GaryOsberg.com

I heard the first Cardinal call from afar on campus this week. It seems to be right on schedule. Spring cannot come too soon.

To continue with my career path, the drafting field led me to a job at Control Data Corporation at the Data Display Division in Roseville.  In 1967, my boss, Ron Crew, was hired away by a fellow who had launched the very first computerized drafting service bureau in the United States, Norwood Engineering Systems.  Ron then hired me to work as a Franchise Manager for Norwood.  The founders had raised over $250,000 in startup funds, but it did not take long for us to burn through the money.  The software simply was not ready.  The $70,000 6 foot by 9 foot Calcomp plotter was idle most of the time.  The founders were let go.

I ended up being the last General Manager of Nowood Engineering. I was 26 years old. When I called a stockholders meeting to try and raise more funds, they laughed and said “Close it up.” I wrote letters to 14 creditors telling them that NES was filing for bankruptcy and we could not pay their bill.  I did put my home telephone number at the bottom of the letter.

One of the creditors was General Office Products in St. Louis Park.  Their sales manager, Jim Helstrom, called me and wanted his furniture back.  I had to tell him that the previous management had borrowed funds from a bank and had put the furniture up as collateral.  The bank had repossessed the furniture.  After a long conversation, Jim said, “If you need a job, let me know.”   Doing the right thing had paid off.

I started working for General Office Products in 1971. The office furniture industry was very, very good to me.

If you feel like going out tonight, I have two tickets to “Voctave: At the Corner of Broadway & Main Street” in the Escher Auditorium on the campus of College of Saint Benedict.  I can leave them at Will Call for the first one to respond to this email. 

“Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient evidence.” Samuel Butler