Welcome to retirement, Dad.
After 40 years in the workforce, retirement is finally a reality.
Congratulations!
Over the years, while you were busy writing proposals, meeting with clients, wearing hazmat suits, visiting and designing waste water treatment plants, analyzing the water quality of rivers and watersheds, and proposing ways to diminish water pollution and improve water quality, I was learning from you, too.
Here are just a few of the lessons you were teaching me throughout your career, I bet you had not idea.
Travel Is Good
When I was young, I know you traveled quite a bit. Most of it is a blur – I couldn't tell you if you were gone for a day, a couple days, or weeks at a time. But, what I do remember is being woken up during the dark hours of the morning and being carried to the car in my pajamas so Mike and I could continue to sleep as mom would drive you to the airport. Those days or week would go by (smoothly, but I am quite certain not effortlessly, thanks to mom), and then we would get to go back to the airport and pick you up. I feel so lucky and grateful to have had the opportunity to do that. And, very fortunate to have grown up in an era without heightened airport security. There was nothing better for this young grade-schooler than freely walking through an airport, watching planes take-off and land, waiting at the gate for you to emerge from the door, and walking back to our car as a family – feeling like we were the only ones in the entire airport. It was special. So special, that I am certain that your business trips (and many fun family road trips) helped plant a seed for my love of travel to new places, for us to host an exchange student while I was in high school, for my living in the international dorm at IU, for my studying abroad, and for my openness to international adoption.
Always Save Your Work
The scream…your scream…could be heard throughout the hotel. People thought someone had been seriously hurt or died. It was probably 1986 or so and we were staying at a hotel with other teammate’s families because I had a gymnastics meet (somewhere in Thumb, I believe). You had a quickly approaching deadline and were up early before the meet working away on a computer (they had laptops back then?!). I came into the room to talk to you and said "what's this switch for" and proceeded to flip the light switch on and off & on and off without a light in the whole room going on. That would be because you had plugged the computer into the outlet connected to the switch. Your computer went off and lost your work. You screamed and yelled like I have never heard you scream and yell before. I ran to the nearest teammate's room. Mom took a very sad and scared me to the gym for the meet. And, when you arrived for the start of the meet and wanted to see me - Doug (my coach) said no way, he didn't want me all worked up again right before the meet was to start.
The scream…your scream…could be heard throughout the hotel. People thought someone had been seriously hurt or died. It was probably 1986 or so and we were staying at a hotel with other teammate’s families because I had a gymnastics meet (somewhere in Thumb, I believe). You had a quickly approaching deadline and were up early before the meet working away on a computer (they had laptops back then?!). I came into the room to talk to you and said "what's this switch for" and proceeded to flip the light switch on and off & on and off without a light in the whole room going on. That would be because you had plugged the computer into the outlet connected to the switch. Your computer went off and lost your work. You screamed and yelled like I have never heard you scream and yell before. I ran to the nearest teammate's room. Mom took a very sad and scared me to the gym for the meet. And, when you arrived for the start of the meet and wanted to see me - Doug (my coach) said no way, he didn't want me all worked up again right before the meet was to start.
You have always told me that your re-work turned out better than what you had originally written. To this day, I am not sure I believe you. But the whole experience taught me some valuable lessons. I learned you should be careful which outlet you plug things into. I learned never to play with light switches. I learned to always save your work. And, most importantly, that life goes on...sometimes better than you imagined.
It’s a Small World
Fall of 1992 I left for IU. You were working on some big project. Second semester I took an English class linking literature and geography/travel/maps. Your big project took you to Washington, D.C. to meet with Carol Browner, head of the EPA. My English class TA was Stephanie Browner, Carol’s little sister. I thought that was the coolest thing! And, I learned that people in high places are just normal people with normal families...which always eases my anxiety when meeting new people or working with clients and senior management.
You Always Trusted Your Kids and They Always Take Precedence
It was 1994, you were a big important VP with an office (and a vestibule with a fridge) and I was a college junior wandering aimlessly around Europe before the semester started with guy in the program that I knew from the dorms. We had made our way to Prague and I fell in love...with the country and the city. We also stayed in a great hostel and made some great friends. But, you can't live in a hostel forever, so my travel partner and I left for the Czech countryside and ended up in Karlovy Vary (the coolest spa town ever). During this stretch of the trip, I learned my travel partner and I weren't the most compatible travel companions.
We made our way back to Prague and thankfully fate stepped. I literally ran into some friends I had met at the Prague hostel at the train station. I decided to ditch my travel companion to travel to Venice with these three guys. Since I had recently checked in with you and mom with my travel plan, I thought it only responsible of me to call and let you know plans had changed. So, there I was, standing outside a laundromat at a corner payphone somewhere in Prague pulling out my calling card and dialing your work number. Marilyn, the nicest receptionist there ever was, instantly recognized my voice and said you were in a meeting. I said I could leave a message. Oh, no! She pulled you right out of that meeting and I got to talk to you and convince you I wasn't crazy and that I'd be safe traveling with these three guys to Italy. I can only imagine what you were thinking as we hung up and you went back to that meeting. What I will always remember is that you took the time for me (even when we were an ocean away) and that you had confidence in me - you trusted me and my decisions. It was a lesson in love, trust, and always putting family first that has stuck with me to this day. And, values that inspire me each and every day to be a better mom.
So...Dad...if ever in your career you ever thought you didn't make a difference or that you weren't successful. You most certainly were. At least through my eyes.
Enjoy retirement. You deserve it.
To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch…to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, This is to have succeeded! -Emerson
