Account Executive

transcribed by Brandon Carter
Coastal Journal Staff

I worked as an airlines manager for  Olympic Airlines back in 1971, a company owned by Aristotle O'Nasis (Jackie O’s husband), so I got to travel all over the world.  In first class, no less.  That was how I discovered Maine-we'd go on fishing trips to Moosehead Lake for a couple of weeks every summer, and I fell in love with the place.  I said to myself, “Someday, I'm going to move here.”     

In the meantime, I left the airline in 1975 and went to Boston to work for IBM.  I got transferred back home to Ohio, and I stayed with IBM for five years.

After I left IBM, my friend and I decided to open a manufacturers rep company in Kent.  We ran it for 18 years.  My wife Sherry and I raised three boys out there.  They all went to Kent State University, but we always missed Maine.  I sold my portion of the business out to my partner, and then we took off on a 33-ft. sailboat called “Imagine,” after the Lennon song.  We lived on it for a year, sailed all over the east coast, before we sailed back to Maine in 1995.     

I should say now that I'd probably be selling pencils out on the street if not for my wife Sherry.  We met when we were in high school at the age of 16, and we've been married for 43 years.  She's always kept me straight, I just can't say enough about her.  She's like Gracie Allen.   

When we moved to Maine we bought a gorgeous little building out in Damariscotta and opened King Eider's Pub.  It was a family-run establishment; our three sons, our adopted son, our daughters in-law, and a few extended family members helped us run it.  As our family members went their separate ways to attend to their own lives, and the business continued to grow, it got to be more than we could handle, so we sold the pub in 2003.  But Sherry and I learned so much about the people of Maine when we were running King Eider's . . . that's what I appreciate about Maine more than anything, the people.  I love the outdoors, I love the natural beauty the state has to offer-Monhegan Island is the most beautiful spot on the entire east coast-but the work ethic up here has made the biggest impression on me.  I've lived in a bunch of places, but I've never seen harder working people than those living in this state.  It inspired Sherry and I to work harder ourselves when we owned King Eider's.

Work has always been secondary to my family, though.  My fondest memories are of sailing with them.  We took a trip with our family, including our grandson Conor, from New York to Maine for two months, and it doesn't get any better.  That trip is right up there with the Red Sox winning the world series.