Periodic Table

By Bob Gariano

The J. Crew store in Lake Forest’s Market Square has a new window display that is based on the periodic table of the elements. In this chart, certain elements have been replaced with symbols that denote some upcoming fashion activity or piece of merchandise which will be offered for the fast approaching autumn season. There is Ch for chambray and Sb for schoolboy blazer. The scientific background is meant to imply scholarship and to get customers thinking about buying back to school clothing. It is a creative, if oblique, approach to merchandising.

The merchandising and marketing experts at any successful consumer goods retailer must be able to predict the future. The window designers and buyers at J. Crew headquarters were probably working on this display and sourcing clothing to back it up several months ago. As we were preparing late this spring for the dog days of summer, J. Crew designers were developing a theme based on the periodic table of the elements that would sell sweaters and corduroys for the autumn season. Because the supply chain for clothing manufacturers is two or three months long, buyers have to commit to what they predict will sell in the next season. Once the goods are made and on the water, there is little ability to change merchandising strategies.

Mendeleev’s Table

I think that Dmitri Mendeleev would have enjoyed seeing the J. Crew ladies at the store on Market Square up on their step ladders decorating the windows with his invention. Mendeleev first published the periodic table of the elements in 1869 when he recognized some particularly distinctive properties of the 65 elements that were known at that time.

Like most great inventions, the table is as simple as it is useful. Mendeleev arranged the elements in a grid where each element in a horizontal row has a higher atomic weight than the one on the left. Vertically, he grouped the elements by their apparent properties. The horizontal rows are called periods and the vertical columns are called groups. The table became fundamental to our modern science of chemistry.

Mendeleev himself was quite a fortune teller and he used his new periodic table to accurately see over the horizon. He noticed that there were gaps in his table and he predicted that there were elements which would be discovered in the future to fill these gaps. In particular, he predicted the existence of germanium, which later filled the gap between silicon and tin, as well as gallium and scandium. He did not know their names or where they occurred, but he accurately used his table to describe their properties.

Forty years after Mendeleev published his table, Henry Moseley, who worked with Rutherford, showed that the atomic number, or electric charge, of an element’s atoms was more fundamental than the atomic weight in determining the properties and behavior of an element. The Rutherford-Bohr model defines the relationship of elements by the configuration of an atom’s electrons and this largely determines the reactivity and properties of each one. The electron configuration in the atom’s outer most shell is what really positions each element in its own vertical group. The elements still all line up like satraps in a medieval parade, each different, but each part of a larger organization.

Science Fiction

Group 14 is called the metalloids and it is my favorite. At the top of this group is the element carbon, the basic building block for all organic compounds, the fundamental materials of life itself. The abundant and useful element, silicon, lies immediately under carbon in the table. Like all the other members of Group 14, these two elements have four electrons in their outer shells and their properties are similar. This has given rise to the idea, advanced by a number of science fiction writers, that there may be life forms on other planets based on silicon, rather than carbon. This is probably a long shot idea.

Carbon is a compelling building block for huge diversity of organic chemicals, from bacterial DNA to wool fibers to aviation fuel. Carbon’s bonding versatility allows it to join with a large number of other elements and to form long molecules in chains, sometimes thousands of atoms in length. Carbon is also versatile and can comfortably be the backbone in molecules that are linear, ring shaped, double bonded, or multiples of these. All of this means that there are millions of organic, carbon based molecules.

Silicon Rubber

Silicon is not such a versatile utility player. Many complex compounds of silicon are less stable than similar compounds with a carbon back bone. In addition, silicon does not have carbon’s ability to orient itself spatially within a compound to produce chirality or handedness. Organic compounds made from carbon can be right or left handed, but very few silicon based molecules have handedness at all. Life forms demand an incredible level of specificity from their compounds and seemingly identical carbon compounds with inverted handedness have remarkably different properties.

Even though there may not be life forms based on silicon, synthetic polymers based on silicon are big business. The rubbery interlayer that prevents automotive wind screens from fracturing in a crash is a silicon polymer. Its crystal clarity and strong adhesion to the glass outer layers would be difficult properties to achieve with carbon based materials. Other familiar silicon polymers include the room temperature vulcanization sealants used as a flexible seal around bath tubs and the energy absorbing silicon rubber used as an interlayer in bullet proof glass. Medical products often make use of the properties of silicon based polymers.

A recent innovation is the silicon rubber used in some new flexible cookware. Silicon rubber is heat resistant, flexible, non-reactive, and inherently resistant to the stickiness of cooked foods. Flexible silicon rubber makes a perfect material for muffin trays or bundt cake pans. Chemists have developed useful synthetic materials based on silicon, taking up where nature left off.

I hope that the ladies at the J. Crew store handle the periodic chart gently when they take it down in a few weeks. I suggest that they put it safely into storage and not simply consign it to the dumpster like previous more frivolous displays.  The new display that takes its place will probably have something to do with parkas and snow hats. Chambray might be out and faux fur might be in. In spite of the changing seasons, we should see the periodic table as another indication of the grander designs that nature has laid out, natural designs and patterns that transcend seasonal fashions and the fleeting designs of mankind.

Bob Gariano is President of RGA, an executive search firm that recruits senior executives and board members for public and private companies. Bob can be reached at rgariano@robertgariano.com

Background noise and Nobel prizes

By Bob Gariano

The leadership of a research and development team is one of the most difficult managerial roles in business. The person who runs such a team must maintain a vital interface between the demands for results that are an inherent part of a commercial enterprise and the freedom to discover new knowledge and invent new ideas. The ability to meld these two environments takes wisdom and persuasiveness. It also takes the courage to provide researchers with the room and resources needed to discover new things.

In the late 1950’s, Bell Labs was experimenting with equipment that could be used to economically relay microwaves over long distances. Such microwaves could be used to transmit enormous amounts of information efficiently and accurately. One such scheme involved using metallic coated, high altitude balloons as relay stations to bounce wireless communication signals across the continent or ocean. By collecting and amplifying signals reflected from the balloons, it was thought that microwaves could be used for both data and voice communications transmissions. As part of this effort, Bells Labs built a large, highly sensitive micro wave antenna in Holmdel, New Jersey to study the requirements of such long distance, low strength signals. The system was aptly named Echo.

