Preface

After spending three months helping my father prepare and publish the results of his 25-year Family History Project, I realized I’m going to need to put together an autobiographical page for myself.  I’ve always thought of my life as unremarkable, and I have not really thought much about the journey to get to where I am today.  Thinking about my life story has not been unpleasant, but I’m not used to the idea of writing it down and sharing it publicly. 

Eight weeks into the “Shelter in Place” orders of the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020 of the County of Marin, and the State of California, I am truly blessed, and extremely lucky to have a job which allows me to work full time from home.  I am in a comfortable house with Cathy, my wonderful bride of 27 years, and Daniel, one of my three children home for the quarantine.

So now, in the evenings, and on the weekends, I shall begin telling my story.

I was born on a dark and stormy night…

Vital Statistics

• Born June 1, 1953 @ Mather Air Force Base, Sacramento, California

• Graduated San Carlos High School 1971

• Graduated University of California, Berkeley, Economics 1975

• Married to Sharon Yukelson 1978 – 1991

• Married to Catherine Campbell on November 29, 1992

Reflections 

There is a saying I am fond of, and while it seems to be true, I will attempt to not let this sentiment color my recollections:  The older I get, the better I was.

Writing in 2020, I can’t help but realize that my experience which seemed “normal” and “typical” growing up was not normal and typical.  I am a baby boomer with the good fortune to be born into a white, middle-class, liberal family, in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I had two loving parents, each of whom held a strong sense of right and wrong, both were committed to maintaining traditions and embracing the extended family.  With this background, I always felt I had a safety net.  As time goes on, I have a greater appreciation for how true this is.  I am very, very grateful. 

Another thing I am particularly thankful of is that my parents were determined to make sure I had experiences they could not provide.  They were not strong swimmers, but they made sure I learned to swim at an early age.  They were not outdoor people, but they made sure I learned about camping and “the outdoors” by having me join first the cub scouts, and later the boy scouts.  They were not athletically inclined, but they encouraged me to join little league and to play sports in high school.  They also attempted to give me experiences with hobbies they enjoyed.  My father played piano, saxophone and clarinet, and made sure I learned to play an instrument.  (I no longer play, but I have an appreciation for music, and I wish I had taken the instruction more seriously and stayed with it.)  Two things my father had as hobbies somehow passed to me: photography and gardening.  I developed a love of all these things.  I cannot thank them enough to have the foresight to give me these experiences.

High School

In San Carlos, we lived very near the high school on Hewitt Drive.  I had neighborhood friends of different ages, but only one was in my grade and while we were friends in grammar school, he went to a different high school.

I was not part of what you might call a “group” in high school.  I wasn’t a jock, or a hippie, or a tough guy, or a nerd.  I was on the basketball team, but I can’t say I played basketball.  I was on the practice squad and only got into games when it was a blowout either way.  I wanted to play baseball in the spring but could never hit a breaking ball, so I couldn’t make the team.  I joined the swimming team instead.

My closest friends came out of my involvement with a Jewish Youth group, but our social activities transcended the activities of the group.  There were meetings and events to attend, but we were friends outside these activities.  One aspect of participating in this organization was that it made me mobile.  I had friends in different school districts on the mid-Peninsula, and in San Francisco.  I’m not sure exactly how it happened but there was a merger of sorts between my circle in San Carlos – Redwood City, and a group of guys in San Francisco.  The connection with SF was through my cousin Farrell Suslow.  Our two groups would hang out on weekends; one weekend in SF, the next in SC.

There was a small world moment I recall on The Streets of San Francisco.  Riding in a car with my second cousin and good friend Rick Calic, and our friend Bill Magdoff.  We were on Masonic heading south and one of them said: hey we’re coming up to my Aunt and Uncle’s grocery store.  The other one replied: but we’re coming up on MY Aunt and Uncle’s grocery store.  Turns out, Bill’s aunt Faye Magdoff had married Rick’s uncle Jack Calic, and together they owned and operated the “F&J Groceteria” on Masonic Avenue.  We had a pretty good laugh about that.

