Millar Family Christmas Blog (MFCB) 2024

By Your MFCB & Athletic Supporter, Jack Strap

First Things First--having recently received the Harry Wong Snail Mail Christmas Letter (HWSMCL)--your MFCB Supporter Jack Strap is contractually obligated to respond with the MFCB. Couple disparate https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disparate things about HW's SMCL this year: it was heart-warming

and it included multiple messages that this is the last one in a series that has spanned decades. BUT https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/347109-there-s-always-a-but-it-s-a-magical-word-you-can wonder if this is just a devious, desperate, and disingenuous attempt to deceive Jack Strap relating to his MFCB contractual obligations? BUT-BUT I'm going to believe it's for real and we can all remember Harry like this:

And possibly I'll follow his lead in this year's MFCB--we'll see.

Well the Big Business/Career news for 2024 besides Karen's Ruby Heart Crafts https://www.etsy.com/shop/RubyHeartCrafts continuing to grow, Britty finally giving up that 2nd job at restaurant that she hasn't needed financially for many years, and Andrew has done so well that he now has his own house where's he's learned property taxes are for real (i.e. he asked if the bill he got was a Scam)--Glenn is Retiring in 2025! So now his Career Retrospective:

Pennwalt - 1st job 1982 to 1986 (aka PSU National Championship Years) in Center City Philly via the train from Paoli or surviving the Schuylkill (aka Sure Kill) Expressway. Worked with some great people Louise "Big Lou" Harman, the Late Great Monroe Willis, Connie Burke, Larry Farmer, Attilio Chickatelli, etc. 1st Christmas Party there was as wild as any PSU Party (it was a different time). Traveled across the USA (1st time beyond Wildwood NJ) as Internal Auditor with folks who liked to have fun outside of work. Uncovered a Fraud. Great divey cheese steak places in the city. We had a Bubble Hockey League with 8 Teams where I made it to the Championship Series but lost to South Philly's own Joe Matera.

CPI/Laser Magnetic Storage International (LMSI) - much easier commute to Valley Forge Corporate Center. Learned a lot working with more great people--Ken Hagner, John Purtell, Regina Juliano, Craig Moyer, Al Ozzell and his I.T. Sidekick Dick, etc. Softball, Volleyball, Basketball games followed by post-game at a bar. Remember CFO Frank had an intimidating worn down red pencil that he used to hack up the Operations Budgets.

So by now you may be thinking I don't know all these great people he speaks of but this is your opportunity to think of all the great people you crossed paths with in your careers while I Ramble On and/or you can Sing-Along https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzGBQerkvWs

Morton Powder Coatings (MPC)/Rohm & Haas - long run thru the 90's with Morton International (most known for Morton Salt) before R&H bought Morton taking me well into the 2000's. Working with even more great people like Ron Strohl, Jim Swanson, Late Great Karl Wursthorn, Reggie Horne, Craig Moyer (again), Anne Connolly, Essie Glass, Ned Lancaster, Tom "Freebs" Frebel, Wolf Esser, etc. Then there were the Lunchtime Basketball League Players--organizer Gary "Muggsy" Raihl, Rich Sammel, Bill Ruth, Paul Bowers, Bob Boni, and Dan Sheehan & Steve Clancy who were Boston Celtic Transplants. Turnover led to a lack of enough B-Ball players leading to the Lunch Run Program (LRP) with Sammel, Bowers, Ruth, Tina & Gordon Tullos, Rich Haley, and Da Man who I came in 2nd (see pic below from Talladaga Nights Movie) to in a real race when I took a wrong turn down the stretch Tim Yanu...... (too hard to spell). Liked my time there so much (unfortunately ended by R&H Corp. Restructuring of Finance to a Shared Services structure) I've organized (3) well-attended MPC get-together's over the past year with some of above folks & others.