In the early 1960’s, missile and satellite technology made the Echo concept obsolete. The new Telstar satellites not only received microwave transmissions, but they also amplified and retransmitted the signals back to receiving stations on the ground. In this way a whole new network using satellite communications was begun. The idea of bouncing signals off a metallic balloon suddenly looked archaic and primitive.

Nevertheless, the big Bell Labs Holmdel microwave antenna was still available for research work. It caught the eye of two Bell Laboratory researchers, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson. They suggested that the antenna could be used to study microwave radiation that was bombarding the earth from outer space. Their bosses at Bell Labs felt that this research, while a bit theoretical, might be useful in eliminating unwanted interference from their new wireless communications networks. Other than that, they did not see much practical value in studying low strength signals that were characteristic of an obsolete balloon based network.

The two researchers must have indeed been an odd couple. Penzias was born in Munich in 1933. In 1939 he and his family were deported to Poland. Fearing the worst from the new German regime, the family made their way to the US after a circuitous and dangerous journey. The family settled in New York City.  Arno Penzias studied physics at City College of New York and went on to do his graduate work at Columbia. In contrast, Robert Wilson, his partner on the antenna project, grew up in the oil fields around Houston, Texas where his father was a drilling engineer. Always interested in the new field of electronics, Wilson studied at Rice and then went to California Institute of Technology for his graduate work. Thrown together by Bell Labs, the two became fast friends and set about to use the Holmdel antenna as their own personal astronomical observatory.

The two were aware that the intensity of microwave radiation decreases with lower wavelengths and the antenna itself was designed to minimize instrument noise. The two decided to study waves at the 7 centimeter wavelength, which, theoretically, should have eliminated almost all noise from the system. These signals occur at about the same wavelength as TV signals so their characteristics are well understood.

In spite of all their precautions, Penzias and Wilson could not get the machine to work correctly. They were surprised by the high level of background noise that was a consistent part of the measurements. Some scientists have said that this noise was similar to the “snow” that a person sees on a television screen when the set is turned on but not connected to an antenna or cable. The screen never goes completely black. In the same way, the antenna never stopped registering this unexpectedly high level of background noise.

The two researchers began a painstaking process to find out what they were doing wrong and to eliminate this error. They pointed the antenna into different regions of the sky but the noise persisted. They patiently waited as the earth cycled through its yearly orbit but the noise was constant.  They eliminated the signals that were coming from nearby New York City, but the noise was still there. They even climbed inside the big antenna’s ear and evicted pigeons living there. The noise was still not eliminated.

At about this same time, Robert Dicke, a researcher at Princeton was investigating the theories that described the beginnings of our universe. According to these theories, there was a clear suggestion that the universe started with a “big bang”, some 15 billion years ago. The only obstacle to this theory’s acceptance was a distinct lack of evidence in today’s universe for such a momentous event. There must certainly be some residual evidence, if the theory was to make sense and be generally embraced. Dicke was looking for this evidence when Penzias and Wilson contacted his lab to get help with their misbehaving antenna. Dicke immediately recognized that the noise was not instrument error at all. The noise that the two were hearing from the instrument was indeed the echo of the theoretical “big bang” that was still rattling around our universe. The universe is filled with this cosmic background radiation because the radiation is the echo of the original “big bang”.

In 1978, Penzias and Wilson were awarded the Nobel Prize for physics for discovering cosmic background radiation. This radiation was the final evidence needed to legitimize the modern theory of cosmology involving the origins of the universe. Cosmic background radiation is one of the pillars of modern evidence that supports physicists’ ideas about how our universe was formed.

I do not believe that their supervisors at Bell Labs could have possibly predicted this outcome from Penzias and Wilson as they watched the two scientists struggle to account for the anomalies in their experiments. We can only imagine what the management was thinking when the two climbed into the antenna to clear away the pigeon nests. It must have taken a certain degree of patience and political air cover to keep the two assigned to their work while other research was being put to more practical use to build the new wireless communications network.

The lesson from this story is that new knowledge and invention is almost never a straight line process. It is a surprisingly circuitous affair with unexpected outcomes and little opportunity for business strategy and quarterly results. Nevertheless, most successful technology companies have provided their best and brightest researchers and scientists with the elbow room and resources to pursue new ideas that do not have an immediate commercial payoff. In the case of Penzias and Wilson, Bell Labs provided this room and their work allowed us to explain how our universe began.

The CEO and the Liberal Arts

By Bob Gariano

More than 40% of the Chief Executive Officers in US publicly traded companies today have undergraduate degrees in areas that we would call liberal arts. This might seem strange in a global business environment that is based on technical and financial ideas. Many successful enterprises today have their foundations in engineering or financial ideas; however, people who are trained in the broader disciplines of political science, philosophy, communications, and history seem to be highly valued as senior level leaders in these large global companies.

There is a clear reason for this disconnect between the hard science of business and the leaders who have a more basic educational background. Effective and enduring business leadership skills are often based on broader, more fundamental curriculum that teach ideas that are centuries old. This might at first seem remarkable in a world of commerce that has come to value specialized, contemporary technical knowledge above broader philosophical concepts. Nevertheless, the Boards who select CEOs often see the value of more fundamental education and skills, especially when these fundamentals are exhibited by the executive in their daily work.

In my view, the reason that leaders with skills in the liberal arts are so highly valued is because the role of business leadership is more complex and interconnected today than ever before. This places a premium on people who can formulate and communicate big ideas that affect many constituents on a global basis. The skills involved with conceptionalization and communication of compelling ideas do not come out of an Excel spreadsheet. These ideas come from the broader appreciation and synthesis of global trends and human interaction. The CEO of today has a need to understand and use these broader global ideas.

Recently, Leo Hindery wrote an editorial article for Barron’s that was entitled, “A Plea for Corporate Conscience”. In the article, Hindery makes the case that US corporations must strive to raise worker skills and global productivity in order for America to retain “global economic primacy”. Hindery discusses the ideas put forth by Reginald Jones, the GE Chairman and CEO who preceded Jack Welch. I was fortunate enough to join GE in 1974, the year after Mr. Jones became Chairman and I was captivated by his succinct and persuasive presentation of these global ideas. Mr. Jones viewed his responsibilities as equally split among GE shareholders, GE employees, American industry, and the nation as a whole. I clearly remember Mr. Jones making this case to all of us a GE as well as to his fellow business leaders in such forums as the Business Roundtable.

