When John was born he received a Kabuto or Shogun helmet
of Samurai Japan on a small silk pillow from Mr Imai the
Managing Director of SSE. Japanese custom is to give a gift
that is a symbol of what you wish for the baby. If the gift is
from someone who already has this quality, then it is a more
powerful wish. Since Mr Imai was a very high manager and
his gift represents leadership, John is destined to become a
high-ranking leader.
John attended Ramalynn Montessori in Apple Valley for
Preschool and Kindergarten. His studies included French
and Violin. John won the Pumpkin carving contest two
years in a row with a California Raisin and a Shark. At the
graduation ceremony from Kindergarten each child said
what they wanted to be when they grew up. There were
Doctors, Policemen, Nurses, Astronauts and then John who
said, “I’m going to be a Leader”.
In Little League baseball with Dad coaching 3rd base, John hit
a line drive between the outfielders and the 1st base coach sent
him to second. As John approached second he looked at the
3rd base coach and saw his Dad do the big high-speed windmill
that means to keep on running. As John approached third Dad
was still doing the big high-speed windmill, so John keep going
for home. Dad will never forget the expression on John’s face
after he crossed home with his 1st ever Home Run.
During his years in elementary school John was active
in Cub Scouts and made it to the highest level of
Webelos. He was selected to play the Tenor Saxophone
by the music teacher because he was the only one in
his class that was strong enough to lift it and his arms
were long enough to play the big saxophone. Earlier
John had taken Violin and Piano lessons.
Since preschool John has always felt comfortable with
computers. At age 4 he was able to power on the old PC and
use a menu system to go in and out of several games and
then power off the PC when he was done. At age 14 he got a
summer job at AM Miller & Associates where his Dad worked.
The other kids were assigned to the filing cabinets, but after
they discovered that John was good on the computer they
assigned him to the Accounting department where he setup
mail merge documents and also designed spreadsheets with
formulas that automatically calculated.
At age 16 John started working at Dairy Queen and
quickly became one of their best and most reliable
employees. One day two years after an incident happened
John finally told his Dad about the time when he was the
Assistant Manager and they had to fire an employee.
John said that while he was escorting the guy to the back
door, the guy pulled a knife on him. Then John said that
he almost broke the guy’s arm taking the knife away from
him, and then he pushed him out the door, dragged him
across a short lawn and tossed him down the bank into a
small pond.
