David Silver:  

Hello, Fellow Granada Hills Graduates of 71, As I just turned 70 years old this last Christmas (2023), I thought I would reflect on my life thus far and share a few stories since graduating. I have to say I have been blessed and most fortunate. After graduating from Granada Hills High back in 71, I went on to get my Bachelor of Science degree in Business/Finance. Then I went on to law school and obtained my Juris Doctor (JD) Degree in Law. For three straight years, while attending law school, I also worked in logistics for a major transportation company. Upon law school graduation, I had to make a major decision to practice law or stay in logistics. I opted for logistics for 3 major reasons. The first is that I got married. The second reason is that we purchased our first home, but the primary reason was that I excelled in my logistics profession and had moved up very quickly to executive leadership positions in logistics and was making an excellent living (and it was fun). I am still married to the love of my life and college sweetheart, Janis. We just celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary. We decided to wait for five years to have kids and almost to that date, we had our first child. During our marriage, we raised two beautiful daughters who make us extremely proud. Our eldest is a teacher who has her master’s degree, has been a teacher of the year, and continues to teach elementary school students. She is a UCLA graduate. My youngest daughter has her master’s degree in psychology and was working for Scripps Hospital, but recently accepted a job for the San Diego County working with the courts administrating conservativeships. She is a UC-Irvine grad. Both my daughters are married. My eldest to a structural engineer who later decided to join the LAPD and is a detective. My youngest is married to an environmental scientist. Both daughters have blessed my wife and me with two grandchildren each. One has two boys and the other has a boy and a girl. We love being grandparents. We are fortunate that the entire family resides in So. California, so can visit whenever we want. My wife Janis, worked for Clairol right out of college, but upon our firstborn, she retired to be a homemaker. However, when the kids were old enough, she started her own children's book business, did extremely well, and did that for 20 years before she decided to call it a day. However, having Janis as a stay-at-home mom while the kids were young, made things much easier for us as my career required some extensive travel. Throughout our lives together thus far, we moved six times. Bouncing back between LA County and Orange County. Each time we moved the house got bigger as well as the payments. But I can't complain, as each time we moved, we made bank on the sale of our homes (that's the California housing market for you). Finally, after the kids were off on their own, we decided to downsize to a single story, so our last move is where we are today in Orange County, overlooking the water and it is this home that will be our last. We love the area and the beach weather. Over the years, I got into classic cars and doing restoration as a hobby. One of my cars was purchased for a TV movie starring James Franco. It was his breakout role-playing James Dean. Around 58 minutes into the movie you see him going down Coldwater Canyon driving like a maniac in my red 1952 MGTD. I dabbled again doing a few more cars and just sold my last car a few months ago. It was a 1960 Austin Healey BT-7 which I sold to West Coast Classics. I still like British cars, so my wife and I drive Jaguars. The Mrs. drives a Jaguar SUV, but I drive the fast-and-furious ticket-bait red Jaguar F-type. I guess I have a need, for speed. Some highlights of my career have been some of the people I have met, and the companies I have talked with over time. I have been a guest speaker at several major conventions, but the largest size crowd must be the SEMA Show in Vegas where I was a guest speaker to 5000 attendees during an evening event. I did a lot of speaking at conventions about supply chain issues, cost-saving programs, and other transportation topics. I have enjoyed lunch with the President of Honduras, shot the breeze with the Ambassador of Uganda (she was one of the sweetest persons I have ever had the pleasure to speak with), as well as officials of Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Mexico, and other countries as well. Being involved in the supply chain industry provided me with an extensive opportunity to interface with high-ranking officials, executives, as well as the public and I have to say it was an honor to be able to do so. Over my career, I have had the opportunity to go to two Super Bowls, NBA Championships, World Series games, the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, as well as all types of regular season sporting event games. All company-provided first-class trips and tickets, where I was able to attend and take customers to the events on the company dime. Sweet!!!! Also, had the opportunity to play golf all over the country. Some courses were Spy Glass, Torrey Pines, Firestone Country Club, Pebble Beach, TPC Scottsdale, Cypress Point, as well as others throughout N. America. During my travels and in my business dealings, I have met several celebrities or in some cases have traveled seated next to them on various flights. The ones that come to mind have been William Devane, Ken Norton, Reggie Jackson, Orel Hershiser, Muhammad ...Expand for more