Bruce A. Plyer – 50th Reunion Essay

Bruce A. Plyer

123 Tulip St.

Summit, NJ 07901

bplyer321@aol.com

908-380-5079

Spouse(s): Barbara (2002)

Child(ren): Michael Stein (1978); Rebecca Dooling (1980); Brent Stein (1985)

Grandchild(ren): Cordelia Stein (2006 ); Anabel Stein (2008); Zarina Stein (2017); Caittlyn Dooling (2008); Alexis Doolingg (2009); Sean Dooling (2010); Erin Dooling (2013)

Education: Yale BA ’69 (architecture); Harvard MBA ’78; College for Financial Planning (CFP)

National Service: Capt. US Navy 1970–2000 (Vietnam War)

Career: Seven years active Navy service; Bendix International 7 years (director international marketing Asia); Morgan Stranley 30 years (financial advisor)

Avocations: Military history, kayaking, art, architecture, travel

College: Trumbull

Serendipity. A word so intertwined with my life that I want to share it with you. Let’s start with the Yale connection and see how it pops up along the way.

In high school I wasn’t really paying much attention to selection of colleges or universities. One day my guidance counselor asked if I would meet with Yale recruiters. Since it meant missing a class, I was all for it. Well, I was impressed and that’s how I got to Yale.

The Yale experience was outstanding, as it broadened my horizons and allowed me to interact with diverse and talented people and ideas. Near graduation my roommate and I went to the navy recruiter and I started my navy career (for the next 30 years). During a stressful training operation in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba I saw a navy magazine with a photo of a gunboat with palm trees in the background. That looked good to me. I called my detailer and was rewarded in markedly short time with orders to one in Guam. Well, I asked around about Guam and wasn’t thrilled. So I visited my detailer in Washington, and he told me not to worry, that I wouldn’t be spending much time in Guam—I would be in Vietnam!

Well my tour did interest me in the Far East, and after graduation from Destroyer School in Newport, Rhode Island, I was assigned to a ship home-ported in Japan. One day during a visit to Kyoto, I saw one fellow moving opposite the general sight-seeing traffic only to discover a Yale classmate. I had a greet meeting with him, and he mentioned maybe I might consider business school as a way to leave the navy and reenter the business world.

What followed this life-changing meeting was Harvard Business School. At the end of the first year there was a program to visit recent grads and discuss their budding careers. Since I was interested in foreign travel, I requested to visit a grad working for Bendix International in New York. I went to visit only to find he was overseas. As I was about to leave, his boss came out to ask if I was here looking for a job. We talked, and he learned I was familiar with antisubmarine warfare, and this led to a job selling helicopter dipping sonars.

As I moved up in Bendix I became head of Asian marketing, which was very pleasing. Then a disruptive move to another aerospace firm found me out driving a limo and taking flying lessons while searching for another industry job. During this time I saw an ad to meet with recruiters for a brokerage, and after listening to them, I thought any training would be good, and so I signed up with the intention of continuing to find employment in aerospace. Well, the training was 12 to 18 months, so I changed careers and continued in that field for 30 years.

Serendipity again: during my work I met my wife Barbara who is my soul mate (I used to think this was New Age jargon, but it is true). There is the outline of my life, and it shows that one has to have the personal qualities and the grounding from Yale, coupled with what one picks up along the way, to be ready when serendipity visits.