The Berkeley Years

I’ve always been fascinated by “The Butterfly Effect” – the premise that small changes in the fabric of the past can have widespread ramifications for the future.  The first time I heard about the concept was from a short story called “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, in the collection called “R is for Rocket”.  I read it in high school and have on occasion considered how a seemingly random and innocent occurrence shaped my life.

During the spring or summer of my senior year of high school, in 1971, Hal Holtzman, one of my father’s patients came to his office for an eye exam.  During the small talk, my father revealed that I had been accepted to UC Berkeley and would be attending in the fall.  Hal was an RA on the 8th floor at Deutsch Hall, at one of the dorms at Cal and offered to arrange to get me onto his floor, in Unit One, the set of four buildings at Durant/College/Channing.  It was here that I made more than a few lasting friendships that I enjoy to this day.  This group of guys, and a circle of friends outside the dorm shaped my political maturation, my musical appreciation, and my social development.

The first unanticipated benefit of being in this group of guys was participating in intramural sports.  That first year, we had a flag football team in the fall, a basketball team in the winter and a softball team in the spring.  My recollection is a little fuzzy, but I think these teams held together for 3 years.  We had a lot of fun, and we were pretty good, too.

During my freshman year (1971/1972) the Vietnam war continued to be raging with no apparent end in sight.  The annual draft lottery for my birth year held my birthdate was drawn #15 out of 365.  I don’t recall how many birthdates were actually called into the army the year before, but it was generally accepted that a number that low was guaranteed to result in induction.  One of my friends in the dorm drew #27 and we both received letters requiring us to report for a physical.  We went to Oakland together and it was a scene out of Alice’s Restaurant (with colored lines on the floor and filling out forms with pencils.)  While I was deliberating what to do about my future, the Draft came up for renewal, and Congress declined to approve the bill.   There was no draft for my birth year.

The spring of my Freshman year brought anti-Vietnam War protests and marches to campus.  I was excited to participate, but disappointed to learn that as idealistic as we were, after listening to speeches in Sproul Plaza, the mob on the march was headed by a gang of street people who just wanted an opportunity to turn over garbage cans, break windows and set fire to things.

My first part time job on camps was as a lifeguard at Harmon Pool.  I thought it was going to be the easiest job ever but turned out to be the worst.  No reading, no homework, no music allowed.  Just watching students and professors doing laps.  Occasionally I had a shift when the water polo team practiced, but mostly I just watched people swimming laps.  I was able to get a job at one of the small libraries and leave the lifeguard job, and it turned out to be an excellent job which I held for 3.5 years.

My major was Economics.  I took a lot of history classes, but not quite enough for a minor.

The main social activity of my circle of friends was the music and live show experience of The Grateful Dead.

Grandpa’s funding / Trip to Europe

When my grandfather Mayer Licht died in 1968, when I was 15, he left each of his four grandchildren a small sum of money from his estate.  My parents were custodians of my portion of these funds and invested it until I needed it.  I had lots of ideas for things to buy, but my father always rejected my plan because he thought whatever I wanted wasn’t something I really needed.  I remember being very disappointed that my father did not agree that buying a car was a good use of these funds.  When I was in college during my sophomore year (1972-1973), a group of friends were making plans to go to Europe for the summer.  There was no way I could save enough money to go from my part time job, so I asked my father if I could draw from the funds Grandpa left me.  Without hesitation, he said (I’m paraphrasing): now THAT is a good reason to spend the money.  I needed to do my research and get some details together to sell him that I had a solid plan for the trip before he released the funds, but I was able to join a group of my friends on a 10 week trip through Western Europe, traveling on a Eurail pass.  Not only did I have tons of fun, but it opened my eyes to the vast cultural differences between the Western US and Europe, and it kindled an interest in history.

