—for Fred Thompson
A full life can seem too easy to describe,
and Fred would tell you the parts that went
into his, though dear to him, were hardly unique:
dedicated parents, a loving wife to share his days,
family ties, business success, personal outlets
like the Nittany Knights Barbershop Chorus
and community service, but there’s something
else we need to pin down—the magic that wound
up his inner spring, how he got the clock ticking
each morning over sixty years of professional life,
what made up a man who could enjoy a Tuesday
as if it were Christmas, a fellow who could dream
up a project anytime he wanted his mind to get busy.
Engineers know a lot, but this one knows himself,
and discovered early in life on the mountain tops
in Snowshoe, PA, that what really stirred him was
curiosity, that how stuff worked was his passion,
and that few experiences brought the exhilaration
that erupts when a problem is turned into a solution.
In time, Fred found that he liked designing businesses
as much as circuits: he loved the happy chaos of visions
and ideas waiting to be shaped into an operation,
just as a sketch evolves into a part number. Some plans
took flight and others crashed, but Fred talks of wins
and losses in the same way, all part of the same game,
and he is certain that a career without setbacks would
be a failure—a failure to try something interesting.
His story is one told without bravado—one of persistence
as well as talent, of enjoyment not triumphs, of gratitude
instead of laurels, and the right ending for this tale is clear:
a man who’s not afraid of modesty has likely done a lot
he doesn’t need to be modest about, and this man who hides
behind that ordinary smile is no ordinary fellow.
©2020 by Michael Bourgo