The 2024 Let's Run Up the Score! Thread ... Ricky Bobby's Derelict Daddy

Penske Truck Leasing (PTL) - took an Operating Tax Manager position to continue working in Berks to keep Kids in school at Wilson and thought I'd find a more interesting position once I got my foot in-the-door but Lifers were in the ones I found so got back on my career path after a year & a half. Bad Memory of "Asshole" Andrew a VP who I had a couple run-ins with and years later when he got canned--half a dozen happy PTLers reached out to tell me :)

So if you're not enjoying this anywhere near as much as I am writing it then you can skip ahead to Family section.

FES/GEA - German Co. based in York where I commuted Rt's 222/30 for 4 years (did carpool with Dick Okla for part of that time which was enjoyable) until Andrew graduated from Wilson & Britty from Albright aka All-Britt. We then moved to York as was really enjoying my VP Finance position as although the Germans were sometimes difficult--was working with great people in our Division including the Leadership over time--Ronald (one of those people who everybody just knows by his 1st name), John "Johnny Dangerously" Ansbro, Gary Schrift(y), Steve Bennis (my PSU Pal), Greg Klidonas, John Lutz, Chris Martin, Gary Hensel, Bridget Gallagher, and "Big Larr" Bradley (we've done a couple of FES Reunions). This was my favorite Accounting Dept. of all-time with the hard-working anchor being Controller Pete "Radar" Keim who could always magically find things in the mess of Lutz's office. Also we had the LWP - Lunch Walk Program including Hensel, Steve Gochenauer, and Randy Stough.

Well then the Germans decided to screw it all up with a Global Restructuring aka Fit for 2020 that turned out to be a failure by that future year but not before many-many people were displaced albeit with severance packages so on to Cumberland Truck Equipment which lasted a year & a half as the two 50-50 Owners literally (& this isn't an overstatement) hated each other passing each other in the hallway without acknowledging each other day-after-day. Being the CFO in the middle of that was a hostile work environment.

So at 59 decided not to Retire early but rather go in a little different direction wanting to work for an organization that I could feel really good about which is the Non-profit world. That ultimately led us back to Berks County and me to the CFO position below that I'm retiring from sometime in 2025 after a very nice 6-years plus run when we find & train my successor.

CONCERN - with our CPENG networking group (10 year anniversary in 2024) as the foundation for my job search I was introduced to Gallagher's Jeremy Sauve and met for breakfast where he told me he had about 40 Non-profit clients. Weeks later he advised that a client CONCERN had an open CFO position due to a Retirement with more on that below. I looked at what they do for Children, Youth, and Families and immediately connected to it thinking that these Kids are mostly just born into bad parental situations and environments and that could have just as easily been me. This is also why it's so easy for me to fundraise for CONCERN and I may continue that part-time after I'm out of the CFO position. Anyway, more really great people deserve a new paragraph.

Kind of like Mount Rushmore--I have a CONCERN Mount Nittany (Mount Penn wasn't big enough) of folks who I've worked with that helped build the Agency over many-many years noting this year was #46:

* Mary Beth Hughes - the Late Great MBH was a Year 1 employee who spent 43 years on the front lines with Kids/Families. She sadly passed away shortly after retiring. MBH was one of those rare people who you always felt better after conversing with her and she had a great laugh. I felt like Covid cheated me out of more direct contacts with her as thru the computer just isn't the same.

* Eileen Walters - she was my predecessor who retired after over 40 years with the Agency. I had the extreme benefit of spending months with her learning about the inner & outer workings of CONCERN and she was a very patient teacher which was much appreciated. Overall just a high quality person.

* Susan Hurst - when I 1st came on-board before Eileen retired I shared an Office with Susan. I learned so much by osmosis (i.e. the process of gradual or unconscious assimilation of ideas, knowledge, etc) listening to her do her job. In addition to just being a really Caring person--she is hilarious!

* Helene Knapp - another very long-timer who is easing into retirement still working with us a couple days a week from Home. She passionately handles all our Medical Foster Kids and even though she's no longer in the Office I'm always uplifted by the Kids' pictures she left behind for us outside her old office.

