening meetings and defer your active duty until graduation. Sounded like a good deal but like so many things in life, the rules changed nearly immediately. I spent two weeks of every summer thereafter on active duty for training, first at Great Lakes, Illinois for basic training, then Randolph Street at the Lake (downtown Chicago) on the USS Daniel A. Joy destroyer escort firing 5" guns at trailing sled targets, and finally Long Beach, California learning radar operations at sea. At graduation, I applied for officer candidate school, first with the Navy, then Naval Air, then with all the other branches of service; only to be turned down for a variety of reasons (mostly due to my married with dependents status, as well as the many college students available due to deferment lapses). Facing active duty at an E-3 level (Seaman, $117.90 per month), $5,000 of college debt and supporting a family of three, I wrote the Navy, noting my strong interest in serving my country, but requested an opportunity to do so as an officer, commensurate with my college degree. I received an Honorable Discharge (at the convenience of the service). Not what I expected. That freed me to engage in a real job, my first out of college, with REA Express (I had spent my last three months of college as a part-time driver with them) as an Administrative Supervisor in the Grand Rapids, Michigan offices.

About half a year into the REA Express experience, I was promoted to Assistant Manager for the terminal. In my new role, I gained my first real lessons in working with production management and a closed union shop. I learned of the challenges of trying to be part of a team, where there are two sides, union and management, and their objectives are often at odds. Tough but good lessons.

Shortly after settling in Grand Rapids my marriage was dissolved and my former spouse and children moved to Arizona. This effectively removed my first two children from my life until 15 years later, when Chris asked me to walk her down the aisle at her wedding.

As a consequence of the divorce and some depression, I concluded that I needed a change of scenery and to get back into school, so I transferred to the REA offices in Detroit, Michigan as Supervisor of Machine Accounting, handling the accounts receivable for the Michigan/Northern Ohio Region. REA was an early adopter of technology in the transportation industry and afforded me the opportunity to be in on the rudimentary beginnings of computers and their use in accounting. I also enrolled at Wayne State University in the MBA program. At the time, my Dad was in a Doctoral program at Wayne State, so I imposed on them for a place to sleep and family support. Within six months, I moved into my own place, the gardener's house on the old Vernor Estate in suburban Detroit.

During this time my brother decided to marry a gal from Cheboygan, Michigan. He asked me to be best man and so I made the winter trip to the northern part of the mitten. While at the wedding, I met Judith McClure (1967), who was maid of honor to the bride; her best friend. I contacted Judi after the wedding (she was cute and interesting as well). We dated at first remotely as she was finishing up her degree at Central Michigan University, then up close when she transferred to Detroit. We drifted apart for unclear reasons, but probably as neither of us were ready at that time for the necessary commitment.

I began dating Lynn Ellen Thomas, whom I met at work. She had a steady job, owned a mobile home and was interested enough in me to transfer out of my department to another area of the company so we could legitimately date. We married in 1969. At this time, I was looking for a career change as REA Express was having financial difficulties and was closing my shop in Detroit. The decision to leave versus moving to a supervisory role in Cincinnati, Ohio proved to be a good one as REA went out of business a few years later. After several interviews with different employers, I accepted an offer from Blue Cross of Michigan as a Senior Systems Analyst in their Information Technology Department. I was assigned to assist in the design of a new computer system for the payment of Medicare claims that we called TOPS (Total Operating Programmed System). As we neared the conclusion of the design, the company decided to acquire a system used by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, which I helped bring back to Michigan and install for use. After that assignment I was promoted to Lead Systems Analyst, responsible for a team of analysts for all Medicare systems. The marriage and new accountabilities reduced my free time, which resulted in my abandonment of the Masters Degree program. A short time later Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which were separate organizations, decided to merge. That changed a lot of reporting relationships and accountabilities. I was assigned a Staff Manager role for project management and system auditing, and later for training as well. I reported to a former Blue Shield Director, performing my new duties very well and quickly earning his trust.

