Larry Whyte:  

Life Hey, life's been good to me. I've done a lot of things, been a lot of places. I started off after college with a teaching job near Valley Forge, but left after three years for a position in public administration, working in human resources development for the PA Department of Public Welfare. (Teaching paid so poorly back then - barely made enough to live on.) I was married to Christine (rest her soul, she passed away in 1999) and we had two children, a daughter Leslie, and my son Justin. During that time, I was in the PA National Guard for 8 years and did a little weekend soldiering. After my first marriage split up, I was on the move again, and took a sales job in the electronics industry, calling on printed circuit board manufacturers (learned electronics in the Army). I found out how much I liked the world of manufacturing, and was very successful in this long career. For the next 20 years, I worked in industry, eventually rising to VP sales and marketing for three different companies in the factory automation business, basically doing the same thing which was designing and building custom capital equipment for companies like GM, Ford, Chrysler, Motorola, etc. I did a lot of traveling while working for both Japanese and Italian-owned companies, hopping flights to Tokyo or Milan almost every month, and managing my territory, which was the Western Hemisphere. I got to see a lot of the world, but spent most of my time on the road. I married Kathy in 1979 and we had twin daughters, Briana and Brittany in 1986. (They are now out of college and we are empty-nesters.) In that same year, we moved to Maryland after I became a partner in a manufacturers rep firm. We had a sailboat on the Eastern Shore and spent a lot of time in Maryland anyway, so it was a good thing. In 2000, I finally had enough of the road warrior life and I hung up my sneakers. My passport had every visa page full, but my loving-life gauge was reading empty. All my friends thought I was nuts to leave a successful career, but I knew the time had come. I didn't know what I was going to do then, but tinkered with the idea of starting up a small consulting company. Headhunters kept calling with sales executive positions they wanted me to interview for, but I just couldn't get excited about anything. I took time off to get some badly needed R&R; rode my bike down the East Coast, did some camping on the Outer Banks and spent my golden parachute award. In early fall of that year, I signed up to do some substitute teaching in Anne Arundel County public schools. After hopping around the county school system for a few weeks, I managed to get a long-term sub position at a high school teaching business subjects. I thought I'd just fill in the time subbing until I figured out what to do with my future career. Mostly I lived day to day and got caught up in teaching young teenagers. I had raised four of my own, in fact two of them were still at home in school at the time. It was a big surprise to discover how much I enjoyed teaching after being away from it for 30 years! Even though my undergraduate degree is in music, I find that after so much time working in the business world, I have a lot to give these young folks who will be just starting out. I took some college courses over the next couple years to get my certification in content area, and reached that plateau in the spring of 2005. I'm now teaching business management, computer programming and technology courses at Arundel High School. I enjoy working with the kids (because I'm still one myself) and it's great having summers off! I was working on a Masters at McDaniel College a few years ago, and was the oldest student in my cohort. Most of my teaching colleagues (of the same age) are retiring now or thinking about it. Not me. I've told everybody my retirement party is going to be a wake - party on, people (B.Y.O.B.)! Besides family and teaching, other joys of my life include riding my totally-customized Harley-Davidson (can't get enough chrome), and building things on my little country estate. This summer I plan to build a water-powered mill. I still love music as well, and from time to time play keyboards in a classic rock garage band, oh and I'm teaching guitar. Also on the backburner right now is a book I've been working on in my spare time. I enjoy writing. Done a lot of snorkling around the Caribbean, and a few dives, that is great fun. Sailing on Chesapeake Bay was another passion of life enjoyed for many years. Used to race catamarans on the West River, that was exciting and fun. I really enjoy living near the Bay, although I don't get out on it that often. I'm only a mile from the Bay now, but so far in the woods it could be 50 miles. Still, whenever I want to, I just go for a ride on my bike down along the water, past my old house and I'm sitting on the dock of the Bay watching Osprey tending their young in the nest and occasionally spot a Bald Eagle soaring over the creek. It's really pretty country down here, lots of good places to eat, country roads that twist around horse farms with not much traffic. Rural scenes of falling-down tobacco barns and old colonial estates with names like Obligation, Tulip Hill and Middle Plantation dot the countryside in old South County, where in the election of 1860, only 4 votes were cast for Lincoln. The locals here say y'all and the distinct accent is a rather stange blend of the South and the North. I told people coming to visit me that once they drove over the South River bridge in Edgewater, they were in the South. It's true. When I fist moved here I used to go out to the local gas station on Saturday morning to scrounge parts for my old pickup. The local watermen, especially the...Expand for more