Ralph Orr:

Ralph’s first job was as a newspaper boy.  It was hard work. There was sacrifice and not much pay. There were high expectations by customers that he was there and on time. He carried the news rather than by bike. His paper was too big to ride a bike. He had 100 weekday customers and 125 weekend customers. On weekends the paper was quite big so you could see him waddling down the street on Saturday as he hauled papers in a bag over his shoulder. They were so heavy on Sundays he needed a wagon. He delivered in the summer and the winter. He had many days it was so cold that he shivered for 35-40 minutes as he prepared his papers. The lessons he learned as a paperboy apply today. He wants us to remember to respect and support those who deliver papers today.

Mike Real:

Mikes first job was a Starkist Tuna at Terminal Island. His uncle was the CEO at the time and got him his job. He worked in the experimental dog and cat food division. On his first day he had to clean the litter boxes of 300 cats (of which he is very allergic). He moved on to cat food where he ground up the left overs from the tuna to try and create new cat food. He had to test which versions cats liked the best. He almost lost a finger in a device in the plant. There was a lot of hard manual labor. What he learned: Working with your brain is a lot better than working with your back. The food science element was the most intriguing and is part of how he ending up in the food industry.

Andy Bundesmann:

Andy told about two jobs. Her first was as a babysitter. She needed to raise some money to help pay for the costs associated with her horse. After a babysitting job, when the evening came to an end, the dad would drive her home and all but one of her customers would regularly hit on her on the drive. She also worked as a hostess at a restaurant. She was inappropriately hit on by the manager after the store had closed one night and because she refused his advances, she was fired the next day. The moral for Andy: All men are pigs.

John Davis:

John’s first job was at the San Diego Zoo as a busboy. Working at the zoo helped pay his way through San Diego State University.  He was promoted to the Sky-Fari as a tour guide. John was a prankster and used to mess with the people on his tours. He would occasionally put a piece of metal on the bottom of the gondola so it would start making noise and scare the guests when the gondola was at its highest. Sometimes he would refuse to get into certain gondolas to mess with passengers. On his 5th tour one day he was saying the script but thinking about his evening ahead when he accidentally told his tour group that the Emu is the only bird in the world in which the male lays the eggs. Everyone believed him so he didn’t correct his error. The moral of the story: If you take your job seriously and work hard, eventually you can cofound a college.