My family began to grow in this period as well. In 1971 we welcomed our first daughter, Denise, soon followed by Cheryl (1973), Joanna (1975) and twin sons, David and Dennis (1976). The last family addition was Jeffrey, a son born ten years later in 1986. As the children grew, I initiated a series of outdoor activities when they grew old enough to enjoy them. We had campfire evenings with story telling in the backyard., we took walks in the woods, I spent two years as a Brownie co-leader so my girls could learn about scouting, one year as a Cub Scout leader for my sons and many camping visits to Rock Glen in Canada. As time went on, we acquired one week of a timeshare unit in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and used it over a twelve-year period. It still is in the family and has been a place for a number of family reunions. My business obligations offered many opportunities for travel all over the US, with each of my children having a number of chances to travel with me. Over the years, my home transitioned from the trailer of my former wife, to a home in Mt. Clemens, to another one in Sterling Heights and finally a luxury home in Rochester Hills.

Based on a number of successful projects, I was promoted to Director of Data Conversion (1979). This position managed all data entry, optical character recognition systems (OCR), electronic data interchange (EDI) and direct input of data from physician offices. I led significant production improvement programs in all areas and became a spokesperson at national conferences for OCR and EDI. These years offered me huge development opportunities both in management style, underlying technology and personal growth.

In 1982, I was asked to take on a new Director role with responsibility for Membership, Rating and Utilization Review Systems. We were involved in a major system conversion at the time. Later that year, while playing a round of golf I had a heart attack. I was hospitalized for a couple of weeks and home for 12 weeks. I returned to work in 1983, quite a bit lighter and taking much better care of my health. At work, we continued to make quality system improvements over the next two years. In 1985, I was offered a promotion to Vice President, Government Business. The opening was due to a retirement, but the program was in bad shape and required huge efforts to turn contract performance around. Following numerous meetings with the Health Care Financing Administration and many internal changes, we met the government requirements and put the program on a firm footing. Partly as a consequence of this turnaround and my strong information technology background, I was offered the VP, Information Services following another retirement. We completed a very intense system planning effort and launched a multi-year investment program in both technology infrastructure and computer system upgrades/replacements. I played a major role in selling this program to the Board. Each of the two VP level jobs offered me extensive growth opportunities and expanded my national exposure in both specialties.

With some top-level organizational changes, I found that hard work and solid leadership were not valued as much as in the past, so BCBSM and I agreed to separate. I went in search of my next opportunity. At this same time, my marriage was not working out. My soon to be former wife was unable to adjust to the social interactions which were a part of my executive position and the teenage children were not responding to her dictatorial parenting. She left with the youngest son and moved into a separate apartment. Everyone was a lot happier with that arrangement. Divorce followed the next year, shortly after I took an executive internal operations position with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota (1993). Judi McClure and I had re-met at my sister's farmhouse for a family New Year's party at the end of 1991 (she was there to see her best friend, my sister-in-law of the marriage both of us had stood up for 24 years before). We dated for over a year and married in mid-1993. Our biggest date was a one-week trip to Cancun, Mexico, where we went to Tulum, Chichen Itza and many other lovely places. Judi moved with me to Minnesota after the wedding. The twin boys moved with us to finish high school, while the girls finished their college years at universities in Michigan. Our home in Eagan was a Tri-level in a wooded area, just across the street from a county park where I walked the trails in all kinds of weather.

I was able to make significant changes to the performance and incentive compensation systems while at the Blues, but after a year it was clear that the realignment into strategic business units (as promised) was not going to happen, so we parted ways. My next position was as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Health Risk Management, a health management company. I successfully realigned the information technology systems with those of the organization. We improved the infrastructure and prepared for Y2K. After nearly five years, I felt that the new direction the CEO was tracking was not going to be successful, so I left. Again, luck or prescience was with me as the company folded several years later. While in Minnesota, Judi and I explored every inch of the state and those surrounding states as well. The travel bug had become entrenched, if only here in the US.