Mr. Jones argued for a new and broader sense of responsibility for American business leaders. Just as important as his genius in being able to see these concepts was his ability to formulate and communicate these ideas to all layers of his constituents, from other senior business leaders down to the rank and file workers at GE’s dispersed factories and field offices. Without being able to present these ideas to people who could act on them, the ideas would have been only fossilized concepts without potential or promise. Even compelling ideas have all the utility of riding a hobby horse if they are not communicated persuasively to the people who can act on them and make things happen. Mr. Jones was not a great CEO because of his engineering and technical insight nor was he an especially noted financial innovator. His skill was in conceiving big ideas that would create a more valuable organization into the next decades and in being able to communicate these ideas in a compelling fashion to a global enterprise of more than 200,000 people.

The Economist magazine recently reviewed the writing of the novelist, Joseph Finder. The article described a fictionalized case study written by Mr. Finder that will appear in the Harvard Business Review this October. The title of the Economist article is “Chief Fiction Officer”. What could a fictionalized account of life within the boardrooms and executive suites of a global business have to do with the reality of running an actual business?

Finder is a popular novelist whose books describe modern business relationships and the personal dynamics of leadership. The value of his writing lies in the broader ideas and dilemmas that he encourages business people to think about in our everyday activities. Finder is a journalist and a storyteller who brings these ideas forward in a realistic and persuasive manner that illuminate truths found in many large organizations. His books range from descriptions about corporate espionage and intrigue, where he did research by interviewing leaders at Apple, Cisco, and Hewlett Packard, to global executive relationships where the Japanese company, NEC, helped him understand what it is like to be an American working for a big Japanese electronics company.

A principal in a major consulting firm told me this story: “In business school we were taught that every business situation, every investment opportunity, could be put on a spread sheet. We took great confidence and pride in our ability to analyze future cash flows and predict the net present value of our proposed investments. When I came out of graduate business school and started my consulting work, I found that this wasn’t how businesses worked at all. Sure, we still did all the arithmetic and our clients always read the formal analysis with polite attention. But when decisions were really made, they were based on stories. The wisdom of the business was captured in the stories of success and failure from earlier company experience. The modern sophisticated global business doesn’t run on spread sheets. They run on decisions made from intuition and the collected wisdom of the company’s tribal history. Companies use story telling to spread this wisdom.”

Beyond the need to captivate and motivate a large global audience and win their support of long term strategies and business ideas, the modern business leader finds that fundamental education develops skills that help the leadership deal with the complexity of the future.  Technology is driving change at a breakneck speed. Acquisitions and joint ventures change the commercial and competitive landscape with the stroke of a pen. Products and services with great promise yesterday are anachronisms today. Dealing with the complexities and vulnerabilities of a cloudy crystal ball is a primary challenge for today’s CEO.

Predicting and reacting to the complexity of the global commercial environment requires the broadest and most imaginative approaches to building prosperous businesses. Leaders who lack the innovation and vision to feel at home in this environment of change will doom their enterprises to being less successful market followers rather than the market place leaders who create value for shareholders. The innovative business leaders often rely upon the skills and intuitions developed from a broad based education, especially at the undergraduate level. This allows these leaders to put their challenges, and opportunities into a wider historic and cultural perspective. Much of the liberal arts curriculum teaches the process of problem solving and analysis based on the broadest of human experiences.

In today’s complex and global commercial environment where technologies change rapidly, there is a demand for leaders who are educated in the broadest historic and cultural terms. These leaders often bring a perspective to business situations that transcend the purely technical or financial techniques that are the more immediate basis of company activities. The liberal arts education often provides a valuable background for business leaders who need the communications skills and conceptional perspective that helps them be effective leaders in their enterprises. 

 Diamonds and Carbon

By Bob Gariano

In the 1949 Broadway musical hit, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Carol Channing first performed one of the all time greatest American musical hit tunes, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”.

In 1953, when Marilyn Monroe was cast as heroine Lorelei Lee in the movie version of the play, she turned this hit song into a cultural icon of the twentieth century. In the movie’s plot, Lorelei is tracked by a detective hired by her fiancé’s father. The father suspects the young and beautiful Lorelei of being motivated to marry his son simply to access the family’s fortune. Lorelei’s nightclub rendition of the song placed her as one of America’s great musical actresses and is second only to her happy birthday song sung for President Kennedy as her most memorable performance.

The early chorus of the song includes the famous lines, “A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” I doubt if anyone associated with the production understood just how special diamonds are and how remarkable they are as one of nature’s rarest accomplishments. But the reality of this line still stands.

Basic Carbon

Diamond is a rare form of the basic element carbon, one of the four most common elements in the universe. Carbon is found as an element in all forms of organic molecules, that is, those molecules that make up living things. In its natural elemental state, carbon is presented in several very different forms or allotropes. These include graphite, which is opaque black, and diamond, which is transparent. Graphite is soft and can be used as a marking material. In contrast, diamond is one of the hardest materials known. Under normal conditions diamond is an electrical insulator, while graphite is a very good conductor of electrical energy. Conversely, diamond is one of the best thermal or heat conductors known.

Carbon has been known since antiquity and the word itself is from the Greek meaning coal. In its tetravalent structure, carbon can combine with a number of other common elements, especially hydrogen and oxygen, to form a dizzying array of so called organic compounds. It is this variability that accounts for the some of the diversity of life on planet earth. Scientists have identified more than ten million organic or carbon based compounds and this is a fraction of the number that could theoretically be formed using this versatile element as a backbone.

Inside Giant Stars

Every diamond is formed from carbon and all carbon was formed in a similar ancient reaction. Carbon is created when three alpha particles or helium nuclei collide almost simultaneously. The pressures and heat required for such triple collisions occur only in the cores of giant super stars.

Scientists believe that all the carbon in the universe originated in such cataclysmic events and that the resulting carbon dust was distributed into the universe when those giant stars eventually died in fiery explosions throughout the galaxies. The origination of elemental carbon in the cores of giant stars is only the first step in the natural production of diamonds. 

Making Diamonds

For all of the elemental carbon that is in the earth’s core, very little is converted into the form that we know as diamonds. For this to occur, the carbon must under go enormous heat and pressures. In the earth’s mantle, where diamonds form, the temperature of the super heated magma can reach over 1000 degrees centigrade. Pressures in this environment exceed 50 kilo bars. These unusual conditions only exist more than 100 miles below the earth’s surface.

