​​Not Even Close to All About Me

Why is it that when I sit down to write this, it seems so much like writing my own obituary? Although I have often been asked to speak in public and actually enjoy the experience, I am uncomfortable talking about myself. The good part of that is that I will never run for public office. I will tell you a few things about myself and
then save most of the humorous highlights for April 20 at our lunch meeting.  Born in Milwaukee, I was raised mostly in a small community of Brown Deer, just northwest of Milwaukee. Attending 11 out of 12 years of education in Catholic Schools I saw my share of nuns. In my early high school years I worked summers at
Milwaukee Country Club, caddying for the uber wealthy of the area. That might explain why I never took up the sport of golf. That and as I began learning about landscaping, I would spend more time raking traps, fixing divots and grooming the course than golfing.

I got my initial start in the landscaping business by working my way through high school and college for the second largest nursery and landscaper in Wisconsin. Some of my jobs were: using a 100-gallon tank to spray the shrubs, trees and evergreens in the nursery with DDT, malthion and verbane. Often I came home with
cloths soaked in these chemicals. Yea!!! I know, that explains a lot. I also was in charge of fertilizing the nursery, which meant unloading semi loads of spent hops from the local Milwaukee brewery’s, spreading them in the fields and then tilling them into the soil. I came home more than once smelling like an Irish Pub on March 18th. This job gave me the confidence to eventually start my own landscape business.

I graduated High School in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. The highlight of which was meeting this little blonde in homeroom the first day of my senior year. Her name is Sue and the rest is history. I spent the next four years at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, where I earned a bachelors in Mathematics / Education, with a minor in Physical Education. Maybe the most significant outcomes of those four years were my experience with Delta Sigma Phi fraternity. It was there that I learned about SERVICE and enkindled in me the urge to continue to serve in a variety of ways throughout the rest of my life. 

 
After college and marrying Sue in 1971 I took a job teaching math and coaching in White Bear Lake. And that is where I will leave you. If you want to hear “The Rest of The Story” you’ll need to attend the April 20th lunch meeting at the Wild Cat Community Center, where I will share 10 Life Lessons from teaching, business,
marriage, family and community.

See you there
Bill​