I went to Fort Worth, Texas in 1998 to work as the Sr. VP and CIO for Transcend Group, a private regional health insurance company. We purchased a home in a small lake-front community, about 5 minutes from work. I was able to stabilize their production systems and see many system improvements to fruition. Unfortunately, the company had some significant financial issues, and after failing to fix them with a partnership with another company, I was laid off. In spite of the brief tenure, Judi and I spent much of our spare time seeing the sights in Texas and the surrounding states. More travel fever satisfied.

Looking for a job when you are 55 is no picnic. However, fortune smiled on me as I received two job offers the same week (Nationwide in Columbus and AvMed in Miami). I chose AvMed, a regional heath insurance company. With AvMed, I stayed nearly 10 years, until I retired at age 66. The company had its challenges over the years, but prevailed to become a solid player in its niche. The information technology systems were dramatically improved during my tenure; the technology infrastructure was spot on for the needs of the company. Individual contributor performance improved over the years. I was asked to add administrative services to my duties and acted as a technology consultant to two sister companies. I had the opportunity to develop a number of management individuals who went on to make major contributions to the company. In my last decade of work, I was able to use all the techniques I had learned over my many years of leading groups of workers. I employed MBWA (Managing by Wandering Around), FISH Tales (using positive reinforcement techniques to reward desired behavior), the ABCs of human behavior (Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence model), "walking the talk" (setting a good example), personal engagement, groupwide communications, etc. These skills worked as well in a family setting as at work. Another part of my work philosophy included learning skills that my staff used routinely. That mantra pushed me to self-learn many of the Office products and creative tool kits. Those skills have served me well over the years.

We built a home on a man-made lake in a gated community with a pool and hot-tub in the backyard. We had a floating dock with a pontoon boat. It felt like we lived in a resort. I was active with the homeowner association, serving as VP and President.

During the years in Florida, Judi and I explored the state from stem to stern. Then, just as the sucking sound on my wallet started to disappear (the last child out of college), we found that we had discretionary income and began travelling internationally. And what a run it was. We went on 17 international tours between 2000 and 2009. When I retired, it was on a Friday and the following Monday we were in Costa Rica. We have not stopped travelling yet, averaging 6 international trips per year to the present time. I have travelled over a million miles, been to over 140 countries and taken over 300,000 digital pictures.

We were fortunate enough to be able to build a retirement home, five years before formal retirement, in a gated, 55 plus community called The Villages in central Florida. The developer created a "Disneyworld" type of environment for seniors. We have over 680 holes of golf, 12 country clubs, 3 downtowns with free nightly entertainment on the squares, nearly 90 swimming pools and unparalleled sports and nature facilities. With all the creative retired talent in the area, each night has several offerings competing for our entertainment dollar. Another dreamlike setting to call home. Oh, and did I mention, we are on a golf course, with a great view.

So, what does all this life experience mean when it comes to principles and citizenship?

First of all: I love our country. I respect its institutions and their leadership. I do not always agree with their policy or actions, but I fundamentally respect the constitutional rights of our duly elected (and legally appointed) officials.

As for principles, well, it has been an evolution. It has been a life of challenges, highs and lows, times of economic deprivation and times of plenty, some bad decisions, but many more good ones. But most of all, I have maintained a "sunny" attitude. I always look for the silver lining in the darkest clouds. It is that philosophy that guides all other behaviors.