Geologists estimate that much of this compression and heating occurred early in the earth’s existence. By dating radioactive inclusions in mined diamonds many of these precious stones have been shown to be more than three billion years old.

After they form in the earth’s interior, diamonds are still not at their journey’s end. Diamond, which appears so permanent, as in “diamonds are forever”, is not stable in the atmosphere at high temperatures. The normal, stable form of carbon is the much more pedestrian graphite or organic forms. To come to the surface as diamonds, the stones are transported at near supersonic sonic speeds inside of volcanic conduits called kimberlitic pipes. Slower emergence would allow the diamonds to degenerate as they came to the surface. The stones that we use as jewels today were all explosively transported to the surface inside of these pipes and then the gems are refined by man from the surrounding magma ore.

Special Places

Until the early eighteenth century almost all diamonds were found in alluvial deposits in India. In the middle of that century, similar deposits were found in Brazil and in the 1870’s major deposits near kimberlite eruptions were found in South Africa. Since the South African deposits were discovered, and careful records have been kept of production, more than 5 billion carats of gem and industrial natural diamonds have been mined throughout the world. Newer diamond mines today are located in Canada, Zimbabwe and Angola, though other smaller deposits of the diamond containing magma have been found in Russia and in the western United States.

The beauty and rarity of diamonds means that they are a sought after as precious adornments. On a sunny spring afternoon in Lake Forest, an alert observer can see many beautiful stones decorating the jewelry of sophisticated ladies. The journey that these precious gems took from the cores of exploding stars to the super heated magma inside the earth’s mantle to a super sonic conveyor to the earth’s surface should remind us of their scarcity. Even though the beauty of the stones will certainly out live the youth of the owners, there is something about diamonds that makes the wearer young again. It may be as the hit song says:

“Time rolls on and youth is gone and you can’t straighten up when you bend. But stiff back or stiff knees, you stand straight at Tiffany’s…Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”

Bob Gariano is President of RGA, an executive search firm that recruits senior executives and board members for public and private companies. Bob can be reached at rgariano@robertgariano.com

Lifting Weights

By Bob Gariano

There are plenty of places to lift weights. Some gyms are designed for people who are sadly and dutifully going about their doctors’ orders to lose weight in order to improve their blood chemistry numbers. Some glitzy recreation centers attract women with a little too much perfume and men with carefully matched work out clothes who are looking to connect. It is hard to sweat in such an environment.

Some recreation centers are run simply for the benefit of the owners. These places employ a staff of sales people who are obviously on commission and hoping to sell new memberships. The owners of those establishments soon find out that owning a good gym is never very profitable.

Serious Lifting

Then there are the places that attract the people who really want to lift. The huge gym in the Hilton Hotel just outside the Los Angeles International Airport is such a place. I was there one evening and lifted with two people that I met extemporaneously. One was a ripped and muscular young woman who played varsity volleyball at USC and the other was a man recently released from Mule Creek. A forty five pound plate is egalitarian. It weighs the same for a businessman, a scholar athlete, or a recovering felon. Inside that gym we were all gender and background neutral. We spotted each other while doing heavy bench presses. It was a great workout.

There are lots of similar gyms around if you know where to find them. There was a big gym in Detroit at Eight Mile Road and Livernois that catered to serious weight trainers. They even welded up some of their own equipment in a shed in the back. There is a YMCA gym on the near north side of Pittsburgh and another one where the football players work out on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson. All of these gyms are similar in that they are committed to serious weight lifting and body building.

Lake Forest Fitness Center

We have a great weight training facility here in Lake Forest, the Lake Forest Fitness Center right behind the Deerpath Middle School complex. The Lake Forest Fitness Center is dedicated to the health and well being of the citizens of Lake Forest, but it has gone well beyond that charter. The difference is the superb staff and the people who go there to work out. The staff at Lake Forest Fitness Center is friendly and expert, but they never impose on the visitors. The people who work out at the Center are committed and purposeful. They know that they are there for a serious workout.

The Lake Forest Fitness Center includes 4500 square feet under roof. There is an area dedicated to weight training, big enough for eight or ten people to work out without getting in each other’s way. There are also racquet ball and squash courts, dance studios, a complete cardio area with first class Precor equipment adjacent to the weights, and a spotlessly clean locker and shower facility. In summer months, the fields outside the Fitness Center offer plenty of room for a post workout run. All of this comes together for less than one third the dues charged by less effective facilities in the area. It would be a good deal even if they charged the same.

Scout Workout

Last week, when I was well into my workout, I observed three young men working out together. Two were wearing their Scouts football tee shirts and the third, obviously the older brother, home from college for the summer, was in his Iowa shirt. The three were super setting legs and back, doing set after set of leg presses on the hip sled and then circulating over to the overhead bar for chins.

Greek and Roman men thought that the leg muscles were most indicative of masculinity. The Sartorius muscle of the leg even lends its name to the manner of dress for men of style and distinction. The hip sled is a large machine that works these big muscles of the legs, including the quadriceps and gluteus maximus muscles. These are the muscles that provide power in almost every athletic move from driving a golf ball to moving a defensive tackle off the line of scrimmage. The lifter sits in the machine, eliminating any compression to the vertebrae, and pushes the sled upwards by extending the legs. If the sled is driven to tip toe extension, even the soleus muscles of the calves are involved.

The sled is loaded with the necessary number of plates, dangling at each end like manhole covers. The big machine at the Fitness Center can hold eight forty five pound plates on each side, which would bring its fully loaded weight to 720 lbs. Not a lot of people need more than that, but there are places to add a couple of extra plates for those that do.

Ten reps equals a set and these young guys were into their fifth or sixth set. As their workout progressed, the three began to fall into the rhythm of the workout. The lifter has to breathe deeply when using the hip sled and the combination of aerobic and strength exercise creates a feeling that the old time weight lifters called a pump. It makes a weight lifter feel like they own the place and that was where the three young men were that day. I could see their ear to ear grins from across the gym. After a summer of such workouts, I would hate to be the opposing players, when these young athletes take to the football field. More important, I could see the young athletes were enjoying the workout experience, sharing in a way that alcohol, video games, or other artificial means never could offer.

Members and Staff

There were some other people working out that day, most of them regulars, all very polite and professional. One thirty something lady impresses with her efficiency and commitment, mixing flexibility moves with a tough weight training regimen. Her stretching exercises look like yoga. I tried them once to see if I could duplicate some of the moves. It was like trying to bend a bag of cement in half.

