At the Post with the Fab Four

 

The “Board of Directors” agreed to meet Thursday Night at The Post in Creve Coeur. We are a foursome by virtue of rounds of golf dating back more than 25 years. We are men of a certain age. Successful by almost any conventional measure, we all have respectable careers and all of us celebrate prospects and progress in our respective families.

I have become more reflective in my life, as my wife Lynn passed away earlier this year. Our two kids are grown, married and each have boys born in the past half dozen years (2016). I have always insisted to my daughter Lindsey that the world is a better place with her in it. She is a leader in a Reform Jewish Temple Congregation in Tampa, Florida. My son has grown and has taken his financial skills and general “amazing-ness” and become a Senior Vice President and solid citizen. (He has all that and the heart of an artist.)

Dave has leveraged his brilliant approach to design and merged his commercial art business into a larger enterprise. He is adjusting to a more corporate model after years of prosperity as founder and principal of Sandbox Creative.

Rowdy shares the design background but has morphed himself into a signage and wayfinding impresario. His employer company (sign business) was sold and re-engineered. Rowdy found himself becoming a “go to” guy at BJC Healthcare. He brings pragmatic problem solving and common sense to what clearly can sometimes be a bureaucratic process. (You need only to note the massive web of buildings in one Saint Louis hospital to feel the complexity.)

Tom showed us just how well he could recover from what looked to be a stable position as software/computer application guru in the packaging business for 28 years when his employer sold the company, leaving Tom to face the career “what’s next” of a lifetime. He landed softly with a family owned pizza company and showed them how to manage millions of units of ingredients and hundreds of distribution points (grocery stores, restaurants etc.)

Our meeting came to order as each of my colleagues signed a message to their respective spouse “I will never forget how great you are!” in a custom card featuring a cartoon elephant (designed by wam22). The meeting would inevitably result in bits and pieces of joyful family news from each of us.

Dave’s daughter Samantha is getting married in December in Michigan. Danielle is making strides in her post college career path (as her 24th birthday approaches). Nicole is making herself into a broadcaster and creative powerhouse at Drake University.

Rowdy is grateful for the bountiful occurrence as he becomes a grandpa several times over. He reflects on daughter McKenzie's wedding in Philadelphia. He never hides the pride he has for his son Nick (noting what a blessing it was to follow his boy in soccer at Wisconsin).

Tom’s daughter Grace might have stumbled on to a shrewd career path as part of a high school program that may just gotten her focused on the rigger that could result in a big time government analytics job that will lead to a life in Washington D.C. with panoramic cresidential view of the U.S. Capital. Jack is about to enter college (Tom thinks Missouri might win, but Arkansas, KU and Tennessee are still in the mix).

All of these morsels, as we sit at a table with a bucket of beers, random appetisers, and big screen television monitors in every direction around the place (Hockey, Baseball playoffs, NFL news, Soccer and more). We have much for which to be thankful. Cheers.