I had been studying physics and electronics at LaSalle College (now LaSalle University). Each semester, I enrolled in two courses, attending classes four nights a week. Additionally, I took accelerated courses every July and August attending one class four nights a week. During those summer sessions, my wife and children vacationed with her parents in Massena, NY.

As I neared graduation, my prospects in electronic engineering appeared bleak due to Nixon's wage freeze and the halt of military contracts.

One day, while looking through the Help Wanted Ads for engineering roles, a management position caught my eye because of its unique wording. I submitted a resume along with a cover letter that mirrored the ad's language. When I received no response, I regretted trying to be clever.

About a month later, however, I received a call about my resume. The caller inquired if I had personally written the cover letter. Upon confirming, he asked if I could come to his office in King of Prussia immediately for an interview. I explained it was Sunday and I was painting my house, but he insisted I "come-as-you-are."

That afternoon, I was interviewed by Sy Hochman of S&S Associates, a company that sold and repaired industrial electronic test equipment with offices in King of Prussia, PA, and Bethesda, MD. He was seeking someone ambitious and creative to help establish and manage a home electronics repair business. I got the job.

Mr. Hochman was inspired to expand his industrial repair business to include home electronics after struggling to find reliable service for the tape recorder and electronics in his "mobile office," a large, red Lincoln. He had started the business and was authorised to repair Sony and Harmon Kardon home electronics under warranty. He also repaired products for Radio Shack and Lafayette Radio and employed one part-time TV/Stereo repair technician.

However, Sy Hochman was an ambitious individual with degrees in Electronic Engineering and Juris Doctorate. His aim was to become the largest home electronics repair center in the Delaware Valley and provide warranty repair services for consumers and retailers across all manufacturers.

After a brief introduction to his existing service business, we started reaching out to manufacturers like Craig, Panasonic, and Sanyo, essentially from Admiral to Zenith, to become their authorised repair center.

I began designing a repair ticket that included copies for both the customer and the manufacturer, along with a matching stub that could be attached to the repair. The ticket needed to comply with the information requirements of various manufacturers.

I also had to establish a replacement parts system. I used 4x6 index cards to record the usage and replenishment of repair parts that included everythig from transisters to motors. Some manufacturers compensated us for defective parts returned and some exchanged them for new ones.

Finally, we needed customers. I had a knack for business, and Sy taught me sales skills. We began visiting local electronic retailers and department stores such as John Wannamaker, E.J. Korvettes, and Gimbles to persuade them that we could handle all their repair work more efficiently and cost-effectively than they could.

Within two years, I had hired 12 employees, a secretary, nine repair technicians, a parts manager, and a delivery person. We provided service for all kinds of home electronics, including microwave ovens and VCRs. We were the warranty repair center for over 40 manufacturers of home electronic products, both foreign and domestic.

Our clientele included consumers, retailers, and department stores. Some department stores, like Gimbles, Korvettes, Lit Brothers, and Wannamakers, delivered repairs to us in bulk. Each store had its own method of manifesting its merchandise for repair. Gimbles invoiced us at full retail for every item sent and credited our account upon the item's return.

Gimbles and Wannamakers delivered repairs by the truck load so we added a second floor to the warehouse area to accommodate all the merchandise we received for repair. To expedite the process of sorting and identifying merchandise, I implemented a "color coding" system with colored tags attached to the items.

Around 1970, RCA attempted to compete. Headquartered in Cherry Hill, NJ, they launched Service America, a home electwronics service which offered "in-home" repair on all brands of home electronics. I anticipated the difficulties Service America would eencounter repairing all brands and ultimately it did not succeed.

Unfortunately, neither would Service in Electronics. President Nixon initiated wage and price freezes, cancelled government contracts, and imposed surcharges on imports. He received political praise but he had devalued the dollar and greatly harmed the nation's economy.