Another Fitness Center member is a teenage woman who was new to weight lifting this spring and has been working diligently with one of the trainers. I have seen her go from being a pudgy kid at the beginning of the summer to being a self assured young athlete. I think that she is hooked on weight training and will return to school this fall a different person.

The real bottom line for the Lake Forest Fitness Center is the superb staff. Just like most great hotels, the facilities and real estate do not differentiate. Instead, it is the people who work there who provide just the right combination of friendly encouragement and professional help when needed. There is no sales pitch, no chrome machines without the dignity of people using them, no coffee bar for après exercise mixing. The Lake Forest Fitness Center is just a great gym designed and operated for serious training and run by people who know how to keep it going in that right direction.

Bob Gariano is President of RGA, an executive search firm that recruits senior executives and board members for public and private companies. Bob can be reached at rgariano@robertgariano.com

Habanero Peppers

by Bob Gariano

This week I picked a big plastic bag of container grown peppers that I had cultivated in a sunny spot in a secluded corner of our driveway this summer. I traditionally grow at least five different cultivars of domestic peppers each summer including sweet banana peppers and several types of spicier peppers. By far the most piquant peppers that come out of these carefully tended plants are my orange habanero chili peppers, known in some quarters as scotch bonnet peppers.

Scotch bonnet peppers are small, rarely more than 1.5 inches long but they are powerful. They apparently get their name from their distinctive shape which is said to resemble a Scottish cap or bonnet. They are a showy and decorative orange color and when they are ready to be picked, it means that colder weather will be close behind.

Spicy Peppers

The habanero peppers vary in how hot they are when harvested, but the hottest are rated at over 350,000 units on the Scoville scale.  For context, the common hot chilli peppers usually register 3,000 to 8,000 on this scale. The hot Cayenne, Tabasco, and Cumari peppers are rated at 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville units. Habaneras beat these milder peppers hands down.

The little habanero peppers are green when they are immature, but they turn a bright orange when they are ready to be picked in late August. They like slightly acidic soil conditions and even thrive when periods of drought dry out the containers through the summer. In our temperate climate, habanero peppers are an annual plant, but in more tropical areas they grow as perennials, producing peppers for five to ten years on the same plants.

The precise origin of the habanero pepper is unknown but it is thought to be one of the oldest of all cultivated crops. It is also another plant which was developed in the New World before being exported to other countries and geographies.

Prehistoric Origins

Several years ago an intact habanero pepper fruit was found by anthropologists in a cave in the Peruvian highlands. This example was carbon dated at over 6500 years B.C. The cultivation of this type of pepper spread throughout South and Central America, carried as a valuable crop by the indigenous people who lived there.

During the Spanish conquest of the New World, the plant was next carried to the Caribbean and even to Africa where warm climate conditions were suitable to its cultivation. Today, habaneras are grown in the Yucatan peninsula as well as Costa Rica, Colombia, West Africa, and in the southern United States.

By the 18th century, habaneras had spread throughout the tropical regions so that its country of origin became unclear. Plant taxonomists of that era thought that the orange scotch bonnet originated in China and gave it its scientific name of Capsicum chinese. In spite of this misleading nomenclature, the scotch bonnet is used most extensively in Caribbean and West African cooking. These are the peppers that give the islands' pork and chicken jerk dishes their unique taste. Jamaican cuisine as well as the lesser known spicy dishes cooked in Haiti, Trinidad, Guyana, and West Africa make use of this characteristically flavored spice.

Chemical Heat

Scotch bonnet peppers are hot but they are not the hottest peppers. That distinction probably belongs to the Indian pepper species called the Naga Jolokia which is grown in the Indian states of Assam and Manipur. These peppers are rated routinely at over one million Scoville units. I grew some Naga Jolokia peppers several years ago, but found that they were not very useful in recipes. These peppers might best be used as a source for the chemical capsaicin, the active ingredient in pepper spray, a non lethal deterrent in controlling crowds or assailants. Capsaicin is the chemical that makes peppers taste hot.

Scientists have studied capsaicin for some time for other reasons. This chemical is found in the placental tissue surrounding the seeds of the pepper. There are also trace amounts found throughout the rest of the pepper, though, contrary to common perception, the seeds themselves do not contain this chemical. It had been theorized that the capsaicin helps the pepper plant resist diseases and fungus that seek to infest the plant. In fact, capsaicin has been shown to be a powerful anti fungal and anti microbial agent. Recent research has even initially indicated that the chemical may have positive effects in combating both stomach cancer and diabetes in humans.

Birds and Mammals

But several decades ago, scientists made another remarkable discovery about capsaicin. While most herbivores are intensively affected by the pain of ingesting capsaicin containing plant tissues, birds completely lack the neural receptors needed to sense this burning. Birds, therefore, are not deterred from eating the hottest peppers. And because capsaicin is  hydrophobic, ingesting water does little to attenuate the discomfort of a mammal eating hot peppers. But birds are immune to this sensation.

It is now clear that birds, lacking the molars needed to grind up ingested pepper seeds,  allow the seeds to pass intact through the digestive tract. In this way, as they fly, birds disseminate the plants throughout a large geographic area. Mammalian herbivores, with their crushing teeth, grind up and destroy the seeds, rendering them unable to germinate. In this way, the capsaicin becomes a means to select which animals eat the peppers. The destructive herbivores get burned, while the helpful birds are immune.

All of this technology does not deter my peppers from ending up in a spicy stew of tomatoes and sausage that is a perfect accoutrement to my home made pasta. This year I will bring my plants inside to see if they can survive a Chicago winter on my window sill. I am supposing that they will miss the morning sun and soft warm breezes of August. I think that they will stop producing peppers when confined indoors. Nevertheless, it is interesting that people more than 8000 years ago shared our attraction to these piquant and tasty little peppers, a culinary treat that has not been obsoleted even centuries after its discovery. 

St. Leo’s Campus

By Bob Gariano

Owing to the ethnicity of the communities that it serves to the north of the store’s location, the Wal-Mart on Waukegan Road just north of Lake Bluff offers a wide range of hot pepper plants and other ethnic vegetables for spring plantings. Even though it is located in Waukegan, the store gets a fair share of spring gardener shoppers from the prosperous North Shore communities of Lake Bluff, Knollwood, and Lake Forest.

