Today is my Birthday

Today, 77 years ago, I was born in Raleigh, North Carolina at Baptist Hospital, sometime in the early morning, if I recall correctly.

Soon after my birth, my parents relocated to Alexandria, Virginia where we lived until I was almost 15 years old.  Looking back on my years in Alexandria, Virginia, I was constantly harassed because my birthday was on Halloween and was often accused of wearing my Halloween mask all year long.

However, I do remember walking around the community with a brown grocery bag trick or treating with my pals.  I am sure at what age I stopped but one night someone had left a rake in the yard that I stepped on and the handle hit me square in the head knocking me down.  I continued undeterred.

In the summer of my 14th year, the family relocated to Cairo, Egypt where I attended high school at Cairo American College, graduating in 1966.  Spending four years in Egypt was an education in and of itself and since we could not work in the summers, we had no choice but to travel through Europe for month based upon the Eurail pass we all purchased.  Europe on $3/day was the standard back then.

I entered Elon College in North Carolina until December 1968, when I dropped out of college and enlisted into the military.  I returned to Elon in 1972, graduated in 1974 with a BA in English and in 1979, I entered the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem where I earned a MBA in 1981 with a focus in strategic planning and small business management.

I started my working career full time in 1969 and retired at the end of 2014...  working for a total of 45 years, in middle and upper management in the field of education.  My work in education included teaching, consulting, designing training materials and course, managing corporate training, and managing teachers and students as a Dean and Director of Education.

From 1990 until 2015, I was CEO and President of Quest Training, Inc.  Quest Training focused on organizational development, strategic planning, statistical team problem solving, process re-engineering, and quality management that included ISO9000/2000 quality standards.

I have been retired almost 10 years - I will reach that landmark on January 1, 2025.