JON SHARES HIS STORY

Jon can sometimes be found these days on a Texas beach surf casting his bait out into the Gulf of Mexico, fishing for whatever’s out there, maybe one of those Redfish lurking in the water close to shore. When he hooks into a fish, it’s mostly because he knows what he’s doing, although in his mind it might just be a bit of divine providence.

This 70-year-old fisherman is retired now from his most recent position as an estimating director in the energy and chemicals division of one of the largest engineering companies in the world. That means, among other things, that this guy must be pretty good at estimating just how far out in the surf he has to cast his bait to hook one of those Redfish cruising by.

Back when he was in college in Ohio, he had taken some time off to mend a broken heart and hopped on a flight to the West Coast to do some surfing. He happened to be seated next to a fellow who was looking to fill an entry-level job at his engineering company. “It was as a cost engineering clerk at a refinery construction project they had going on in Wilmington, California,” Jon remembers. “So I took the job and from that point on I was always making pretty good money and working hard and getting transferred around and advancing and I never went back to college.”

The years slid by, Jon and Betty, his wife of 45 years, had three children and eight grandkids, as Jon pursued advancement opportunities in his discipline at three engineering companies, spending 25 years at the third company’s offices in Sugar Land, Texas until he eventually pulled the plug and retired. As with most best laid plans, Jon’s retirement from the big engineering company turned out not to be the end of his career. He took on a consulting job that tested his mind and his stamina. “The consulting assignment was quite complicated and challenging,” he says. “I was hired as an expert witness in an arbitration case in which there was a tremendous amount of study and writing reports on my findings. In this particular case there were about 80,000 documents I had to filter through.”

When Jon was offered the consulting assignment it was in the spring of 2018 and he had arrived at his late-Sixties. He recalls, “I was experiencing some senior moments when I decided to take this challenge on and I needed to be on top up my game, so I started taking Prevagen and I honestly think it did help me, and I’ve been on it ever since.”

With all that now behind him, Jon and Betty are able to spend more time doing volunteer work for their church. “Our religious tenants are important to me. I mean that’s always been the center of our life,” he says. “I frequently tell young married couples with small children that these are the best years of their life. They may not realize it right now, but when those kids are grown up and out on their own those years are over, and it’s just such an important part of their life.”

Looking back on his life, Jon remains clear-eyed about his pathway through life, crediting his faith in divine providence for showing him the way. He pauses just a beat before acknowledging, “However, while fishing, luck or providence, either one or both, are definitely desirable and appreciated.”

Coming from a fellow who knows what it is to cast his bread upon the waters, that sounds like pretty good advice for catching whatever might be out there in the surf.