The Short Story on Becoming a Risk Manager

54 Years ago, February 19, 1967, a bright sunny Sunday afternoon. I’m just short of my tenth birthday and in the fourth grade at St. Adalbert’s Catholic School in South Milwaukee, WI. As I toil over some sort of mundane homework, my parents walk in the door and report they were evacuated from the church/school complex because of a natural gas leak.

Not particularly proud of this now, but my thoughts turned to the school blowing up and if it did, would I need to finish the assignment which was due the next morning? Within a few minutes there was a loud boom and I raced out the front door into the middle of the street to see what could be seen two blocks to the east where the church and school was located. What I saw was a white cloud of smoke and dust rolling across the street. I remember this like it was yesterday.

Fast forward to 1981 as I completed a graduate degree in Safety and embarked on a career in Safety and Risk Management. Could the explosion at my school have incubated a career? Maybe, maybe not. However, for the next 39 years, risk management was my business. For the first five years of my career, I was a safety specialist in a nuclear weapons manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, TN. If ever there was a need for safety… 

As the Cold War neared its end and peace was beginning to break out, things in the nuclear weapons business began to slow. With that downturn and an eye toward career development, I shifted my focus to governmental risk management focusing on cities, counties, school districts and other special purpose quasi-governmental agencies. On to Southern California, Birmingham, Alabama, and finally to Charlotte, North Carolina where I found my forever home!

Stay Safe My Friends,

Dan