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From a no frills family to national business success. It has not been a straight road for
me, but with my work ethic, tenacity, never-quit attitude and entrepreneurial skills
I have thrived and survived.
Starting out at 12 years old going door to door selling Downy Flake Doughnuts,
my work ethic was established at an early age. I advanced moving from job to job
accelerating my work position providing me with enough income to purchase a
wrist watch, my first car and paying my way through college.
Investing and my entrepreneurial instincts have catapulted me from having my first
duplex, purchasing a printing business, opening three roller skating rinks, building a
national condominium and apartment development company building and selling
over 1,400 units.
Along the way I think I have used most of my Nine Lives! Among my many close calls
with death are my tour in Vietnam, surviving Hurricane Iris and a runaway driver.
I served with the 1st Air Calvary Division in Vietnam with my team’s mission, “Search
and Destroy”. At times we had direct contact with the enemy at daybreak, mid-day,
and prior to sunset-breakfast, lunch and dinner. I excelled at this S & D mission being
named “Soldier of the Month” and being awarded an accommodation for Valor.
On one of our many international SCUBA diving adventures my wife and I were on a
100-foot yacht, The Aggressor, in Belize along with another 100-foot yacht, The Wave
Dancer. We were tied up 20 feet apart in a remote area waiting out Hurricane Iris,
when the category four storm ripped The Wave Dancer from its cleats capsizing and
killing 20 of the 28 people aboard. I wrote a book about the tragedy, “No Safe Harbor”.
Another close call with death came as I was sitting in my front room watching a
baseball game. A person speeding from the police catapulted his car over a berm
into a tree and spun his car into my room. Both the tree and car were less than 12
inches from where I was sitting. The fleeing crashing culprit was arrested a few weeks
later on my 80th birthday I have lived a charmed and successful Life!