Clinton "Bud" Beaver chats with Rotarian Cheryl Rust

October 31, 2006

The youngest of seven children, Clinton "Bud" Beaver dropped out of Hurricane High for a job in steel.

"I had to have a shiny new '49 Mercury like one of my buddies had," he told Putnam Rotarians at their noon luncheon today at Sleepy Hollow.

But at a net weight of under 150 pounds, he had trouble handling the 300-pound sheets, even with assistance.

Then he was employed in glass manufacture, working 40 hours a week while taking classes in night school.

"Corporate America was beginning to outsource and downsize," he said, "so I looked for work that would be around for awhile."

Beaver became a teacher and then a school principal.

Upon retirement he served a term as County Commissioner, and then director of the Putnam Aging Program.

He looks back now on fifty-one years of continuous successful employment and community service.

He remembers the advice of his father: "Always look for somethging better."

Beaver suggested that education might do well to focus on career choices. Multiple career changes are likely with rapid changes in society. Young people today need to learn flexibility, to have a willingness to do the work, and be motivated to investigate the needs of prospective employers.

"If you don't know the right answer, talk to someone who does," he told the group -- practical advice for today as it has been for "Bud" Beaver for more than 51 years.