One warm day last week a tall gaunt figure, dressed incongruously in a heavy overcoat and woolen knit cap, was stationed in front of the store, serenading shoppers, most of whom walked by without acknowledging him. It was hard not to. He sang a Jamaican folk song in a strong baritone voice that seemed a perfect match to the poetic rhythms of that Creole language. His voice could be heard across the parking lot.

Stopping to light a stub of a cigarette and taking a puff, he declared to no one in particular that he had served in the United States Army for 31 years before retiring two years ago.  He then put down the two tattered shopping bags that he carried and offered an old cup to solicit charity from people passing by.

“I have travelled all over the world and I speak four languages. My friend taught me to speak Jamaican. I wrote this song to celebrate. I used to have an apartment near the police station but now I am looking for another place to live.” He jingled the few coins in the cup. “I am hoping that someone will come by soon to give me a ride. If not, I guess I will just have to walk.” The man’s woolen cap bore the insignia of a US Army unit.

There are more than 25,000 United States armed forces veterans in the greater Chicago area who are homeless. More than half served in Vietnam. These veterans, many of them in the later years of their lives, live on the edge of our communities, sleeping in shelters or on the streets and under bridges, anywhere where they can find some protection from the elements. Many of these individuals are infirm and suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome or substance abuse problems. Many are disabled or are afflicted with physical diseases or emotional and mental issues. Most are unaware of even the limited governmental benefits available to them.

Catholic Charities began working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in 2004 to help remedy a small part of this problem. Located about 40 miles away from the North Shore in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood of south Chicago, the St. Leo Campus for Veterans provides housing and medical care for homeless veterans. The facility houses more than 40 veterans and also includes a clinic and treatment center. In addition, the Pope John II Residence provides affordable housing on campus for veterans with physical disabilities.

The St. Leo Campus was originally designed as a pilot facility to prove the merit of a joint effort between private charities and government funding to provide for these veterans. The plan was to install a score of such campuses across the country. Even though this plan did not materialize because of lack of government funding, the Catholic Charities continued to keep the St Leo Campus functioning with donated funds and volunteer effort.

While many of these homeless veterans are located in urban areas far from the North Shore, these prosperous communities make a difference by being the most important contributors to the Catholic Charities, especially during the annual spring philanthropic drive that is held by local Catholic churches each year. The charity is now in the midst of their 2013 campaign.

Catholic Charities serve our needy veterans in other ways as well. From its inception in 1917, Catholic Charities have provided veterans with social services through a variety of clothing rooms, food pantries, evening supper programs, and transitional shelters. The Catholic Charities run low cost apartment buildings for veterans in Des Plaines and Summit where 18 residential buildings provide low cost housing for elderly veterans where they may live in safety and with dignity.  Working with the Office of Veterans Affairs, the Catholic Charities also runs Cooke’s Manor, a clinic designed to help veterans battling addiction problems.

In 1890, the poet Rudyard Kipling wrote “The Last of the Light Brigade”. The first two lines of his poem were a stinging post script to Alfred Lord Tennyson’s patriotic poem written 40 years earlier. Kipling wrote:

“There were 30 million English who talked of England’s might; there were 20 broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.”

These words inflamed a public who had largely ignored the problems faced by their retired veterans. Catholic Charities, through their charitable programs, are making sure that our veterans are not forgotten. To learn more about the St. Leo Campus for Veterans visit their web site at www.stleoveterans.com 

Designing Metals

by Bob Gariano

The Hittites of Asia Minor perfected the smelting of iron 3500 years ago. The new material provided a military advantage that allowed them to rule over an empire that rivaled the Egyptians for 1000 years. Even though early iron was not as hard as bronze, it can be hammered and worked with heat to produce a variety of shapes. The Hittites considered iron to be more precious than silver and, when discovered that it fell to earth in meteorites, they were certain that it had magical properties bequeathed directly from heavenly sources.

Iron's utility was enhanced when Andrew Carnegie brought modern steel making technology to the United States in the late nineteenth century. Steel became as fundamental to the industrial revolution as semiconductors are to the information age. Inexpensive high strength steel allowed the design of sky scrapers, metal bridges, automobiles, and railroads. As a network, railroads and modern highways changed human connectivity with an impact that rivals contemporary internet and wireless communications.

North Shore resident, Dr. Greg Olson, is a professor of materials science at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering. He is a world recognized pioneer in the field of computational design of new materials, especially iron based metals and alloys used for the most demanding applications. The company that he co-founded, Ques Tek Innovations LLC, is based in Evanston and develops new materials for companies that need ferrous metals that reach high levels of performance.

"I knew that I wanted to be a scientist when I was in third grade. I was always collecting rocks and minerals. I especially liked crystals." The crystal that particularly attracted Dr. Olson in his later research and commercial career was iron.  Olson was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 23 years earning his undergraduate and graduate degrees and then doing research on metals. In 1988 he came to Northwestern where he is co-director of the University's Material Research Center and director of the Steel Research Group.

Iron, with its various alloys and grain configurations, combines the most attractive properties and economics of any modern material. Iron can be alloyed, heat treated, and formed in a wide variety procedures that alters the molecular and granular structure. These alterations involve thousands of different alloys and an almost limitless configuration of the larger metal crystals or grain structures. The complexity of these different forms results in both the utility and the challenge of iron and steel technology. Over the last three millennia, metallurgists have discovered different formulations purely through experimentation. Dr. Olson's research has changed this approach to developing new materials.

"Computational design means that we can create new materials on the computer instead of in a lab or foundry. We use our chemical and thermodynamic knowledge to predict the performance of new metals before we go into the lab to make samples." It is an approach with substantial advantage in materials that are alloyed and homogenized at 5000 degrees Fahrenheit and which are heat treated at more than 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Olson went on, "We still take our new materials into the laboratory to confirm our predictions through testing and analysis. But using an iterative design approach on the computer first means that we can use the information in our data bases to model new metals without the expensive and time consuming process of physical experimentation."

The market implications are distinct. "In space craft, a pound saved is worth $10,000, in aircraft design a pound is worth about $100, and in automobiles a pound is worth $3 or $4. That is why steel technology is so important to automotive manufacturers. Even though the performance of materials like titanium would be useful to automotive companies, its use is limited by its $40 per pound price tag." Computationally designed metals can be the economic answer, providing high performance alloys that meet the market need for performance at lower cost. Olson's company, Ques Tek, is the world leader in developing and licensing such new high performance materials.

