Several of you have emailed and said that you don’t remember me. That is very understandable. I circulated in a very small group of friends and was pretty introverted. If you're interested, here’s your chance to find out what made me the person I am today.

After graduation I went to the University of Nebraska for one year. I majored in sergeant major (card game) at the student union. In June of 1966, I married Ruth Townsley (class of 1966). We stayed in Lincoln where our two oldest sons Steve Jr. and Greg were born. I worked a variety of jobs including managing a convenience store, selling insurance, servicing a bread route, and ended up working for Kings under “Pete” Peterson. In January of 1973 Kings transferred me to Overland Park, Kansas. A year of so later when Kings ceased operation in the KC area, I went to work for Long John Silvers in Olathe, Kansas. In 1976 we moved to Alabama where I worked for Jack’s Food Systems (a Long John Silvers franchisee).

While we were in Alabama we lived in Anniston, Birmingham and Montgomery where our third son, Ben was born. I helped open four new Long John Silvers restaurants in Anniston, Alexander City, Tarrant City, and Birmingham. Then Jack’s bought out another franchisee with two restaurants in Montgomery and one in Dothan. I spent two years or so supervising those seven restaurants and it seemed I was on the road continually. This continual traveling led to me leaving Jack’s in 1979.

I began working for Morrison Food Services, provider of food service to hospitals and industrial plants. My first position took me to Montgomery General Hospital in Montgomery, West Virginia. This job was full of challenges not the least of which was a union staff. After one year the company cancelled the contract with this hospital and I was again transferred, this time to Raleigh, North Carolina.

In Raleigh I managed the food service for an ITT plant. This plant employed approximately 2500 people. I managed three cafeterias, two of which served breakfast, lunch, and dinner and the third served only breakfast and lunch. I also managed the vending service for this client which included about 70 vending machines throughout six buildings. In the spring of 1982, I was asked to transfer to a new unit in Carrollton, Texas. We really loved North Carolina, but I just couldn’t pass up the challenge of opening a new unit plus the extra dollars, so we moved.

In Texas at Mostek it was a smaller operation but the client was very picky. They wanted the food service ran according to their guidelines regardless if they conflicted with Morrison’s way of doing business. Because of all the politics of which I was caught in the middle I resigned this position after a few months and once again found myself managing a convenience store.

In the late summer of 1983, I decided to make a major change in my life – going back to college. In August, I registered at North Texas State University and I began working the midnight shift at the same convenience store that I had been managing. Just as classes were about to begin, Ruth asked for a separation. She needed some time to sort out things in life. The kids stayed with me and she got an apartment and a second job. Wow, talk about drastic changes in one’s life.

In November, Ruth filed for divorce and we decided to let the kids decide if they wanted to stay with mom or dad and that we would not split them up. The two older ones choose dad and the younger (age six at this time) chose mom. He was a little unhappy but he adjusted. For a couple of months the kids visited their mother on weekends and stayed with me and went to school during the week. In January of 1984, Ruth went missing and we did not hear from her again for several months. Talk about stress. Trying to raise two teenagers and a seven year old alone and go to school is no picnic. But we survived.

It was obvious that I could not support the family and go to school, so I again went back to the food industry. I went to work for Wyatt Cafeterias for a time, but that meant working lots of evenings with no time for the kids. I pondered what I should do. I came up with the idea that I had to find a job in food that did most of their business at lunch. Like a sandwich shop. I went to work for a Schlotzsky’s Sandwich Shop franchisee in early 1985. I managed several different locations in the Dallas-Ft Worth area for a year or so and then was promoted to supervisor. After a couple of years, I was offered the position of managing the Schlotzsky’s bakery which was a coop (owned by the franchisee that I had been working for) and served three franchisees in the Metroplex. I was in charge of baking the bread and the commissary of all other items used by 26 Schlotzsky’s stores. In 1994, the three franchisees in the Metroplex were bought out by the parent company and they dissolved the bakery. Here I am, out on the street again looking for work.

By now Steve Jr. is in the Navy and Greg is going to trade school and Ben at the age of 13 was allowed to go live with his mother in Arkansas. So here I am alone and looking for work. I did temp work day by day for a few months until I began working at Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp in March of 1994. In June of 1994, I was hired as a Nissan employee as the customer service mailroom person.

And this is when my life really got back on track. I met my wife Ruby at work. We became friends. You know someone to talk to and share experiences with. But then over time we decided we were meant for each other. We say that we “complete” each other. She got the sons that she never had and I the daughters I never had. We were married in September of 1995.

After a year as the “mail guy”, just before Ruby and I were married, I posted to the contract processing department at Nissan. It was notorious for all the overtime you had to work. I worked 50-60 hour weeks for the first couple of years, and all that overtime helped us get established financially. I posted for a senior contract analyst position in 1997 and received the appointment. Still working 50 to 60 hour weeks, Ruby and I still found time to do most everything we wanted. In the last couple of years I have begun to cut down the overtime which allows us time to focus on the things we like to do. We like to work the yard, I should say we like to have a nice looking yard (hate the work involved). We enjoy vacationing in Branson, taking weekend trips where ever, and being with family and friends.

Our daughter Debra is a housewife and lives near Atlanta, Georgia. She enjoys working with the church, gardening and a variety of other activities. She has three sons, Josh, Jake, Joel and one daughter, Melanie.

Our daughter Kim works for TCCD (Tarrant County College District) in Hurst, Texas. She is also very active in the church. She has two sons, Jared, Jordan, and one daughter JoHanna.

Our son, Steve Jr. is in the training department at iNet in Plano, Texas. He graduated from the University of Phoenix (online) in July of 2005 with a degree in computer science. He will be starting on his master's degree in business in January, 2006. He has one daughter Stephanie and two sons Chris and Nick.

Our son Greg is an auto mechanic for a Chevrolet dealership in Celina, Texas and lives in Denton. He is into computer games and anything mechanical. He has two daughters Crystal and Brandi.

Our son Ben graduated from ITT Technical Institute in Little Rock, Arkansas in June of 2005. He was valedictorian of his class with a 4.0 grade average and was also honored for his perfect attendance. He has taken a job with OK Scoring in Norman, Oklahoma in their IT department.

I love working on the computer. I have been developing web pages for about a year. Don’t get paid for any of it, but the experience is incredible. Some day soon I hope to do web hosting mainly for my own accounts. Hopefully I will be retiring from Nissan in 2009 and Ruby retired in August of 2004. She is loving the retirement life.

I hope this hasn’t been too boring. If you have made it this far, I must say you are really interested or terribly in need of something better to do in your life.

May God Bless Us All.