* Joyce Hawkins - I thankfully inherited this most hard-working and conscientious Business Office employee when I came on-board. Over my years many of the employees around her changed but she was a much needed constant. She battled Cancer but wanted to continue to work as much as she could and you would never know what she was going through if you didn't know which I say with much admiration. Also thru all of the above she continued with her enjoyably dry sense of humor. Unfortunately just when we thought she had beat it the Cancer came back and now she looks down on us from above.

There are too many others fondly in my head to list them all but my Boss Gordon May had a high bar to jump over with me considering I've had some great Bosses but he leaped it. I wasn't so sure in my 1st Senior Leadership Team (SLT) meeting when he had a sentence that contained (3) acronyms along with like 3 real words--Watcha Talk'in About https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw9oX-kZ_9k Our SLT is great--Carri Prior may be the most capable person I've ever worked with, our VP Tanya Jones is just a joy to be around, Scott Lubinski & I are fellow Penn Staters (he was right upfront about Julian Fleming's college career although he did make those two 4th down catches this year in the miraculous PSU win over USC), Cheryl Reeling is enjoyable to work with while being a great coordinator in getting big things done like https://www.social-current.org/impact-areas/coa-accreditation/, and Sue Holmgren is my favorite regular in the post-Covid office talking Sports & Trivia regarding which she is so good.

End of Career Retrospective section in case you jumped ahead.

Family - Karen won't be thrilled that this is so far down the MFCB, but you only Retire once and I got on a stream of consciousness roll. I did note high above about everyone's Business/Career news but beyond that in any normal MFCB year I would have talked upfront about our new addition to "The Zoo". So one day months back Karen is working in the garage and hears meowing. Her 1st thought was how the heck did Ellie aka EL Bell get out in the garage? But then finds this little baby Kitty hiding there--how did she get there is a complete mystery. Karen asks in our Woods Edge neighborhood Facebook page and nobody knows anything about it. So we adopt Riley who regularly goes between being a ball of fire burning rubber around the house like the Road Runner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=761MwtYpK3Q to deep sleeps in various sometimes hiding places. The Dogs Ruby the Coonhound and Maxey the Cavalier look at Riley amusingly and get along well, although we're not exactly sure how EL feels about her new little sister.

Karen got her roof covering out back with a big swing project this year which she said was all she wanted for Christmas, so we'll see about that. In addition we just got a new front door which Karen says makes the house look different inside & out. We didn't see our Kids as much this year due to their busy-ness and the distance, but Britty and I did get to GTLO & a PSU game and Andrew & I were entertained by AEW in Reading Get the Led Out - Mayo Performing Arts ...

Get the Led Out - Mayo Performing Arts ...

Karen & I walk the Dogs regularly although Prince Maxey mostly rides in his doggy carriage while Ruby pulls me in whatever direction she decides to go which is always an adventure sometimes marred by her stubbornness. We also get out to eat regularly and to Boyertown & Wilson Basketball and Football Games. While Ruby stayed with her Foster Parents & their dogs which she loves--Karen, Maxey, and I vacationed in Emerald Isle NC at the beginning of Summer and Selbyville DE (near Fenwick Island DE & Ocean City MD) in August.

Odds & Ends - Hills Hoops Inc. (HHI) played our 32nd Anniversary Legends (aka Old Timers) Games which nobody got hurt, although I'm sure most were sore for a couple days. The HHI Legends Breakfasts also continued through out the year. And the PSU Road Trip Crew comprised this year of Slick Nick Merolli, Mighty Kerr, Vasilios Bill Mandros (who broke away from his below business) and yours truly saw an unofficial Night White-Out 21-7 Victory over Illini. Then a few days later on to Ross DeSimone's Sea Isle City house (around the corner from Jason Kelce) with Nick and Dave Reitz(y)