Computational material design technology is being proliferated at Northwestern to a new generation of scientists and engineers. "We have a masters program at Northwestern for students who want advanced training in integrated computational materials design. We also have a program for freshman engineers called Murphy Scholars. It teams our most talented freshmen with graduate students to develop expertise in these new techniques."

Dr. Olson is an unusual combination of businessman, scientist, teacher, and engineer. In examining the bare chassis of a new McLaren sports car, he noted, "Using adhesives to bond high strength metal structures has an advantage. You don't have to compromise the alloy by making it suitable for welding. That's how they have been making aircraft for twenty years, so we know it has the properties for other high performance applications like race cars."

He stopped to examine the McLaren's exhaust manifold. "You know the bird cage Maserati of the early 1960s was the first car to use a welded space frame. It was designed for competition at the 24 hours LeMans race. But it failed because the welds on the exhaust manifold tubing kept cracking. Chassis vibration and flexing caused the failures. Today we could help them by designing an alloy to prevent the failures."

Computational design is a modern technology that is changing the way that scientists and engineers design new metals for demanding applications. Integrating computer technology with the most modern testing and analysis procedures provides metals that make high performance products possible.   

Five Coffee Tins

By Bob Gariano

Last week an on-line auction site offered a set five antique coffee tins for sale and the bidding closed at $25.00 for the set. The tins were packages for after dinner gourmet coffee imported in 1870 by the Kasper & Durand Company and originally offered for sale through Montgomery Ward. Even though it had been more than a century since the coffee in the tins had been used, the delightful red and blue art deco graphics on the labels are still bright and legible.

Kasper & Durand was a prosperous Chicago grocery wholesaler founded by Henry and Charles Durand. The brothers initially had a grocery store in Chicago which they opened after migrating west from the family’s homestead in upstate New York. Two years later, in 1860 little brother, Calvin Durand, came west and joined his brothers in the business. They grew the enterprise into one of the leading wholesale food packers in the Midwest.

The early food merchants in the Chicago area soon discovered that they needed a more fluid and regular method to set commodity prices and secure supply contracts. Local commercial leaders joined together to found the Chicago Board of Trade. The exchange was established to provide a framework for this commodity trading. The CBOT remains one of the largest and oldest commodity exchanges in the world.

In spite of the burgeoning commercial activity on the country’s western frontier, there were storm clouds on the horizon. The outbreak of the Civil War interrupted the region’s prospects. In those days, much of the military effort of the nation was shouldered, not at the federal level, but by volunteer militias organized at the local and state level.

In 1862, members of the Chicago Board of Trade raised $15,000 in cash and mustered in 180 volunteers to form the Chicago Board of Trade Battery, a light artillery unit that would be assigned to serve with the Army of the Cumberland. Calvin Durand joined the unit when they were formed and saw action at major battles like Chickamauga and Stone River. In 1863, Durand wrote to his family, “I really wish…that I could return home to my kind friends again…Still, I believe that the people of this country are destined to be happier, freer, and more peaceful than ever before, because it will have freedom for its foundation.”

It was in one of these bitter engagements near Atlanta that Calvin Durand was captured. He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner being shuttled between the Confederate prisons at Andersonville, Charleston, and Florence.

When he was released after the war, Durand returned home and rejoined the family business. He settled in Lake Forest where he and his wife, Sarah Gould Downs, would raise a family. The reconstruction of the south catalyzed an irenic period of economic expansion that benefited businesses across the north, perhaps none more than in the trading and distribution businesses around Chicago. Kasper & Durand became part of that prosperity.

In 1891 Calvin Durand was elected mayor of the City of Lake Forest. His was an active administration. In 1895 the first paved block road was installed in the city and the first Lake Forest policeman was hired. In that same year, an ordinance was passed that prohibited nude bathing in Lake Michigan within the city’s boundaries. More impressive, Calvin Durand pushed through the first ordinance that provided “the right to erect and maintain a telephone system” within the city.

In August 1911 Mrs. Durand died and was buried in the Lake Forest Cemetery. Nine weeks later, Calvin Durand died, apparently of heart failure, but according to his published obituary, “from grief over the death of his wife, nine weeks ago.” Both headstones are still standing and can be viewed in the city’s cemetery.

Five small coffee tins sold for $25.00 at auction this week. The tins are minor antiques, but they represent the labors and life of a business and civic pioneer who stepped forward and helped create our country, our city, and our modern way of life.

Bob Gariano is President of RGA, an executive search firm that recruits senior executives and board members for public and private companies. Bob can be reached at rgariano@robertgariano.com

The Writers Theatre

By Bob Gariano

The popular image of the wealthy theater producer, e.g. Maxwell Sheffield, living with a butler and nanny in a brownstone mansion, is far from reality. The idea of the starving actor and the struggling theater company where they work is much closer to actual fact. Prosperity for a live theater company is determined by the simple relationship that revenues equal the number of performances times the number of seats filled times the ticket price.

Because live theater must be at its heart an intimate medium, the results of this equation are limited. Even the best theater companies rely upon the generosity of the community to survive and grow. Expert company management combined with artistic achievement is rare and compelling. We have just such a jewel on the North Shore in Writers Theatre and they are building a new theater that will help them continue to bring world class live dramatic arts performances to our North Shore communities.

Writers Theatre in Glencoe has been producing intimate and inventive live theater on the North Shore for more than two decades. During that time, they have been called “one of the best drama company in the nation” by the Wall Street Journal and along the way have won numerous other awards.

Founded in 1992, the company held their first performances in the small back room of a book store in Glencoe. That experience created an atmosphere of intimacy and audience connection that is preserved today. Live theater since the classic era has been based on actors telling stories to their audience, whether around the camp fire or the foot lights. It is the personal artist to audience connection that means live theater still is vibrant in an age of mass entertainment. Writers Theatre has embraced this concept since the beginning under the artistic leadership of founder and artistic director, Michael Halberstam. In spite of the financial challenges of running an independent drama company, Writers Theatre has run a surplus every year since opening. It is quite a management feat in such a difficult business.