Crocker Bank/Pacific Stock Exchange

My first job out of school was with Western Bradford Trust Company, a division of Crocker National Bank.  The company functioned as the Stock Transfer Agent to a handful of large companies, but the primary profit-making activity was to be the dividend disbursement agent for the client companies, holding and investing the funds on deposit to pay shareholders their quarterly dividends.  The office was on Sutter Street, at Montgomery in San Francisco.  I started as an entry level clerk but ended up after a year as the Supervisor of the Customer Service Group.  From there, I landed a job as a technical writer for the Pacific Securities Depository Trust Company, a division of the Pacific Stock Exchange.  It was here that I developed my interest in computers, although at this time, there were only main-frames and local networks of “dumb” terminals.  Computing power had not made it to the desktop.  At the end of my tenure at the Pacific Stock Exchange, I was the manager of Systems Development, but also in charge of the functions of Customer Service, System Documentation, and Marketing Publications.

The Bakery

While I was working at the Pacific Stock Exchange, my “practice wife” Sharon Licht (nee Yukelson) had a very serious baking hobby she had been pursuing since childhood.  We had one of my co-workers over for dinner and he raved about some bread Sharon had made for dinner.  He asked for the recipe and when she hesitated because the recipe was one of her own, he offered to buy a loaf a week.  Sharon thought that was a fine idea, and I offered to bring it into work.  It didn’t take long for other people to take notice and want some too, so Sharon put a menu together.  I would take orders and she would bake at our place out in the Avenues and drive downtown to deliver once a week.  Then it turned into twice a week.  To pull this off, I had to enlist the assistance of the doorman at 155 Sansome where I worked to let Sharon park at the curb, bring the bins of product into the lobby where I would pick them up and bring upstairs.  I had a wonderful boss at the time who didn’t mind this little extracurricular activity.  It was something the office looked forward to and enjoyed.

We moved from SF to San Rafael in 1978 and moved the baking operation to the new house.  I remember Sharon would close all the heating vents in the house except for the living room, close the doors between the living room and dining room, and use the living room as a “proof” box.  She would deliver products to me at the Stock Exchange two days a week and started selling to friends and neighbors in Marin.  She had a nice little thing going until a neighbor complained to the Health Department and we had to find a commercial place to bake or shut down.  Due to her connections working for a Natural Foods Distributor in Marin, one of her customers was a restaurant on the Miracle Mile in San Anselmo.  Rather than have his bread supply cut off, the owner offered to let her use his kitchen after the restaurant shut down at night, in exchange for a daily supply of dinner rolls and desserts. 

This sounded like a fine idea until the logistical challenges took their toll.  To co-exist with the restaurant, all the raw ingredients and equipment had to be kept in a storeroom out of sight and out of the way of the restaurant workers.  After the restaurant finished the dinner service, Sharon would have to drag out her stuff and do her baking, then clean up and put it all away in the morning and pack up the car to make deliveries to customers.  I slept in a split shift to help with getting the kitchen set up for her to bake, then return home to catch a few more hours of sleep before heading into SF for work. 

As luck would have it, an article was published in the local paper that profiled Sharon and her operation at the exact moment when someone who was renting a fully equipped (VERY) small bakery was about to go out of business.  She was holding on trying to get out of her lease and saw the article as her way to close her business without declaring bankruptcy.  She contacted us, we took over her lease, Sharon had a place to bake, and I could get a full night’s sleep.  It happened very quickly and in November 1979, Grainful Bread Bakery was born on Shaver Street in San Rafael.  Sharon did the baking and wholesale deliveries, I did the bookkeeping, and we hired some part time counter help.

It didn’t take long to outgrow the place so we took a store front on B Street in San Rafael between 2nd and 3rd Streets, and built a kitchen and a front seating area to allow for customers to enjoy coffee, baked goods, and a limited lunch menu.  I believe we opened this store for business in 1981.  To take full advantage of the space, we had to hire bakers, retail staff, and a wholesale delivery driver.   I continued to work in SF and did the bookkeeping.  Everything was growing nicely until Sharon injured her back pulling a batch of bread dough out of a mixer.  I took a leave of absence to run the shop during her convalescence.   I think it might have been a 3-month leave.  When it expired and asked to renew it and they allowed me to extend for 3 months more.  At the conclusion of the second leave, I had to make a decision: return to the Stock Exchange or work at the Bakery.  Sharon had recovered, but management of the shop was too much for one person, so I joined the bakery.  Sharon handled the production and the baking staff, and I handled the retail staff, wholesale distribution, and the bookkeeping.  I also handled the cake decorating which I did in the late afternoons or evenings. 

