Michael Stuart Smernoff – 50th Reunion Essay

Michael Stuart Smernoff

959 Paw Paw Court

Tallahassee, Florida 32312

smernoff30@aol.com

Spouse(s): Leslie (1971)

Child(ren): Jessica (1978) and Megan (1986)

Grandchild(ren): Gabriel and Brendan, twins (2015)

Education: Rutgers, MBA, 1972

Career: CPA, Haskins and Sells (now Deloitte), Wometco Enterprises Director of Internal Auditing, Tallahassee Democrat, Controller and VP Operations, Tri-Eagle Sales, Director of Finance

Avocations: traveling, children and grandchildren, politics and the Boston Red Sox

College: Trumbull

I suppose I am very much the same person today as I was when I was at Yale. I was always more of an observer of events rather than a participant, and that is my greatest regret from my time at Yale—not being more involved in more things. That may be the result of my being so far into the “I” category on the Myers-Briggs scale that there is no chance I will ever move into the “E” range. I also regret not having kept in touch with people. There may be a few people who look back and can say, given the chance, they would do things again exactly as they did originally. I am not one of them, although I have few regrets and little to complain about.

Law school was a default choice after graduation, but I absolutely detested it. So, after a bit of grunt work at a bank in Boston, where my supervisor told me I’d be a good CPA, I went that route—the professional accounting program in the Rutgers business school. I ended up in Florida because I had a seven-week internship with Haskins and Sells (now Deloitte and Touche) in the winter and could live with relatives in Miami. Seven weeks in Miami beats seven weeks (or any time) in Newark, home to the Rutgers professional accounting program at that time. I spent 13 years in Miami and have been in Tallahassee since 1985.

Having determined that I’m a highly analytic as opposed to a creative thinker, I realized my choice of accounting turned out to be appropriate. For 41 years, I followed that path, and here I am today, retired from accounting and finance and now substitute teaching in high schools part time, finally using my English major and general knowledge to some advantage. I would have been an excellent teacher, but I really did not come to that conclusion until well into my career, far too late to make a change.

My wife, Leslie, and I have been married for 47 years (as of 2018), and we have two daughters, Jessica and Megan, both of whom graduated from law school. I never thought I’d be a grandparent, but my older daughter gave birth to twin boys three years ago. They lived in Atlanta at that time, and the drive was not long, so my wife and I were able to visit regularly. Naturally, her husband was soon transferred—to Seattle—so the trip is a bit longer and far less frequent now. Such is life.

By the time this is published, we will have sold our home of 32 years and moved into a smaller house that requires far less work. We will continue to enjoy traveling and visiting our children and grandchildren and generally take things as they come.