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Following graduation from U. City I attended the University of Missouri-Columbia where I pledged (along with fellow U. City graduate, George Ferris) and was initiated into the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. After graduation from Mizzou, with a BS in Business Administration, I took a short (6 month), but delightful, "vacation" with the Army at Ft. Leonard Wood. Following my government service, and graduation from college, I rewarded myself with an automobile trip to the west coast to visit and spend time with relatives in California and to see all the typical tourist sights that I could cram into a month long trip. Those sights included seeing my cousin, Martha Mares (also a member of our class), who was teaching school in Arvada, CO and Charles Naumer, who was still living in Boulder, CO after graduating from the University of Colorado. After returning to St. Louis I somewhat leisurely began looking at what I wanted to do with the rest of my life----work, that is ! After a few months with a contracting company (the same folks I worked for during previous summer breaks from college) and following the commencement of my 8 year Army Reserve obligation I began seriously pursuing opportunities in the job market, ultimately settling on a position with the Group Department of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. They offered me what I considered to be some interesting and fun opportunities and I thought spending the next six (6) months to a year with them would give me some valuable experience. Somehow, the six (6) months to a year turned into 31 years ! That 31 years was entirely in the Group Department, which dealt with employee benefits that were provided by MetLife to large and small employers. I started in St. Louis in a service capacity and after 3 years was moved to Kansas City in a similar capacity, having responsibility for western Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and part of Iowa. After a couple of years in Kansas City I was "anointed" with an appointment into a sales position and moved to St. Joseph, Michigan for a year and then on to Grand Rapids, Michigan for 4 years. In 1971 I moved to Washington, D.C., where I lived for seven (7) years and had the "thrill" of seeing wage-price controls implemented and witnessed Watergate and the Nixon resignation up close. My job during that time was more the management of our largest accounts in the District, Virginia and Maryland---although I was also able to acquire some large new customers during that time. In 1978 I moved to New Jersey to open a new office in Hackensack and facilitate the move of large accounts from our Home Office in NYC to the new office. In the midst of this the company experienced a "problem" in Rochester, NY and asked me to move there to take over the management of some of our largest accounts (Eastman Kodak, Corning Glass, Bausch & Lomb, etc.). I did so in 1979, after only a year in wonderful NJ !! |