It is difficult to work closely with a spouse, and we were ultimately unable to sustain our marriage.  In 1989 with a divorce in process, it had become impossible for the bakery to support two households after we separated.   In trying to devise a divorce settlement, we both wanted the house and neither wanted the business.   We decided to sell both.  We found a business broker and put a listing together, including a business plan for the buyer to acquire the institutional knowledge they would need to continue operations.  Then, just as we were about to place the listing, the City of San Rafael announced a plan to re-develop the entire square block bounded by 2nd and 3rd, and B and C Streets for a new library, housing and retail project.  With this announcement, the value of the business as a going concern dropped to zero because who ever bought it would have to move it.  Waiting for the project to be completed would be impossible because there was no way to predict how long it would take.  So, we liquidated and closed the business at the beginning of 1991.  I cannot remember if it was a few weeks or a couple of months after closing the shop and selling the equipment and fixtures that the City decided the redevelopment project was not viable and withdrew the plan.

We had many good years operating very popular bakery and café, and we enjoyed a certain amount of notoriety, winning many Pacific Sun reader polls for various “Best of Marin” categories’

Cathy Campbell

Cathy (Campbell) Warkentine worked for Conifer Paper in El Cerrito, CA which was the supplier of paper goods and supplies for the bakery.  She was the credit manager.  Grainful Bread was a customer in good standing until Sharon and I separated, which caused a strain on the cash flow.  Cathy would call monthly to discuss my payment plans and after we dispensed with the business issues, we would have a personal conversation.  Restaurants, movies, TV, professional sports, family, weekend plans were topics of conversation.  (I don’t remember discussions about politics.)  Sometime after my divorce was final, the Conifer sales representative who was in our store every week said to me, “you should ask Cathy out sometime.”  So, I did.  We went to dinner at a restaurant on Solano Ave in Berkeley and had a very nice time.  We had to wait for a table, but we didn’t mind since we were able to sit at the bar and enjoy a glass of wine.  After our meal, we lingered and closed the restaurant.  Since we already knew each other, it had none of the “first date” sort of overhead.  It was the start of a beautiful relationship.  I think our second date might have been to attend an A’s weeknight game with her Conifer co-workers.

Economic Busts: 2001 & 2008

Twice I have been comfortable in jobs in the Meeting Planning Industry which was decimated by national crisis.  September 11, 2001 brought business group travel to a grinding halt.   Planes were grounded and meetings on the books were cancelled.  The company I was working for, The Meeting Architects was bankrupt by December 2001.  Other event planning companies survived but none were hiring for a long time afterward.

While looking for work I poured myself into building a consulting company to do database development using FileMaker Pro, and to provide all manner of IT Services.  This sustained me until in 2003, one of my clients, One World Incentives hired me full time.  I was responsible for IT and Registration Services.  From there I moved to the same role in another company and joined The Performance Group of Northern California in 2006.  I took a leap of faith in 2008 and left this job to join Weboom, a very small web development company that specialized in building registration sites for Meeting Planners.  Then, in the fall of 2008, the economy melted down and the meeting industry collapsed (again).  I was unceremoniously laid off.

Again, I found refuge by resurrecting my consulting business, and found a reasonable amount of success staying away from Meeting Planning companies and focusing on building databases for small businesses using FileMaker Pro.

Artifex

When Andrew was in grammar school and deeply involved in Little League, Recreational Soccer and CYO Basketball, he once said to Cathy and me: “if it wasn’t for your kids being involved with sports, you and mom wouldn’t have any friends.  Not only was that true, but our friendship with other parents of kids involved with sports resulted in my landing a job with Artifex Software.  In the spring of 2014, after CEO Miles Jones purchased a mobile app named SmartOffice from a company in receivership in the UK, he needed help with taking control of the product domain and re-purposing the website.  Miles asked me to assist him because he knew I had an IT Services consulting business and working with the new product website and domain registration was something he did not want to assign to his engineers.  Cathy and I knew Miles and Sheila because their son Grant was one of Andrew’s very best friends, and we often saw them at games, and we served together as volunteers with the Terra Linda High School parent booster clubs. 