As my responsibilities grew at work (moving into increasingly challenging levels of management) I saw many more strata of working peoples in both union and non-union settings in good times and bad. I had opportunities to work in structured and unstructured settings. In other words, my world experiences were growing exponentially. As I took account of those experiences, I saw the results of things that did not work. I saw large numbers of workers who went to work expecting to be rewarded for meritless performance. I saw a fair number of folks who did not believe in improving their worth to the organization or themselves ("not my job"). I began to see a world of givers and takers. Now, understand that I started out as a taker. In fact, in the beginning, I truly believed in income redistribution as my Dad and others had a lot of it and I had very little as a starving student and new entrant to the workplace. I acted out that perception by helping campaign for the local Democrat Congressperson aspirant. Through my 20s I was quite active supporting the Democratic Party causes. But that changed as I saw more and more takers who did not accept any responsibility for their position in life; and more and more people who blamed everyone else for their lack of success. Helping hands notwithstanding, we as individuals must take responsibility for our condition and if we fail, pick ourselves up and try a different approach; but always accept that we control the majority of what happens to us. And, we can change our condition with smart, hard work. We can change our condition by learning new skills. We can change our condition by deferring immediate material gratification and working for a future. And if we are really down, then access the plethora of programs that are offered by government, churches and other community organizations. I know of nowhere else in the world where there are programs for almost every economic and physical or mental challenge; we simply have to want to change our condition.

As I review some of the negative points in my life:

• Two marriages where the spouse chose to leave me.
• Child support set and raised regardless of the spousal ability to earn a living.
• Lost promotions based on poor or biased selection criteria.
• Bosses who stole my ideas or took credit for my hard work.
• Two job losses due to company failure.
• Two financial consultants who stole investment money from me.
• A friend who took a large sum of money and failed to repay it.
• Children who borrowed large sums of money and failed to repay it.
• A bad housing market when it came time to sell a property.
• A number of investments that did not perform as advertised.
• A heart attack at age 39, an angioplasty at age 49 and by-pass surgery at 66.
  

All these and more could turn a person into a permanently negative frame of mind. But I choose to balance these set backs with all the great things that life has delivered:

• A loving third wife (the third times a charm) for over 25 years.
• Overall high-level business achievement.
• Wonderful housing settings.
• Great retirement setting and strong financials.
• Professional development of others.
• Good health and longevity.
• Opportunities to travel extensively.
• Good children, making their own way in the world.
• Opportunities to work with a lot of talented people.

So, the balance sheet in life is what we make of it. I choose to conclude that it has been favorable, and that is a conclusion I am sticking to.

So, I believe in a helping hand, not continuous handouts. I believe that each of us must take accountability for our own behaviors and the results. I believe that while others can and will help us, we are responsible for our own development. I believe in the rule of law. I believe if you do not like the law or regulation, then use the legitimate processes to change them. I stop for all stop signs and always use my turn signals, it's the law and offers better safety. Anger and mourning are legitimate emotions, but should be tempered and short-lived. Life does go on, we can choose to move on with it or succumb to the temptation to obsess over things where we have limited control. I believe that we should invest in our own health. I choose to walk three miles every day in the hope that I will live a more healthful life and perhaps a longer one. If we do not invest in ourselves, we are accepting what chance offers us. Be proactive.

I believe that I live in the best country in the world. My travels have simply reinforced that perspective over and over again. With all our "warts and pimples", the United States of America has the best government, the best economy, the best people, bar none, of anywhere in the world. Sure, we have some systems that have begun to fail us (like education, widespread unchecked welfare, unchecked immigration, government overspending, to name a few) and some that could use corrective action (crop/industry subsidies, foolish tax credits), but we still are doing exceedingly well.

For the record, I was raised an inter-denominational protestant. I have attended mostly United Methodist churches, irregularly over the years. My religious philosophy most closely approximates the Unitarian Universalist church, which I attended for several years. I have been to services at a wide variety of protestant and catholic faiths. I have visited churches and temples of every major religious faith in the world. I have received instruction on the principles in all those faiths. I studied comparative religion at college.

So, take pleasure in what you have, help others as you can, keep a positive attitude and live life to the fullest within your means. I consider myself to be very blessed and fortunate to have been able to grow up, develop good life skills and lead a fruit-full life in this great country.