Joe Byrd:  

My father sold his company during the fall of my senior year, and our family moved to Lufkin, Texas right after I graduated in 1961. I spent two years at the University of Colorado (Delta Upsilon fraternity) majoring in Arts & Parties before transferring to college in Texas. I graduated from Stephen F. Austin University in 1967 and was privileged to receive an appointment to Navy Officer Candidate School that summer. After OCS, I married my college sweetheart (big mistake; divorce in 1970) and spent six months at Supply Officer School in Athens, Georgia and three years active duty on the USS Delta, a Pacific Fleet Repair Ship. After serving seven years of military active duty and reserve time, I settled in Atlanta, Georgia to work as a planner for the Transit Authority. During the 70s, I went to grad school at Georgia State University and got an MBA. I spent my career mostly in the Marketing Research field and took eight years off along the way on the faculty of a private liberal arts college while persuing a PhD at the University of Memphis. I left the academic world in 1993 (without the PhD) and went back to the business world. The last twelve years were spent with U...Expand for more