About Me:
I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. I recently retired at the age of 68 after working for 45 years in the Consulting Business. For the last 18 years, I was the CEO of a 200 person Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Firm.

About My Family:
I have been married for almost 42 years, have three children and 11 grandchildren.

My Hobbies and Passions:
My hobbies include golf, fishing, guitars, fixing stuff, and watching my grandkids play sports. I enjoy helping people, showing kids that you can win in life and stutter, giving advice based on my experiences (good and bad,) on their careers, and their finances.

My Career Success:
I have been successful in my career by never giving up, always looking forward, and being surrounded and supported by family and friends the whole way.

Do you remember when you first began to stutter?
My parents said I began to stutter when I was three.

Does it run in your family?  Who else stutters?
One of my sons has a mild stutter that he controls beautifully.

Did you seek treatment? Did it help?
Yes. My parents had me in Speech Therapy for as long as I remember. Not until I was in my early forties and I started going to my speech therapist (Sally McKee) did I notice any improvement.

Tell us about your experience with stuttering as a child.
It wasn’t terrible all of the time, but I disliked talking on the phone, ordering at restaurants, introducing myself and saying my name, oral reports, and/or talking with a large group. I had the advantage of being very outgoing and I had a lot of friends. These two things helped immensely.

Has your stuttering gotten worse or better since you were younger? How?
It has gotten better. I am more confident, have a lower baseline of stress, and I have learned to phrase and stretch (which doesn’t always work).

How does stuttering affect you in your career?
When I was younger I thought that every time I didn’t receive a promotion or would be laid off, it was because I stuttered. Later in my career, a lot of people knew me and that I stuttered so it was just some speaking quirk that I had. I learned to relax and admit it when I spoke to a large group.

How is your stuttering today? What do you do to control or manage it, if anything?
Today I call myself a reluctant stutterer. I am never 100% fluent, but I am more confident. Since 2005 at work, I had to speak often in front of the whole Company (around 200 people). I would write my speeches down and practice them before I gave them. In 2010, my speech therapist referred me to a doctor, who prescribed a very low dose of a very mild sedative. I took one dose on work days and it helped me. It helps soften the block when I feel one coming on. I guess you could say that it relaxed me.

What are the biggest challenges of stuttering?
To be a key business player, in most cases you have to be a good communicator. Nowadays, oral communication is not used as much due to texting and e-mail. However, in my opinion, oral communication is still the most effective and the most convincing. You cannot replicate tone in any other form of communication. Because of this, stuttering is an impediment to climbing the company ladder. This CAN be managed. Thanks to my speech therapist (speaking techniques) and my doctor (medication,) I was able to manage my speech and still be an effective communicator while stuttering.

What is your greatest accomplishment with regard to stuttering?
Two things: first, my Family. Being a stuttering husband, Dad and friend can have some unique challenges that pop up from time to time. Things like talking to the teacher at Open House in front of the other parents, ordering for a family of 5 in a Drive Thru (a nightmare sometimes), talking to one of my kid’s College Deans about a matter. My wife almost didn’t go out with me when I asked her for a date over the phone back in 1982. She thought that I had been drinking. Kids nowadays have it so easy with e-mails & texts, but I digress. My second greatest accomplishment is in my work life. I have risen to the role of CEO over a 200 person firm and have worked there for 38 years.

Based upon your experiences, what would you like to tell children who stutter?
Each case is different. You may not get to 100% fluency, but there are many ways and techniques that will enable you to speak effectively. I know that you are your worst judge. The way that people hear you speak is much better than you think it sounds. You can get to where you can speak comfortably in stressful situations.

Based upon your experiences, what would you tell parents of children who stutter?
After having gone through therapists like Dr. Battin in Houston in the 60’s, Martin Schwartz in the 70’s, the SpeechEasy from East Carolina University in the 2000’s, there really is no cure except hard work and perseverance to utilize techniques like phrasing, stretching and speaking slow. It can be done. Also, it's important to know that 100% fluency is a lofty goal, but 75-80% is reachable in my opinion.

What else should we know?
A few years ago, my doctor and his partner conducted research and developed an experimental extra-cerebral magnetic therapy, which they tried on me. Although I was encouraged with the success of this therapy, it eventually died due to lack of funding.

From the Fall 2024 Magazine