My First Job

"When I was in high school I started taking care of [yachts]. I grew up in Stamford, Conn., just outside of New York City. Walter Thayer, owner of an investment banking and communications company in the city, was buying a 41-foot Hatteras Sport Fisherman, and he asked if I would captain it for him, which I did for three years while in college.

"I spent full-time summers on the boat, cleaning the teak decks and taking care of the engines. Since I went to school in Miami, I would deliver the boat from Connecticut to the Bahamas. It would take me a week and I would be paid $50 a day. We would cruise around the Bahamas during the holidays. This was back in '69 and '70.

"[Thayer] acted as an economic adviser to several presidents. We would be on the boat and he would get a call from the White House. A seaplane would come and pick him up to fly to D.C., then he would get dropped off and meet us at a different harbor. He would expect you to come with him to dinner, so I went to the Roosevelts' home in Martha's Vineyard. Bill Paley was chairman of the board of CBS and we would go to dinner at his house. Gary Moore was a radio and TV star in the '50s and he used to travel with us all the time. He was friends with Walter Cronkite. I never knew who would show up on the boat.

"Here I was, 19 years old, and one minute I was dealing with the guy pumping gas into the boat, the next minute I was aboard the yacht with the chairman of the board of CBS. I learned how important it was to be able to communicate, listen to and be comfortable around people of all different business and economic levels.

"The year that I left [Thayer], he was building a larger yacht and I had to decide to stay with him and keep working as captain or go out and get a real job. I decided to get a real job. In the long run it was probably the best plan, since now I have a great family, and I love what I do. But at the time it was a tough decision."

-Interview by Katie S. Betz