Kate Lipuma joined Writers Theatre as its executive director in March 2007.  Prior to Writers Theatre, Lipuma spent nine seasons with the award-winning Signature Theatre Company in New York where she was executive director. At Writers Theatre Lipuma is responsible for managing the company’s fiscal performance. Her new project is planning and creating a new state of the art theatre complex which will be the home for Writers Theatre’s two performance venues and their rehearsal spaces.  Lipuma is partnering with internationally renowned architect and recent MacArthur Fellow or “Genius Grant” recipient Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects on the project.

“Writers Theatre has been offering sophisticated productions and nurturing the finest dramatic artists in Chicago for over two decades.  With the creation of our new theatre center we will have a home that matches the quality of our art and allows us to make an even more significant investment in the artists who have been so integral to our success,” said Halberstam.  

The sustainably-designed theatre center will replace the company’s two current performance spaces. The new facilities will allow Writers Theatre to uphold first-rate standards for both audiences and artists going forward.  Included in the plan is a new 250-seat theater purposefully designed to maintain Writers Theatre’s hallmark intimacy and a smaller flexible theater space that pays tribute to Writers Theatre’s first performance space at Books on Vernon in Glencoe. The entire project will cost $31 million of which $22 million has already been raised from benefactors.

The design includes melding the community environment with the theater by creating a “Theatre in a Park” atmosphere. Patrons will have ready access to surrounding parks, outdoor terraces, and rooftop gardens. There will be beautifully integrated views of existing parks to the east and west. The performance spaces with be complemented by a spacious main lobby with seating that will function as a central gathering area, where patrons and students will enjoy supplementary artistic, family, and educational programs. The design also includes a luminous grand gallery walk, structured entirely from wood by renowned engineer Peter Heppel, suspended around the lobby and serving as viewing area and “front porch” to the building.

Principal architect, Jeanne Gang, said, “Writers Theatre’s approach to the word and the artist mirrors Studio Gang’s focus on materials and the environment within architecture. The results of our partnership have been very exciting. The new theater center features renewable materials and exciting social spaces that will add to the community's vibrancy.”

Even the finest artistry needs to be combined with effective and diligent financial management to create an enduring company. Responsible financial management is required to attract contributors who can quickly recognize such prudent and responsible fiscal stewardship. Writers Theatre has achieved that difficult balance of management and artistry. In achieving this goal, Halberstam and Lipuma and the other professionals at the company have created a unique asset for our community.

Lipuma said, “Writers Theatre’s new center has been developed in partnership with the Woman’s Library Club and the Village of Glencoe to build a strong sense of place and community and attract visitors to performances, restaurants, shops and open spaces. Along with the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Botanic Garden and Kohl Children’s Museum, our new home will help strengthen Chicago’s North Shore as a national destination for culture.”

Retired Lawyers

by Bob Gariano

The most important trait that a good general counsel must possess is not technical skill or business acumen. These abilities are table stakes if one wishes to be successful as the top lawyer in a large public company. The most important attribute for such an executive is the quality we call character. Character is a combination of integrity, tenacity, loyalty, and sense of what is right and fair. It is a trait that is as hard to define as it is easy to observe in action. Winnetka resident, Jim Baisley, is a lawyer with character.

Baisley retired as chief legal counsel at Lake Forest based Grainger in 2000. While at Grainger he was a part of a team that helped lead the most rapid expansion in that company's history. He was also the point person when Grainger decided to expand their corporate headquarters and relocate to their new building in Lake Forest. The Grainger employees who have an opportunity to work in that marvelous modern building should know that it was Jim Baisley and a small team that got approval for it to be built.

After retiring, Baisley, who was 80 years old this year, devoted his life to traveling and "living well" as he puts it. And he says that he was "busy, but not happy". He reflected that during his time as a company counsel he found the most rewarding times were those when he was not just making sound commercial decisions and helping his employer make money for the shareholders, but when he was helping people. He said that his path to fulfillment started in 2005 when he got a call from one of his and Barbara Baisley's seven children, Charlie.

Jim Baisley was a US marine before he went to law school. He joined the corps in 1952 and served in Korea. Charlie Baisley took a somewhat different route. He attended law school first and then joined the Marines as a JAG lawyer. As a lawyer, Charlie did not have to serve in Iraq. His phone message that day showed a higher sense of duty, "Dad, don't tell mom, but I have just volunteered to go to Iraq. If you are a Marine, that is where you should be." Charlie was showing the character that his parents had taught him his whole life. He was stationed at Camp Fallujah for the next two years, while his parents prayed every day for his safe return. Little did Charlie know that his courageous decision would change his father's life and ultimately benefit scores of our veteran warriors.

Jim Baisley's work started small. Charlie introduced him to a young Marine veteran who needed help with some family and employment legal issues. With little in the way of financial resources, many of these young heroes must literally beg for assistance. Jim Baisley stepped in and helped. While assisting this Marine, Jim began meeting other wounded veterans who needed similar representation. He began networking with some of his friends in the legal community and soon there was a whole constellation of pro bono assistance from generous attorneys.

Meanwhile, Charlie Baisley left the corps and joined AC Nielsen where he on presentations work for the Marine Corps. Jim attended one of his trade shows. He was so well received that he is now a regular at presentations at Camp Pendleton, Camp Lejeune, and Quantico. Based on this reception and with Charlie's help they alignhed with the Semper Fi Fund. "We have raised more than $400,000 to help our veteran Marines. We could use more but it's not a bad start for a team of 45 Marines (there is no such thing as a former Marine) who average 75 years of age."

Baisley went on, "This is just the beginning of our efforts. In a sense, we have just begun to fight. I did do want to simply go to companies, foundations, and wealthy private citizens that I know to ask for contributions. I wanted to get our hands dirty and to get things started first. Now we have a record of success to talk about. We are launching our first real fund raising effort this year." Further information and contributions can be made by visiting the fund’s website at www.glenviewmarines.com

Baisley reports that last week he spoke at a luncheon for North Shore legal counsels and senior lawyers. The title of his talk was "What do General Counsels do after they retire?" Before the lunch, he went for his annual physical examination. His doctor said that age 80, he is in great shape. The doctor went on to say that he often sees such energy and physical well being in his retired patients who are actively engaged in helping other people. The conversation gave Jim Baisley a perfect sequitor for his speech at the luncheon. Baisley says "As I sit at my desk today, at age 80, busy with this work on behalf of our young veterans, I am the happiest person in the world." This might just be the best definition of the word, character, and the best definition of a successful retirement.