With President Nixon's mandated economic controls, Sy Hochman was forced to close the Bethesda, MD office. His partners moved into our King of Prussia facility, even taking over my office. Then Sy Hochman was killed in an accident while on business in New Jersey.

His partners had no interest in the repair business. They shut down Service in Electronics firing me. I then took a job at Seifert X-Ray, located in the same industrial park. Within a year, though, I secured a position as product service manager with the JCPenney Company.

  In 1971, I was interviewed for the role of Product Service Manager at JCPenney Company, an experience I will always remember. I met with the Regional Product Service Manager at the Audubon, NJ Service Center. After reviewing my application and discussing my background, education, and experience, I was asked to complete an in-basket test.

The in-basket test presented a scenario where I was the new manager of a product service center. The manager's in-basket was full. I had one hour to prioritise and make decisions on each item in that in-basket. I later discovered that some of these in-basket "problems" were based on real situations.

Aside from the various issues ranging from office jealousy and personal rivalries to customer complaints, was a letter from a neighbour of "Mrs. Flowers." She reported seeing a JCPenney truck parked at the widow's home for extended periods. I do not remember my decisions but the only feedback I received was that returning a call from the Regional Service Manager should have been my top priority. I promised to improve and was subsequently hired by JCPenney as a Product Service Manager.

The company opened its second full-line store at King of Prussia Plaza in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, in late 1962. These stores expanded the range of merchandise and services offered by J.C. Penney to include appliances, sporting goods, tools, garden/lawn items, restaurants, beauty salons, portrait studios, auto parts, and auto centers.

The Product Service Centers operated independently, providing repair and maintenance for these products. It also offered service contracts known as Assured Performance Plans. The manager was responsible for the entire operation, including assets, staffing, profits, and ensuring customer satisfaction.

After a very short training period at the Audubon Service Center, JCPenney offered me the chance to open my own product service center in Dayton, Ohio. This center would serve a large store in the Centerville Mall, a long-standing downtown store in Xenia, Ohio, and an outlet store in Cincinnati.

My experience at Service in Electronics proved to be invaluable. I worked from the Columbus, OH Service and Parts Distribution Center while the company sought a suitable location for the new service center. They eventually found a building near the mall, but it was hardly ideal.

It was a large empty warehouse in a small industrial park in Centerville, with three offices at the front. There were two restrooms in the warehouse area and a ceiling-mounted gas heater at the back, which provided heat for the entire warehouse.

Fortunately, my family remained in Pennsylvania, as it would require many long days of work to turn the "warehouse" into workstations for home electronics, appliances and gas engine products. Additionaaly, I had to hire staff, purchase desks, file cabinets, workbenches, tools, and trucks.

Assigning the offices was straightforward. The Call Center would occupy the large front office at the entrance, Contract Sales would take another front office, and the Bookkeeper would use the small office between the two larger ones, despite it lacking a window. The Call Center would require two desks and three file cabinets, while the Contract Sales office needed four small desks. The bookkeeper would need a desk, a file cabinet, and a small safe.

The plan I devised for the warehouse area was quite ingenious. I established three workshops by arranging workbenches along one wall — two for electronic repairs, two for appliance repairs, and two for gas engine repairs. Between every two benches, I placed three sections of 24" deep steel shelving perpendicular to the wall. The shelving separated the three workstations and served as storage and holding bins for repairs.

To construct "walls" between the workstations, I secured 4' x 8' panels of particle board to the backs of the shelves. The combined weight of the steel shelving and particle board formed sturdy walls while still permitting the overhead heater to warm the entire warehouse. Gas engine repairs were located at the rear of the building close to the overhead door for easy outdoor access.

Subsequently, I established a parts department on the wall opposite the workstations and near a side door. The door would allow convenient access for carry-in repairs. The pars department became an area formed by 12" deep steel shelving with particle board attacjed to the back. In addition, there were four sections of shelving inside the area.

