Skip the Motivator
I attended an all boys catholic high school from 1969-1973 in White Plains, NY. It was a long time ago, but the memories are still very clear to me today.
I was not Catholic; I was raised Greek Orthodox by my parents, who were born in the United States. The Greek culture is built on love, food, family, and guilt. My parents were great people, full of love for their two sons. They felt the Catholic school offered a better education, better discipline, and a better path to college than the public schools. I knew two kids my age when I arrived on the first day.
The boys of Archbishop Stepinac High School were required to wear a jacket and tie every day to school. Our hair had to be a certain length, or they would cut it for you, and you had to be clean-shaven. For my younger audience, you are probably saying "How barbaric! How ridiculous!" And I understand why you might feel that way. But outside of having kids and grandkids and finding my soulmate, this was the best four years of my life. Many of my classmates and I stay in touch today. They are the best friendships, lasting over 50 years.
A couple years ago I wrote a blog post about some of my mentors; the two I mentioned were corporate mentors. It felt great to write about them, so I decided to reach way back and think about who may have influenced me in my early years. Obviously, my mom, my dad, and my brother, whom I cherish more than anything, come to mind. But I was in search of someone who was not related to me who influenced me early and left a lasting, lifelong impression on me.
Enter: Thomas “Skip” Morton.
Remember, this is the late '60s and early '70s. Mr. Morton was kind of a hippie in a way. He wore his hair long and had mutton chop sideburns. He taught Economics and was the baseball coach at Stepinac. He couldn’t have been more than six or seven years older than all of us.
Mr. Morton was legit "cool." He would sweat "cool." He was so cool that during the first half of senior year we collected some money and bought a stock. The second half of the year was a Monopoly tournament, with the winner getting all the stock. Now that’s how you teach an economics class!
As our baseball coach, he managed to get us a varsity locker room with showers for the entire team, and he would wallpaper the locker with great motivational posters. It didn’t matter if we were good or not; he was a motivator. Many of us were the oldest of our siblings, and it was easy to look at this guy like a big brother. After all, we were closer in age to him than we were to our parents.
I wasn’t that good on the field; I managed to make the team but didn’t play that much. However it was still amazing to watch him coach. When I graduated, he signed my yearbook by writing, “If we would have had your heart and passion, we may have been something." It totally caught me off guard because he was the reason for that attitude! A person who always saw the glass half full, he knew how to get into everyone’s head and get the most out of them. It was my first experience with someone believing in my ability and getting the most out of me, not only then, but as I navigated through my professional career. I have managed many people in my career, and I've used his words, action, and mannerisms to get the most out of people and show them the respect they deserve.
I recently picked up the phone to call him to express his importance to me throughout my life.
There are many reasons I chose to write this. For one, that world doesn’t exist today, and it’s sad. My son is a teacher, and he cannot do or say half the things that we enjoyed for four years. We were being molded; people were investing in our futures as we walked through the halls.
Another reason is that you, the reader, have people who influenced you too. Have you told them? Have you called them? Do they know how their investment in you is going?
Pick up the phone. When the call ends, it’s such a feel-good moment.
Lastly, to Skip: thank you, thank you, thank you for everything. You made me a better person. You taught me that if you're positive and if you hustle, good things will happen. This, my friend and mentor, is the best way I could say it. My apologies that it took so long.