Though it was difficult to acclimate, Reilly believes that he and Lane did better than most foreign students could have. They made several friends in the first semester and by the time Reilly had worked long enough to save up the money to go back to Ireland, he had fallen in love with the campus community, coaches, faculty, and his foster family.
A Chief Financial Officer
Later in the year, when Reilly’s parents received a letter from CFO Bill Edwards concerning the school bill, they were devastated. Paying for school was going to be too painful for them and they couldn’t afford it. Reilly called home and they brought up the subject of what he owed. The phone conversation led Reilly to storm into Edwards’ office to tell him to never send a bill to his parents again. Reilly still remembers laying out his case, “I’ll do a deal with you. I’ll work more than anyone has ever worked and I’ll pay my bill. You guys take 90%, and I’ll take 10%.” Edwards agreed. Reilly was working almost every job on campus, but after paying the College, he only took home about 40 cents an hour. He washed dishes and served food in the cafeteria, managed the weight room and landscaped. Reilly carried thousands of books out of Cooper when the building was condemned and painted more houses in the community than he can remember. Edwards invited him in to his office and congratulated him at the end of his senior year; by the time he graduated, he walked across the platform with no debt.
A Senator
One August day following his junior year, Reilly asked his boss in the maintenance department, Quinton Kilgore, for an afternoon off. He explained that he wanted to talk to Senator Bob Dole, who would be visiting campus the next day. Kilgore cautioned him that he might never get to talk to Dole, but Reilly insisted because he needed a work permit. That night, Reilly typed a letter explaining his case. He intended to give it to Dole the next day to see if the senator could help expedite the permit process. The Kansas City office had delayed his case for months. After going to work the next morning, Reilly went home, showered, borrowed a suit and rode his bike back to campus. There he was greeted by the sight of government cars along with Senator Bob Dole’s entourage and hundreds of people milling around, hoping to talk to Dole. Realizing he may have underestimated the senator’s importance, Reilly stayed back to observe. He noticed that very few people actually got to talk to the senator because his entourage handled the specific cases. Reilly chuckles as he tells the story, “If it had been post-9/11, I probably would have been arrested, because I stalked the man all over campus, trying to figure out the best way to get to him and not get taken away by one of his advisors. I saw my opening and lunged out of the crowd to him, babbling a million miles an hour. Between the Irish accent and my nerves, he couldn’t understand anything I was saying except, ‘Please don’t hand me off to someone else.’”
tion, but Dole liked him. Reilly handed over the letter and was mowing the yard on campus by the time Dole left. A week later, he was in Kansas City with the work permit in his hands. The work permit was more than a convenience. Without it, Reilly would have had to leave the United States immediately following his graduation. It opened the door for Reilly to apply for jobs around the country in what would prove to be an unusual way.
A Business Department, A Food Service Director and A Firm Kathy Glynn and Kevin Condit, business professors at the time, had their classes write a paper on the topic of their choice. Reilly wrote about investment firms, both small and large, and the unique role that they have in the American economy. While the rest of the world has between five to 20 institutional banks in each country, America at the time had 15,000. These banks and investment firms open up opportunities that are almost entirely exclusive to America. Reilly talked about a sampling of firms in the paper and Glynn was so impressed that she encouraged him to send the paper to the firms he had mentioned. After he had sent it, he got a job offer as a bank teller in Wichita. He was happy with starting out small and working his way up, but before he accepted the position, he got a call from a firm in Ohio. This happened because the food service director at the time, Bonnie Thiergartner (whose parents are from Ohio), passed on the information to the Ohio firm. His paper had captured their interest. They asked if they could fly him to Columbus and interview him. Having never been to Ohio, Reilly decided he might as well go. He found himself invited to dinner with the founder and executives of the company. The founder asked him, “If you had a blank sheet of paper, what would you do with the division of the firm you’re interviewing for?” Recognizing that he had nothing to lose, Reilly laid out some bold ideas. They called him the next week and hired him, asking him to develop the plan he had outlined at dinner. He joined the firm as an assistant advisor. Ten years later, he was president of it, having grown the firm from local Ohio to a nationwide company. Gathering three partners, Reilly bought the division of the firm he had built and called it Ascend Advisory. Today, Reilly’s company manages half a billion dollars on Wall Street. Reilly credits much of his success to God and others. He recognizes that meeting Petrotta in Ireland was a very unlikely thing and was worked out by God. He sees now that Edwards did not have to cut a deal with him as a freshman. He realizes that Sen. Dole did not have to stop to talk to him and that God had a hand in that. He also knows that Kathy Glynn and Kevin Condit did not have to encourage him to send out his paper. The firm in Ohio did not have to read it, call him, invite him to dinner or hire him. He even recognizes that God did not have to give him the talent of entrepreneurialism. But they all did.
Finally, Dole stopped him and said, “Son, it’s the middle of August in the middle of Kansas. Where are you from?”
Moving ahead, Reilly looks forward to reconnecting with the students on campus in a meaningful way. He hopes that sharing his story with this generation of students will encourage them to think bigger and work harder to accomplish something they never thought they could.
Reilly proceeded to share his story with Dole, explaining that he was from Ireland and had big goals for working in America. Reilly was not looking for a favor but rather seeking an opportunity. He was willing to work, not simply receive charity. Perhaps it was the novelty of the situa-
Reilly lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife, Tish, and his 6-year-old daughter, Sophie.
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