On the wall opposite the restrooms and adjacent to the call center office, I set up an office for myself. Once more, 12" deep steel shelving and particle board formed the walls necessary to enclose the office area. The shelving, facing inward, functioned as bookcases.

Once the building layout was finalised, I had staff to hire and train. I hired three electronic technicians, three appliance technicians, and one gas engine technician, along with two call takers, a bookkeeper, and two contract salespeople.

Independent service contractors who had previously worked with JCP products were notified that their services were no longer needed, and the stores were trained on the updated Product Service procedures. Within a month, the JCPenney Dayton Product Service Center was prepared to operate.

One of my initial challenges involved dispatching technicians. It was necessary to schedule calls to prevent technicians from driving across town on the same day. In Audubon, they utilized a large map on a magnetic board to outline service areas, using different colored magnets to indicate electronics, appliance, and gas engine service requests.

I did not have enough space for such a large setup, so I made a letter-sized copy of the Area Code Map from the telephone directory for Monday through Saturday. I arranged the maps in a three-by-two configuration on a cork board. When a service call was scheduled, a colored push pin was placed on the map.

Red, blue, and green push pins represented service calls for electronics, appliances, and gas engines, respectively. The aim was to keep all the red pins together, blue pins together, and green pins together for each day of the week. I occasionally had to replace the maps, but the system functioned effectively. I would later program a computer to manage service calls using the same principle.

My distinctive service center quickly gained recognition as a regional award-winning center, despite the fact that the old, three-story main-street store in Xenia mainly sold clothing and the outlet store in Cincinnati did not offer service contracts or in-home service.

With the majority of my business coming from the Centerville Mall store, I eventually required two additional contract salespeople and another employee for the parts department. My main competitor was the Pittsburgh Service Center. My supervisor would not accept the justification that Pittsburgh had three large metropolitan stores while I only had one.

The P&L statements for the JCPenney stores and product service centers were generated at headquarters in New York, so they were not available until ten days after the end of the month. Consequently, managers were required to provide a "flash report" of their monthly P&L.

I maintained daily records of four key figures in my Day-Timer pocket calendar, ensuring that my "flash" was always more accurate than any other product service managers in our region. My proficiency in Operations led to my selection as the manager of the very first computer implemented in Product Service when JCP decided to incorporate technology.

  Camden was scheduled to be the first computerized product service center. Its large size and convenient proximity to JCPenney's headquarters in New York City made it an ideal site for testing. I was assigned the responsibility of managing it.

Camden was offering services to South Jersey and the Philadelphia metropolitan area, along with nearby regions. However, I learned about several ongoing problems. There was a dispute regarding an open supervisory role, employee morale was lacking, and productivity and contract sales were not meeting expectations.

Upon taking over, first, I needed to tackle the rivalry between two technicians. A television technician believed he deserved the supervisor position due to his excellent service and long tenure. However, he had a noticeable accent and lacked some communication skills.

A more personable and relatable appliance technician was a far better fit for the role. I decided to promote both; the appliance technician became technician supervisor, while the electronic technician was appointed as lead shop technician.

This strategy proved so effective that it boosted morale among all the technicians and eventually became a case study at the annual JCPenney managers' training seminar. Perhaps it may have made the in-Basket test.

Efficient dispatching was essential for enhancing morale and productivity. Camden's dispatch system featured a large map on a magnetic board with colored magnets, likely the same one I trained on in Audubon, NJ. However, the only "division" on this map was the Delaware River separating New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

I could not apply my Area Code concept from Dayton because once again, the only "division" was the Delaware River, 609 for New Jersey and 215 for Philadelphia. Traffic was heavy between Philadelphia and New Jersey, requiring crossing one of the three bridges.

I opted to divide the map into four zones: New Jersey and Northeast, West, and South Philadelphia. The goal was to keep service calls for each type of service more closely grouped. It took some practice for the schedulers, but the divisions proved effective, leading to improved productivity.

