I don’t have a Boston accent because I was born (long enough ago that I watched the invention of rock n’ roll) and grew up in the mid-Atlantic region (PA and NJ) as well as a year in VA. The oldest of four kids, early in life I had child-care duties thrust upon me (my Mom says I did a good job – at least they’re all still alive and well).  My interest in marketing developed early in life as an avid reader of Mad magazine, which was devoted in large part to spoofing magazine advertising and popular culture.

In order to escape NJ, I attended college at Gettysburg College in PA in the early 70’s (oops – now you’ve approximately figured out my age), where after a year of mulling it over I decided to major in Business Administration, not the other options I was considering: mathematics, German, or chemistry (good move – I doubt the labs would have stayed intact too long). I also took enough courses to qualify for an unofficial major in Econ. For fun, I joined Alpha Chi Rho fraternity ("the Crows") where I was treasurer (we did remain fiscally solvent, however) and enjoyed the good life as a frat "brother." During summers I got my first marketing experience in jobs such as car hopping (ask your parents), being a Fuller brush salesperson (ditto – I’m dating myself here), and encouraging boardwalk wanderers in Wildwood NJ to literally pitch their money on a dime pitch amusement, by parroting such clever sales pitches as "One dime, one time," and "A dime’ll do it!"

Senior year I decided to stay in the womb another two years, so I went on to get my M.B.A. from the University of Rochester, where I concentrated in Marketing and Labor Economics. Although at this point in my life I had no solid worldview yet, the U of R had a solid free-market orientation which undoubtedly influenced me later on life as I formed my own philosophy of life.

About midway through my MBA program my ambitions turned from becoming a corporate marketing research grunt to becoming a college business professor – the lifestyle of flexible working hours and getting paid to keep going to school and learn was appealing! I set my face toward Lehigh University, whose doctoral program had a focus on teaching about teaching instead of research (unfortunately dropped soon after I arrived). I spent four years at Lehigh (I was promised to be out in three but they kept me an extra year ostensibly to do extra research to find out why all of my dissertation hypotheses failed to be supported but really to retain my slave labor services as a teaching assistant for $4,000 a year). Although I had three concentrations in economics, I decided to make marketing my major since that was where the teaching jobs were (okay, and better money too). I did my concentrated coursework and doctoral dissertation in marketing, with a special emphasis on the then-new field of Consumer Behavior.

After graduation in 1980, I did a crazy thing and got a job in uncharted territory outside of Detroit, MI at Eastern Michigan University. Despite my training at the U of R, I could handle the unionized environment, but I felt like a fish out of water in the Midwest where, when they talked about "pop," I thought they meant my Dad. Missing him and the rest of my family and friends, I moved to the suburbs of Boston MA where my brother was living it up. Here I took a position at Bentley College, a business school. In 1981 the most significant event in my life occurred – I discovered the meaning of life by inviting Christ into my life as my Lord and Savior and turning it all over to Him. (For more about this, click here).

I was at Bentley until we hired a new Marketing Department chairwoman whose motto must have been "A new broom sweeps clean," for she was able in about three or four years to get all 14 untenured members of the Department to resign. In my case, the problem was that I wrote an article "True Marketing Concept Is Based Upon the Biblical Philosophy of Life," (click on the link to read this scandalous article!) which she considered inappropriate for a secular college. (So much for academic freedom – if the article had been on why nudes should be used in advertising, along with graphic illustrations, it probably would have passed muster.) The handwriting was on the wall – she wasn’t going to support me for tenure so I might as well get my resume in circulation.

Seeking a more accommodative environment where I could integrate my faith with my academic discipline, I came to Stonehill College. Here I have been happier than any other place of employment. I have been given free reign in writing in my two favorite areas, teaching effectiveness and business/marketing ethics (although some colleagues have found my ideas about absolute truth in morality and morality being best based on religion to be too radical for our postmodern culture). To be perfectly candid, I believe God has put me here to spread the Good News of salvation to young adults, something I never knew about until I was 29 even though I grew up in a Lutheran church and went to a church-affiliated college. (To learn more, check out my Summit Articles and Know What To Believe In links).

Back to a bit of the personal stuff. While teaching at Bentley and shortly after becoming a born-again Christian (redundant terminology, by the way), I met a young lady at a young adult Bible fellowship group. Ten months later, in 1984, Lori and I were married on a mountaintop in New Hampshire. When I came to Stonehill, we moved to Norton, where we’ve since, by God’s grace, brought four youngsters into the world (remember: I had training as a child). The oldest is a boy (Joshua, ’88) and the others are girls (Kristina, ’90, Jessica ’92, and Kayla, ’95). With all of their activities (karate, gymnastics, soccer, scouting, etc., etc.) and our jobs, we don’t have much time for "a life" these days. However, we enjoy hiking and swimming as a family, and other occasional activities like rollerblading, tennis, bowling, and golf. Personally, I try to find a little time for reading (not just textbooks and journals!) on conservative politics and Christianity. I also periodically teach Sunday school (from kids through adults).

Well, if you’ve read this far, thanks, but you need to get a life!