Japanese Vase
My father Jack spent time overseas when he worked for the Boeing Company. He was the Director of the Contracts Administration Department. I was quite young when he brought this vase home from a trip to Japan. He was there to negotiate an airplane sale. Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly what he did other than that he was involved in the contract negotiations and contract signings in some way.
As it turns out, I ended up working for the Boeing Company as well (I’ve since retired). I did not follow exactly in my father’s footsteps, I did not work with people as he did, I worked with computers, in particular large-scale databases. I like to think I was good at what I did. I know that my father was good at what he did. How did I end up working there? Well, my father played a very important indirect role. I remember in my interview, the hiring manager asked me if I knew why he was going to hire me. I said quite candidly, “No I don’t.” He informed me that since my Father was successful he figured that I would be as well. That was a different time. I have a hunch that my first manager was a little bit jealous of my Father, that’s speculation of course.
My father worked for the Boeing Company for 44 years. I managed to put in 37, I didn’t want to break that particular record, that would have meant working until I was well over 65, not something I wanted to do.
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