I felt privileged to manage the first computerized product service center. JCPenney opted to use a Motorola computer due the the backlog in IBM computers. However, I quickly realised that the initial software only facilitated data entry and redundant tasks, especially when a sale included an Assured Performance Plan.

Product service received a pink copy of every customer's sales receipt for their hardline merchandise purchase. The "sales slips" were filed alphabetically by last and first names. When a customer required service, the sales slip was often retrieved for reference.

But now we had a computer. The sales slip information had to be entered into the computer system before the slip could be filed. The data entry was laborious, resulting in a backlog of sales slips laying on the dispatchers' desks and complicating retrieval when a customer called for service.

In addition, when a customer bought an Assured Performance Plan, the APP information had to be entered into the computer system before the contract was typed and mailed to the cudstomer. Frustration mounted, and everyone "hated the computer." I needed to address this problem, and hiring numerous data entry clerks was not my answer.

During the initial computer setup and data entry, a considerable amount of time was spent entering city names like Conshohocken, King of Prussia, Pennsauken, and Cherry Hill. I suggested using zip codes to simplify the process and proposed my idea to the Motorola programmers. They acknowledged that it was possible but would require creating a "zip code file" with a record for each zip code.

I wasn't happy with that answer and asked them to explain how that worked. They obliged. During the setup, I had watched as programmers made changes in the software and I even made some minor modifications myself by following their guidance over the phone. I was confident I could progarm my zip code idea into the computer.

Zip codes were listed in the telephone directory. My service area included 87 zip codes in Philadelphia and 33 zip codes in New Jersey. I created the "zip code file" with one record for each of the 120 zip codes and each record contained the corresponding city and state.

Following the steps Motorola had provided, I began to make changes to the program one at a time: "opening" the file, skipping the city and state, retrieving the zip code record, "reading" the city and state from the record, and "posting" the city and state to the customer's record. IT ALL WORKED.

The morning that I informed my two dispatchers/typists that they no longer needed to input the city and state, they were excited. This significantly enhanced the data entry process, and we started to catch up on posting sales slips. I had created my first computer program!

With the success of the zip code implementation, I had another idea. Perhaps I could create a "model number file" that could post the product description and calculate and post the warranty expiration date.

It took many nights, but I developed the model number file and created a program that converted the sales date to Julian, added the number of warranty days to it, and converted that date back to a calendar date. If the Julian date exceeded 365, I subtracted 365 from it and added 1 to the year. In a leap year, I subtracted 366 days.

When the typist entered the model number, the new program posted the description of the item and the warranty expiration date. This would be the second of many programs I would write for the computer.

My two modifications reduced data entry time so significantly that my dispatcher/typists could post customer records into the computer without delay. The sales slips were filed away and never needed to be retrieved again. The computer became an instant source of information when a customer called for service. Morale soared, and everyone "loved the computer."

Typing Assured Performance Plans after entering all the information into the computer was redundant, and no program was scheduled for the computer to print APPs. So, when a truckload of APP forms arrived at my office one day, I felt confident enough to write a computer program to print the APPs.

However, this project would entail creating a "printer program" from scratch and the main program would have to be modified to flag a customer record when an APP was sold. The printer program would have to retrieve the customer records and print information in specific areas on the pre-printed APP forms.

The first day we were ready to print contracts was thrilling. We placed a stack of blank APP forms in front of the printer, loaded them into the printer, and started the program. The printer began churning out printed service contracts faster than we could count. My three dispatchers were ecstatic. They no longer had to type APPs.

But they weren't the only ones pleased with my program. My Pitney-Bowes sales representative was also delighted. He had a machine that could take a stack of printed forms, remove the perforated edges, separate the forms, fold them, stuff them into envelopes, seal the envelopes, and stamp them. I purchased that machine.

