Q: How have you been spending your time in retirement?
A: I have been writing, of course. I developed and teach a graduate level engineering course at Oakland University on Leadership. The leadership principles are within the story of Blue-Black Water. I have been consulting with Riverbank a culture and change firm with a utility focus, and consulting with several other companies world-wide.
Q: What have you enjoyed most about retirement?
A: I simply get up later and manage my time as I have interest.
Q: What do you miss most about working at DTE?
A; By far, the people. I enjoyed so very much the work I performed, and mission of the company was noteworthy, but our friends are the most missed.
Q: How have you been keeping yourself and your family healthy and occupied during the pandemic? – OR – How has the pandemic changed your retirement experience?
A: Covid-19 significantly impacted my travel. Christine and I were planning go to Australia/New Zealand last year and then Europe to visit my friend who wrote the forward. Also, our daughter and two grandsons live in San Diego and we haven’t seen them in a year. Thank goodness for the ability to video chat. We have been healthy with precaution.
Q: We recently hosted a DTE Alumni Network book club discussion featuring you as the author of Blue Black Water, can you share what inspired you to become an author?
A: I have been a Great Lakes area resident for most of my life. I worked as a lake’s freighter deckhand one summer during college and it impacted me. The story of the book is fiction, but the backdrop and incidents are very much real. What I wanted to share was the sense of how someone could grow in knowledge and insight in just a few months. The leadership principles In the book are ones I want to share with the reader and give context to how they play out in real life.
Q: Feel free to add anything else that you may want to share w/ our Alumni Network.
A: I hope you enjoy the story of Blue Black Water with the ghosts, the mystery, and the tragedy. I am enjoying the opportunity to share the story especially with friends and colleagues.