Being open to serving others
John graduated from of The University of Notre Dame with a B.B.A. in Finance and joined Procter & Gamble’s Finance and Accounting organization in 1979 where he held positions relating to manufacturing and cost accounting, cash and profit forecasting, and corporate financial analysis. In 1986, John changed career paths within P&G to Human Resources where he was responsible for domestic compensation programs and later, managed P&G’s global executive compensation and incentive programs. John left P&G and the corporate world in 2002 at the age of 45.
John freely admits that while his P&G work was challenging and the people wonderful, his true fulfillment came from his extensive non-profit work. This included 15 years with Cincinnati Habit for Humanity where he served as a long-time volunteer, Construction Manager, Board President, Executive Director, and Development Manager. His Habitat involvement also included helping to establish Kenya Habitat for Humanity and working with Korean and Japanese college students in the Philippines. During the 1990's, John helped support a Maryknoll missionary and an Irish Sister of Mercy doing incredible work in slums of Nairobi, Kenya. He and a friend ended up funding and building a primary school for children there overseen by Mukuru Promotion Centre (run by the Sisters of Mercy). John also served as President of the Cincinnati Earth Institute for six years, an organization dedicated to helping people examine and transform their personal values and habits, to accept a greater responsibility for Earth, and to live accordingly. John also served on church boards, a substance abuse management development corporation board, and the board of Imago, a Cincinnati nature center.
After exploring post-corporate avenues including St. Vincent de Paul home visits, he consciously chose to move his efforts from social and economic justice oriented non-profits to ecological ones. He got involved in the Cincinnati Nature Center’s outdoor education training program and began teaching grade school students who came to the center. With his interest in the natural world, sustainability, simplicity, his nature-based spirituality took him down very new paths.
In 2007, John moved back to Wisconsin to be closer to his aging parents who lived in Bayside. After a brief teaching stint at the Riveredge Nature Center, John became an elementary Audubon teacher at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center (SANC). In addition to teaching there he ran a monthly evening Spiritual World of Nature program for more than 5 years. John retired from teaching a couple of years ago but has continued to lead summer camps and teach about maple sugaring, his favorite outdoor subject. He currently resides in Cedarburg abutting Covered Bridge Park.