Yet I wasn't ready to stop there. I was confident I could write a program that would schedule our service calls. I designed the system to keep service calls close together by using the customer's zip code, just as I scheduled service calls using the customers' telephone area codes in Dayton.

When a customer called for service, the program offered the dispatcher a choice of three days for service. The customer could select one of those days or the disatcher could override the choices for emergency service calls or special needs. All of our service calls were now scheduled with a simple key press. Goodbye magnetic dispatch board!

Following that, I developed a program to print the technicians' dispatches. My dispatchers no longer had to assign calls or type route sheets. Almost all of our typing was eliminated. Goodbye IBM Selectrics!

Camden's APP sales were so successful that we took over the APP sales for the Ephreta, PA, and Wayne, NJ service centers. Production was so strong that we completely took over the Wilmington, DE service center, expanding my sales and service area to include Delaware.

With a sales area now covering all of New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania west to Harrisburg, I employed thirty APP sales representatives, with annual APP sales exceeding $1 million, up from $10,000.

At this point, JCPenney decided it was time to implement a program to print APPs. My boss arrived at my office with a JCPenney programmer from corporate and a Motorola programmer who was an independent contractor.

Their suggestions were so inadequate that I had to reveal that I had already programmed the computer to print APPs. My boss was uncertain whether to feel pleased or upset, but the group insisted that I hand over all the source code and they left to return to New York.

I provided them with the source code for the APPs. A few days later, I heard back from Senneta Koch. Senneta was a JCPenney programmer at corporate. We became friends during the initial setup of the computer. She confirmed that my programs could not be improved and would be used as they were written.

Senneta was thrilled about my achievement and congratulated me by sending me an engraved 18" steel pica ruler, which programmers use to align print on forms. Thank you, Senneta, wherever you are today.

  After JCPenney shut down their product service centers, the successful phase of my management career came to an abrupt and unforeseen conclusion. Montgomery Ward had offered me a job in South Carolina, but I had assured Bob that we would not relocate so he could finish school with his friends.

I sought a position as service manager at a fuel oil company, but the owner believed I needed to know how to repair boilers. I also applied for a service manager role at an office machine retailer, but the owner claimed I was overqualified. And, I pursued a managerial position at an ITT Technical Institute but was unsuccessful due to my lack of formal classroom teaching experience.

With no management opportunities available, I turned to sales roles. The sales professionals I knew were thriving. Barbara sold condominiums, Sherry sold houses, Dick Goodwin constructed and sold entire communities, and Dick Schultz sold paper. I attempted to sell advertising, office supplies, and computers, but I did not succeed. Consequently, my friends encouraged me to enter Real Estate.

I followed their suggestion and enrolled in classes at Fox & Lazo Realty training center. Given my business background, the course was manageable, and I obtained my license on the first attempt. I was subsequently hired at Fox & Lazo's office on Tanner Street in downtown Haddonfield.

Haddonfield is an affluent area renowned for its distinctive boutiques, appealing variety of restaurants, historic Victorian houses, and the Tavistock Country Club. Competing against seasoned and established agents was challenging, but I was learning some tricks of the trade.

Real Estate demanded a lot of effort. We were in the office by eight every morning, and regular meetings were scheduled. There were days "on floor" to assist walk-in clients. Cold calls had to be made in search of listings. Presentations for listings were often conducted in the evening when both spouses were available.

If you were lucky enough to have a listing, there were weekend "Open Houses." You were on call seven days a week from morning until night, dealing with clients who frequently changed their preferences. Furthermore, when a sale was made, there was a mountain of paperwork for mortgages, title clearances, home inspections, and scheduled repairs that all had to be processed urgently.

With many friends in Real Estate, I lacked a "center of influence." All my clients approached me when I was on floor. One of my first clients was a divorcee whose ex-wife lived in Haddonfield with their daughter. He was looking for a condominium where he could spend weekends with his daughter.

