Robert McCafferty:  

So I guess I will follow the Classmates.com Q&A suggestions. How do I hope they remember me? Surely they remember me, if at all, as a geek. Hopefully as a benign geek. What did I want to be when I grew up? Didn't have a clue. I was so dominated by my father that it never occurred to me that I had choices. These days, I like to listen to old time rock and roll or blues, watch old movies and read. I read an odd combination of murder mysteries, computer books and the Wall Street Journal. I don't think I am willing to tell the wildest thing I ever did in school. I did precious little that was out of the box, but when I did it was very private. Use your imagination. I don't know that I had heroes in high school. My heroes these days are people that find acceptance in life, avoid anger and vengeance. That is, my heroes are the anti-George Bush. I left Michigan for San Francisco in 1972 after a relatively successful career at Michigan Bank, moved to Indiana in 1975 after doing very well at Barclays Bank so I could make more more money in marketing. In 1985, give or take a year, I moved back to San Francisco (Marin County, actually) to find a more sane life and have not left again. I was never very social in high school. That is, I was inept at being social, so there are not a lot of people I would look to see again. One ex-girlfriend, another girl I had a huge crush on for a short time and who was very kind to me in her rejection. One guy who was way out of the mainstream at the time. I just didn't hang with anyone much except for the ex-girlfriend about whom I was crazy. My father kept me so secluded that I had neither the free time nor the skills to make many friends. Life definitely doesn't turn out the way we expect. Or at least did not for me. I have done far too many exceedingly shameful things and have eventually found some peace in just doing in life what works for me rather than what others want me to do. I remember they used to give us tests designed to show us what we would like to do for a career. My results never matched what my father demanded and I totally ignored the tests. Today I have learned that the test results were something I should have paid attention to. I was actually an exceptional parent when I was around. For the same reason that I was an excellent boss back in the days when I had a large staff of employees. In both cases, I cared about them and how they felt. I was always caring, honest with them, straight forward and clear about limits and consequences. I actually enjoy it a lot when my kids and others I helped raise tell the stores of me with limits and consequences. Ah, the next prompt is about campus life. I was all of 16 when I hit the campus of Wayne State University, having left high school after the 11th grade. In my second year there, I finally began to come out from under my father's thumb. After being President of the campus Lutheran organization for two years, I finally discovered girls as a non-virgin. All at once came change, a radical change in my religious beliefs, joining the fraternity with the worst reputation on campus, the world of work and earning my own way. I didn't do it gracefully, but change I did. I went from being a wimp to extremely aggressive with little respect for any rules. Of course we also had Viet Nam by then, another good prompt to reject rules and systems. I was set to leave for Toronto, but eventually was able to join the army reserves due to my typing ski...Expand for more