Bio Updated 10/11/2008 1:00:04 P.M.
Since the Pattonville Reunion in August,
2007, I was hired back at American Express on 11/5/07 after an 8 month work
layoff. Forced to refinance our house mortgage to leverage living
expenses during unemployment, we had to sell our house of 11 years as what
we owned crept closer to the house value. Fortunately our house sold
in December despite a spiraling down real estate market.
Given only 30 days to find a new house and move, we found a "never been
lived in" rental house with landlords willing to rent month by month.
After losing multiple house bids on depreciated Phoenix houses, a bid was
accepted after waiting 6 months on our present house.
We moved the end of July, 2008, to a truly beautiful home with more living
space and upgrades that we have ever enjoyed before.
I truly love my job at American Express where I have an opportunity to
resolve merchant escalations for data accuracy and processing issues.
I work with an amazing team of tenured and experienced subject matter
experts for network and processing issues with unbelievable infrastructure,
networking, systems, card and merchant experience.
Take care all, and keep in touch.
Jeff Gantt
2404 W. Spur Dr.
Phoenix, AZ 85085
h 623-215-6677
c 623-229-1559
Jeff
Gantt
family picture at Yellowstone National Park, summer-2006, from left to right,
Jeff, Anna, Jacob, Spencer, and Kathy Gantt .
For the handful of Pattonville
classmates remembering me, parts of this dissertation could be interesting.
For the many more that have no clue who I was, I wrote this for myself because
it was fun. I apologize for my selfish ramblings.
After PHS graduation, the University of Missouri Columbia provided a venue for
learning to drink, smoke and experiment with chemical substances.
Fraternity life was a spring board to my decadence pledging Kappa Alpha with Ed
Morris and Greg Frick in the fall 1967 and being asked to leave the frat house
by the next summer. It was great fun (ask Art Bell) until three years and
three majors later the college dean requested me to enroll somewhere else.
Reluctantly I said good bye to Mizzou, Columbia and Stephens College
friendships.
Taking a sabbatical from college life, I joined the blue collar work force
unloading/loading trucks and pulling/packing orders in a St. Louis automotive
accessories warehouse. Despite the new friendships and camaraderie, twelve
months of warehouse hard labor convinced me to return to school at a relatively
unknown Maryville College.
Serenely surrounded by 290 acres of rolling hills and forest, the primarily
Catholic and female nursing school needed money to expand their college
curricula and eventually become a university. With little formality, my
application was accepted. Focusing on a Bachelor of Arts in Communications
and English Literature, and a minor in elementary education, I adjusted to the
warm and friendly campus life, as well as the 8 to 10 ratio of women to men.
• During this time I lived in a St. Louis flat near Washington U, and my next
door neighbor and good friend was Dennis McElyea. Denny where are you now?
After graduating I joined my father to assist starting up his own business.
Managing his automotive accessories manufacturer’s rep sales office for two
years, I next moved to Iowa and learned a hard lesson in on-the-road sales.
I could only put up with cold call selling for one year in small Iowa and
Nebraska towns before joining Target Stores in Des Moines as an Automotive
Department Manager.
Promoted to a District Auditor, I traveled in Iowa and Nebraska working with
Target Store Management to improve their in-store operations. Taking next a
Target Customer Service Manager job, I moved from Dexter, IA, to Omaha, NE, to a
store where I met my wife Kathy.
Kathy and I dated one year, married in 1983 (she was 20 and I was 33), and spent
a romantic honeymoon drive from Nebraska to California to be part of a mass
store opening (me as a “Regional Operations Specialist” and her as a
Department Manager) in Los Angeles and San Diego. She is still mad at me
for the honeymoon road trip.
• As a side note, Kathy’s father was a lieutenant in the Omaha Police (he
always carried a gun-(gulp)). He worked 3 jobs to support a family of 8
children. Kathy’s parents gladly approved my request to marry their
daughter and move to California. Either they liked me or needed her room.
The Target Stores opened and one year later, we moved from Huntington Beach, CA,
to Phoenix, AZ, to build a house and start a family. My father, Ryal, and
youngest sister, Jody, were already living in the Phoenix area, so we felt
somewhat at home to relocate. Compared to California prices, 1980’s
Phoenix housing was affordable.
In Phoenix, Kathy and I left our Target jobs to take General/Store Manager
positions. I went with Drug Emporium (drug store franchise) and Kathy
first worked with Lionel Playworld and eventually McFrugals (now Big Lots!).
However, after 14 years of retail store management, we both became burned-out
working nights, weekends and 60-80 hour work weeks.
I went back to school at DeVry University and graduated with a Bachelor of
Science degree in Computer Information Systems summa cum laude (I wish I
remembered the Mizzou dean’s name), and Kathy started a home child care
business. Kathy now flips houses/investment properties after also having
crafts (dried flowers and toll painting), stained glass, and jewelry businesses.
After DeVry I was recruited by American Express and worked there almost 13 years
until recently when I was laid off (nicely called “re-engineering job
displacement”) in March, 2007. With employment pending, airfare, car
rental and hotel accommodations for an August trip to St. Louis are on hold.
Anyway, we have stayed in Phoenix for 23+ years and have 3 children – Jacob
19, Spencer 11, and Anna 8. So far I do not know of any grandchildren
seemingly unlike every other PHS classmate.
Please send pity unemployment cash, checks and/or jewelry to Jeff Gantt, 1715 E.
Monona Dr., Phoenix, AZ 85024 (just kidding – I actually am getting a PO
Box – just kidding again). Or, if you are in town, please visit.
623-580-0585
Email: gantts@cox.net
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