Ben Jerman – 50th Reunion Essay

Ben Jerman

2500 English Meadows Lane

Charlotte, NC 28226

bjerman@aol.com

980-777-0506

Spouse(s): Sally Whaley

Education: Yale 1969, University of California Berkeley 1978 Economics

Career: Vice President of Marketing, PCA International, Inc.(10 Years), Owner, Bennett Jerman Properties,(20 Years), CBS Consulting (Div’n of ISI, Inc.) (10 Years)

Avocations: Watercolor and Oil Painting, Religious Philosophy, Building and Renovating Houses

College: Saybrook

Not God and Yale!

I arrived at Yale after three years at Phillips Andover as a naïve, unsophisticated, studious and very religious student. I was raised as a “Billy Graham” Southern Presbyterian. Billy Graham grew up a few blocks from my childhood home and had a profound impact on me and all my family. My religious faith gave me the personal fortitude to survive three years at the crucible of Andover and put me on a path to ministry as I entered Yale.

After the protected monastic environment of Andover with no women or alcohol, regimented class, sports, morning worship schedules along with a narrow range of acceptable social interaction among students with an emphasis on decorum at all times, Yale represented a freewheeling, wild and free cauldron where almost anything goes and the weirder the better. In Vanderbilt Hall, one dorm mate would run up and down the staircase totally naked and bounce in and out of rooms, strutting and showing off whatever. Girls coming and going, alcohol, along with other dalliances were commonplace and only got “worse” or “better” with each year.

At the suggestion of my college dean, Martin Griffin, I majored in history. I love history, but I’m terrible at it. I think back that if I had majored in math, physics, or anything more quantitative, I would have sailed through Yale. But that was not to be. I barely managed to survive junior and senior years, but not as the same person. To fulfill personal goals, I was active in Dwight Hall, Battell Chapell, and student government.

After graduation, while waiting for a medical deferment, I took an entry level job as a photographer with a local company in my home town of Charlotte, North Carolina. This company, PCA Int’l, turned out to be a dynamic entrepreneurial company. In six months I was promoted to a regional manager and then national sales manager. I managed to redirect myself into management training, and finally national marketing. In 10 years the company grew from 100 employees to 6,000 employees and went public. I was lucky enough to ride the public offering and to retire comfortably at 32… all a fortuitous accident for a struggling history major!

In my next career I took up the role as president of the Yale Club in Charlotte. With the help of Ted Rast (’69) and Chum Geissinger (’63) the club attracted a large number of students to apply to Yale. At one point we had the unheard of number of 36 students at Yale from Charlotte! During this same period I took over as president of a small but historic local theatre and helped it survive political struggles that forced it to abandon its theatre location in a major Charlotte museum and fend for itself for several years. A Yale Law graduate, Mark Bernstein, stepped in and helped me guide the theatre into a new association with the Charlotte Arts Council, allowing major patrons to support the survival of the theatre.

That’s as much as I can say in 500 words. For more about me, see also my memorial to Bill Wilson, my roommate for four years at Yale.