Kirk Armstrong:  

Upon completion of high school, I enrolled in FSU and graduated in 1969 with a degree in Criminology. During this time, I was a member of Army ROTC and joined the swimming team as a follow up to my two years on the Terry Parker swim team. After two years of striving to reach the caliber of the swimmers on scholarship, I gave it up and used that extra time to devote to my studies. When graduation came, I had no immediate plans except to serve my country as a commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Military Police. As fate would have it, I did not pass the physical, and thus, I moved back home to figure out my immediate future. Fortunately, after a few months I secured a job with the state welfare dept. as a social worker. I went on from there to work in the Child Welfare Dept,, the Division of Youth Services, and finally the Duval County Juvenile Court, where I was a court counselor for wayward juveniles. This was a job I truly loved, but circumstances prevented me from continuing to work in this area. My next big job was as a driver/salesman for Neal Tyler & Sons, a beer distributor of Old Milwaukee and Schlitz. I finally tired of this and began working for Jax Liquors as a manager trainee. Because I didn't like the hours or the working indoors, I continued to look for work elsewhere. A friend of mine, alerted me to a possible job in a chemical plant, called Glidden,and gave me a supervisor's name to contact.. For the next 37 years, I worked mostly as a chemical oper...Expand for more