Michael Baum – 50th Reunion Essay

Michael Baum

206 W. Erie Street

Spring Valley IL 61362

mhbaum@gmail.com

608-575-2077

Spouse(s): Ruth Baum (1977)

Child(ren): Patricia (1981); Harold (1984); Eleanor (1987)

Grandchild(ren): Magdalena Kishler (2005); Susannah Kishler (2007); John Kishler (2010); Isaac Kishler (2012); Bridget Kishler (2014); Joseph Kishler (2016)

Education: Yale MAT, 1970; Northwestern MBA, 1994

National Service: SN, US Navy, 1969-1970

Career: High school English teacher, New Haven, 1969-1970; Buyer, Bennett Brothers, Chicago, 1970-1983; Franchise consultant, executive vice president, Francorp, Olympia Fields IL, 1984-1994; CEO, Renaissance Learning, Wisconsin Rapids, WI, 1994-2003; President, Artful Home, Madison, WI 2004-2008; independent consultant, 2008-present

Avocations: writing; Orthodox Christianity

College: Timothy Dwight

Five-hundred-word essay. Fifty years. Average 10 words/year. Write fast, Baum.

Biography is quest for meaning. But very few lives make “stories” by themselves. Mine hasn’t. I didn’t have a career, just a series of jobs. Oddly enough they tracked 50 years of business megatrends: mail-order catalogs in the ’70s; franchising in the ’80s; software, education, and IPOs in the ’90s; web marketing in the ’00s; the “gig economy” since then (since 2008 I’ve been an independent consultant: have Internet and cellphone, will travel). Did I follow the trends or did they follow me?

My career goal—if I had one—was to write. And I have: marketing copy, business reports, educational curriculum products, white papers, articles. No Great American Novel but hell, we already had too many of those. At our 45th I pledged to finish my first book by the 50th. Hasn’t happened yet but the topic involves dogs and 2018 is the Year of the Dog so maybe that’s an omen. Ask me at the 50th if I don’t hand you a copy first.

Two developments in fall 1969 sent unexpected ripples through my life. One was teaching high school English while getting my Yale MAT, which taught me I wasn’t cut out to teach but helped 25 years later when I became CEO of an educational software company; I’ve worked mostly on the supplier side of education ever since. The other (not directly connected) was rectal bleeding that turned out to be Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune ailment probably triggered by the 1968 Glee Club tour of South America. The whole club got dysentery, but I brought it back as a souvenir. Over the years Crohn’s meant many hospitalizations, surgical scars, several feet of lost intestine, finally an ileostomy. But also maybe more of a sense of gratitude for good things, and empathy for suffering, than I otherwise would have.

Married, age 30, a very understanding woman who helped me find God, bore three children, and loves Yale reunions and Christian pilgrimages. Protestant preacher’s kid from middle America. We’re no longer Protestant—see my essay on spirituality in the Class of ’69, elsewhere in this Class Book if I ever get it finished. Elder daughter is married to an Orthodox Christian priest and mother of our six grandchildren; millennial middle-child son is still seeking his life path while a baker at Whole Foods; younger daughter is a software engineer with Salesforce.

My 25th essay described a time of transition: we were moving to Wisconsin for what turned out a series of major changes in career, faith, and life. This time too: we’re moving to a tiny town in Illinois to help tend grandchildren, join a new church family, and fix up a 104-year-old house with many stairs to climb and a garret for me to write in. This is my last class essay but not the end of my story.

What’s next? I’ll quote that exquisitely articulate autobiographer, Harpo Marx. “Tomorrow? I think the sun will rise tomorrow.”