Good morning . . . thank you very much for the introduction . . . after that it looks like I have been career jumping. One of these days I will find a job to stick with . You will also notice that the first thing that went wrong this morning was when we came in. We were out of step. Any way, thanks for the privilege to be here. It's not that often that I'm asked to speak. . . . in fact it's been over twenty years since I've been here for career day. But when I am asked . . . I'm very careful on saying yes . . . and that's for two reasons. First I am not a speaker and you will figure that out as I go through here . . . and second Jim careful on what I say yes to . . . something that you should consider the rest of your life . . . Be careful what you say yes to. But it was easy for me to say yes when Marmion is concerned . . . and why? It's because Marmion has had such a positive influence on me when I was here . . . and because Marmion has had such a positive influence on my careers. Now it is an opportunity for me to pass along to you my experiences . . . and maybe you've had such experiences here already as I have had although most of the time you realize later how good it was . . . and not necessarily at this time. Incidentally, my time here will be short so I'm hoping you will listen to my remarks as I'm wanting you to gain from my positive experience. Your Marmion experience can directly affect you and your career as little as you want it . . . or as much as you let it. I choose to let it. My first career was two years in the army . . . and as you suspect, my first experience in the army was basic training. The Marinion experience helped make it easier for me than my fellow recruits. You see . . . I already had memorized the manuals when I was 12 or 13 years old when I was here so that when I was 20 or 21 in the army it was a snap. My fellow recruits? ...well they had it rough 'cause they had to take a lot of grief and a lot of hassle from some pretty rough drill instructors. When I was 14, I could do the M-1 in my sleep ... the others had a hassle . . and when I was hassled . . . I could take it because I was used to discipline that I was taught here by the military and the Benedictine Monks. So the Marmion experience was helpful in my first phase of my first career. Now the second phase of my first career basic training was over and it was five months later . . and I was ready for war. Yes, I was ready but the Marmion experience surfaced in that Sandy Perry, a fellow classmate of '48 had a commanding officer that was in need of someone to work in an office in Chicago. When Sandy Perry, said I have someone you may want to think about to work in the office . . and he went to Marmion . . and that's all the further Sandy had to talk because his commanding officer knew the qualities of a Marmion cadet such as Sandy . . and assumed that I might have the same qualities . . . and believe me, it was no easy task to he transferred from the Fourth Army Area where I was located to the Fifth Army Area where I wanted to be . . and they wanted me. Upon completion of my first career . . . I started my second career. It involved various business fields such as a car dealership . . which I sold in '74 incidently, just before the oil embargo, wholesale appliance distribution . . real estate development . . real estate management . . banking, operation of restaurants . . hotels . shopping centers . . and in all or some of these business, my greatest associates were Marmion classmates. One of them is here today . . . Tony Perry. Sandy Perry I mentioned to you already . . he is also a business associate of mine . . and Gene Muia who is class of '48 . we are also business associates . . and Art Decio who has the library named after him here . . And I serve on the Skyline board where he is the Chairman of the Board . . and incidently, Tony Perry is on our bank board. So you can see there is a special bond between us that started in 1945 . . . that is a long time ago . . . and in some respects, a very long time ago. but we all remember our friendships grew through the years. That is not to say that during those years since 1945 in high school and in college and our business careers, we did not have some rough times . . and I think the Marmion classmates that I've been associated with were of the quality that during the rough times we fortunately did not lose our sense of balance in what we really were . . . and I personally attribute that to my Marmion experience. A lot of those were christian values which were so important to help our careers become successful . . . and those christian values take us through the rough times. The christian values of course taught to us by the monks here at Marmion. Also the disciples were a factor ... so was the integrity that we were taught . . . we learned it here, but more important, we were told of its importance of later life. Oh yes, we were taught love your fellow person. Now when choosing a career . . . how do you know where to start? Just how do you decide? There are a number of different ways to answer this . . . so I asked my son who's a junior in high school. What did he think? You see . . . I have a habit of asking lots of people lots of questions. It is a learning process. I know my limits from my I. Q. and my S. A. I. reference so I must work harder by learning from others . . . Then I make up my own mind so I know what to do . . . based on others experiences . . . based on the source of the person who gave me the answers . . . your basic creditability. So back to the question. How do I choose? One of the most obvious is a feeling for what you like to do. Will it make you happy in accomplishing what you want to do? My son fries hamburgers 9 hours a day every Saturday and Sunday. He has a feeling that it is not a career for him forever . . . but it certainly is for now . . . along with school . How do I choose ? Do you have the skills for it? . . . along with the feeling you like it. I knew even if I had a feeling for being a brain surgeon I would not have the skills for it. From both feeling and the skills question. This is a good start for on how to choose a career . . . a good process to go through. Incidentally . . . it is not uncommon that one becomes successful in a career but makes a change. One of my classmates here had just done that . . . he was a fighter pilot during the Korean War . . . went into retirement after being in service and decided he wanted to sell airplanes . . . he was very successful at that then he decided he wanted to become a lawyer and he went back to school at the age of 40 some years old . . . extremely tough decision to make at 40 years old to go back to school. He did and graduated from law school. He's now a successful attorney down in Florida. How do I become successful in what I'm doing? Ambition commitment . . . compassion for others . . . spirituality. . integrity. All of those plus others help us become successful in a career and our personal life which is intertwined . . . and I'm sure you will hear more on this as the day goes on from the other speakers. In closing I'd like to read something which was published in the Alumni Directory by myself and it sort of says it all.
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