From Leigh Stringer

Dad has accomplished much in the first half of his life. Here are some of the highlights:

• Star football player in high school
• Guitar player (he plays only about three songs, but pretty well)
• Owner of a video store (including an adult section)
• Inventor of bar coding (just like Al Gore invented the internet)
• Winning baseball and softball coach
• Trainer of hundreds of BellSouth minds in technical sales
• Seller of lots of phone company stuff (I never really know what he actually sold, things like infrastructure services, bits and bytes and something about WAN and LAN, but apparently he did pretty well)
• Toter of more flower buckets than any other florist lackey
• Successful financial advisor (though he never reached Bernie Madoff status)
• Traniner of our Shelty dog to howl on key (seriously, it was pretty cool)
• Concession stand manager for the Germantown Devils (that was a real high point)
• Physical prowess - Dad had a mild stroke and didn’t know it, just kept on working (yeah, he thought it was just a bad nosebleed)
• Connoisseir of the PB and banana sandwich
• Newly converted composter
• Carpenter who made all of the cabinets in our first kitchen which proves he’s pretty good with his hands (he consciously chose not to do that again, which proves he is pretty smart)
• Radio commentator (actually, he read the newspaper on public radio for people who couldn’t read)
• Accomplished painter (he painted the walls in our many houses SEVERAL times over the years, including once when our dining and living room were literally Pepto Bismol pink… good thing he’s colorblind, otherwise he might have objected more)
• Skilled mathematician and statistician
• Gifted choral singer
• And last but not least, parent of three beautiful, talented and exceptionally bright children ;)

Dad, here’s a virtual toast to your next 65 years. Keep making us proud.