After getting the website rebuilt and taking control of the various domain names associated with the product, Miles asked me to take over the Level One technical support for the new product’s retail customers.  Additional tasks followed in support of the Office Manager and the Sales Vice President.  Before we knew it, I was devoting an ever-larger portion of my time to support Artifex, and Miles made me a job offer I absolutely could not refuse.  I started working with Artifex full time on August 1, 2016.  One of my tasks was to take control of the Customer Licensing & Royalty process and to build a system for keeping track of our agreements, receive sales reports from customers, calculate royalties, generate invoices, and post payments.  I built a custom database for this purpose using FileMaker Pro and can report that it has been a great success.  It was a pleasure to finally build a sophisticated database for my own use.  The system’s performance has exceeded my wildest dreams.

Artifex has been in business for nearly 30 years.  The original product on which the company was founded was Ghostscript and the second product is MuPDF.  These two open source products are file rendering and conversion tools.  They are free to use by individuals and companies as long as they are used in house and are not included in commercial software or applications.  If our code is to be included in another product, we require a commercial license be taken out with us.

I currently hold the title of Vice President of Operations and I have two direct reports under me, one person who handles A/R and the other handles A/P as well as our bookkeeping effort.  I have an indirect report of one person who is the Senior Sales Manager and handles sales for the company’s three product lines.  I also support the Marketing effort and have been part of the business development team.  I am also involved in negotiating contract amendments as our relationships with customers mature.

The company’s engineers all work from home offices across the US and Europe, and the few of us in the Administrative wing based in Novato have laptops and were already mobile when the Covid-19 pandemic arrived.  We were fully prepared for all of us to work from home, and our business model does not rely on in-person transactions to earn revenue.  Luckily, our customers are all software vendors and very few have felt a negative revenue impact in the 1st and 2nd Quarters of 2020.

FOOTNOTES

Childhood Residences

• B Street, San Mateo, CA

• Southampton Way, Fiesta Gardens, San Mateo, CA

• Hewitt Drive, San Carlos, CA

Adult Residences

• Deutsch Hall (dormitory), Berkeley, CA

• Etna Street, Berkeley, CA

• Lorina Street, Berkeley, CA

• 2nd Avenue between Balboa and Cabrillo, San Francisco, CA

• 41st Avenue between Lincoln and Irving, San Francisco, CA

• Geary Avenue @ 39th Avenue, San Francisco, CA

• D Street, San Rafael, CA

• Mountain View Avenue, Fairfax, CA

• Union Street, San Rafael, CA

• Meriam Drive, San Rafael, CA

Schools

• Fiesta Gardens Elementary, San Mateo, CA

• Heather Elementary, San Carlos, CA

• Tierra Linda Junior High School, San Carlos, CA

• San Carlos High School, San Carlos, CA

• University of California, Berkeley, CA

Jobs

• Kirby Shoes, Redwood City, CA

• Lifeguard @ Harmon Pool, Berkeley, CA

• Library Clerk @ Math, Statistics, Astronomy, Computer Science Library, Berkeley, CA

• Library Clerk @ Doe Library, Berkeley, CA

• Crocker National Bank (Western Bradford Trust), San Francisco, CA

• Pacific Stock Exchange (Pacific Securities Depository), San Francisco, CA

• Grainful Bread Bakery & Café (Partner), San Rafael, CA

• Consultant: Bookkeeping & IT Services

• Maritz Travel Company

• The Meeting Architects (until 9/11/2001 forced closure in December 2001)

• Consultant: IT Services & FileMaker Database Development

• The Woodberry Group

• One World Incentives

• The Performance Group of Northern California

• Weboom (until financial crash of 2008)

• Consultant: FileMaker Database Development

• Artifex Software