Dad could get along with anybody. People wanted to be around him. He was charming and he was witty. He had verve.

He worked his entire career, about thirty six years, at Great Lakes Carbon. If you grew up in Morganton, especially in the sixties and seventies, you were probably aware of GLC.

Dad’s engineering skills and people skills made him a candidate for promotions. He received several offers in the sixties and seventies but he declined. Promotion meant moving to Niagara Falls, NY or somewhere in Missouri or Texas. After serving in the Army and spending two years in South Korea he was not interested in moving, even if it meant sacrificing promotions.

So the promotions were offered to some of his co-workers and some of them accepted. A few of his co-workers that accepted promotions moved quickly up the ranks. One of his promoted friends reached a Vice President level in just a few years after leaving GLC in Morganton.

Dad always took full responsibility for the consequences of his decision. He taught me that you should embrace the bad consequences and good consequences with equal grace. So when his friend became a VP dad was genuinely happy for him. A few of his co-workers did not share that happiness.

Each year the upper management team from the corporate office would travel en masse to each GLC facility to meet with local management team. The visit always culminated in very nice dinner at a restaurant in Morganton or Hickory. His friend, the VP, became the target of annual ridicule from some of the managers of the Morganton plant after the dinner.

They would ask Dad if he noticed how messy the VP was when he ate. They lambasted the VP because some of his food would end up on the table. They asked dad “doesn’t it bother you that he makes such a mess when he eats?” Dad would respond “no, I just let some bread crumbs and a few beans fall off my plate and then enjoyed a conversation with my friend.”

Tolerance is disappearing world wide. Make a positive difference today, or tomorrow or next week. Extend tolerance to someone even if you do not think they deserve it. It will cost you nothing.