However, there was only one small condominium development in Haddonfield, and he was not impressed. Instead of the condo, he opted to purchase Haddonfield's only hotel (which I believe is now the Kings Highway Apartments). It was the only hotel in or near Haddonfield, and I informed him that I didn't think it was for sale. He replied, "Everything is for sale, Charlie."

As it turned out, he was wealthy enough to buy the hotel and drove to Haddonfield from New York on a snowy day with a $10,000 cashier's check to initiate negotiations. After arranging for an offer on the hotel, I lost the deal when, according to Fox & Lazo, I was creating a conflict with their Commercial Department. The hotel was eventually sold as a commercial property about a year later, but not by me or to my client.

In my first year in Real Estate, I sold two houses and earned $8,000. To supplement my income, I began taking on wallpapering jobs, a skill I had acquired as a teenager from Peg Walker. A coworker expressed concern, saying, "You are what you do. Do you want to sell Real Estate or hang wallpaper?"

The following year, I sold four houses and earned about $12,000. With such disappointing earnings from selling houses, I transitioned to selling mortgages the next year. I thought I could persuade all my Real Estate friends to use Crestmont Federal Savings & Loan for their clients' mortgages.

When that role also failed to pan out, I succumbed to the pressure from my former JCPenney colleagues to accept the position as service manager for American Appliances. American Appliances was a large retailer in the Delaware Valley selling new and used appliances and electronics. It had a substantial service fleet, but AA had a poor reputation among its customers.

  With the demise of JCPenney service, several of my former employees had taken jobs as technicians and in service contract sales at American Appliances and were urging me join them. My reputation as a manager preceded me and the owner of American Appliance was anxious to have me for his service department.

However, although American Appliances was a large appliance and electronics retailer with stores throughout the Delaware Valley, they had a very problematic reputation among customers in both sales and service. Finally, in desperation to earn a decent salary again, I accepted a service management position at American Appliances.

In my first few days on the job, I immediately saw many problems. The technicians helped themselves to replacement parts. There were no manifests for mercahndised picked up from the stores and service was blamed for missing merchandise. Dispatching was haphazard with a few technicians running their own service businesses and selling American Appliance repalcement parts to their customers.

I carefully laid out a one-year reorganization plan but, as one might imagine, my changes would prove to be very unpopular among technicians and store managers.

It took a few weeks but I closed off the parts department, put someone in charge of tracking the inventory and only "exchanged" new parts for old parts. The old parts had to be returned with a work order signed by a customer to get a replacement part for their truck inventory. Not popular.

I began using signed shipping and receiving manifests to track items that came from the stores for repair. Now there was paperwork when expensive electronics like VCRs, TVs and microwaves went missing and the store managers could no longer say I sent it to service and it never came baack. Also not popular.

Once again, I fell back to my old JCPenney dispatch system. The two dispatchers, who had both worked for me at JCPenney, were happy to see organized scheduling techniques return to their office. My former contract sales supervisor was in charge of American Appliance's contract sales but, unlike JCPenny, I had no responsibilty in that area.

For me, the working conditions were not very comfortable. There was a ramp I had to climb to my office. Dispatching was across the hall from my office and I spent much of the day running up and down that ramp. Oh, my aching back!

As expected, there were a lot customer complaints that kept me busy on the phone, writing letters and spending time in Small Claims Court. JCPenney bent over backwards for the customer but my new boss felt that as long as he had the best price in town, customers would always come back regardless of how unhappy they were with their previous purchase. Amazingly enough it seemed he was right.

The changes I put into effect to reduce theft and control production became so unpopular that the comptroller, who appreciated my changes, once warned me to "watch my back!" Then after just nine months, my boss complained to me that my plan was not working and I was fired.

The truth was that the technician supervisor wanted my job. He had worked at American Appliance for many years and was a "buddy" of the boss. Now that service was organized and running smoothly, he was capable of handling the job. I decided it was time for me to throw in the towel on management and perhaps give computer programming a shot.