AMERICAN ESSENCE
BY
BRIGHT MAGAZINE GROUP
Trish Duggan
The artist and philanthropist on the power and purpose of art to uplift and inspire
How Yosemite changed Ansel Adams Splendor and Transcendence
The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes. “
William James
These pages are in the preview.
are not included preview.
Glory Hole Falls, Ozark National Forest, Arkansas
CONTENTS
First Look
12 | Fine Wine
Raising a glass to America’s under-the-radar viticultural regions—and all of their rich variety.
14 | ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’
The art of welcoming neighbors with warmth and friendliness.
Features
16 | Lighting the Way
Artist Trish Duggan, the visionary founder of the Imagine Museum, holds fast to the power of beauty to inspire.
24 | One Life to Give
A Bay of Pigs survivor recounts the harrowing events that awaited him in Cuba.
28 | Love of Music
With decades of stellar singing experience, Frederica von Stade now loves to encourage young artists along their musical paths.
32 | ‘The Chameleon’
Some actors disappear into their characters. That’s AJ Buckley through and through.
38 | Free Spirit
Shemane Nugent takes us through her day at SpiritWild Ranch, where oryxes and antelopes roam.
42 | Coffee for Firefighters
Two firefighters came up with an unexpected idea to support their brethren in the profession.
Lifestyle
46 | Salt Revival
Letting nature do its work is part of the process at San Juan Island Sea Salt.
50 | Good Eats
America’s smallest state flexes its culinary muscle.
52 | Life on the Last Frontier
A family sets up new roots in Alaska’s wild interior.
56 | Mighty Legacy
Axe-making in Maine is alive and well.
58 | A Nose for Fighting Crime
Meet Bo the bloodhound, hero dog.
History
62 | A Sporting Marvel
Knute Rockne elevated the stature of American football by setting the highest standard in college football history.
66 | The First Great Awakening
In the midst of scientific advancement, industrial growth, and materialism, people turned to charismatic preachers to feed their spiritual hunger.
70 | The Father of Aircraft Maintenance
Charles E. Taylor’s hand-built engine propelled the Wright Flyer on the world’s first successful powered flight.
74 | The Books That Shaped Madison
James Madison’s humility was a part of his personality; his brilliance was the result of his reading and education.
Arts & Letters
78 | Reflections From Mark Helprin
From musings on hard times to tips for young writers, the author offers wisdom and common sense.
82 | Love at First Shot
Yosemite sparked Ansel Adams’s love for photography, and he strove to capture its grandeur on film.
88 | Why I Love America
Wherever U.S. Air Force veteran Sonya I. Heilmann was stationed, she saw American ideals being upheld with dignity.
90 | Family Roots
Randy Tatano’s father taught him street smarts, and the lessons paid off.
92 | ‘The Forgotten War’
Authors Richard Dannatt and Robert Lyman offer a fresh look at the Korean War by re-examining its causes and consequences, while highlighting lessons relevant to the present.
98 | Rx for Life
Leadership development expert Ruth Gotian on the do’s and don’ts of mentoring.
BY
AMERICAN ESSENCE
BRIGHT MAGAZINE GROUP
FOR EVERYONE WHO LOVES THIS COUNTRY
SEPT. – OCT. 2025 | VOLUME 5 | ISSUE 5
PUBLISHER
Dana Cheng, PhD
EDITORIAL
Editor-In-Chief
Lifestyle Editor
History Editor
Arts & Letters Editors
Editor-At-Large
Production Manager
Channaly Philipp Annie Wu
Sharon Kilarski
Sharon Kilarski
Jennifer Schneider
Tynan Beatty
Astrid Wang
CREATIVE
Lead Designer Designer
Photographers
Illustrators
Jane Russo
Karen Tang
Samira Bouaou
Adhiraj Chakrabarti
Biba Kayewich
Oriana Zhang
SALES
Sales Director Sales Assistant Ellen Wang Onon Otgonbayar
CONTRIBUTORS
Sandy Lindsey, Tim Johnson, Annie Holmquist, Jared Pearman, Steve Lance, Natasha Holt, Kenneth LaFave, Jeff Minick, Randy Tatano, Eric Lucas, Kevin Revolinski, Ryan Cashman, Anna Mason, Brian D’Ambrosio, Andrew Benson Brown, Bob Kirchman, Lorraine Ferrier, Sonya I. Heilmann, Mark Lardas, Andria Pressel
American Essence (USPS 24810) is published bimonthly by Bright Magazine Group at 5 Penn Plz. Fl.8, New York, NY 10001. Periodicals postage is paid at New York, NY.
Postmaster: Send address changes to American Essence, 5 Penn Plz. Fl.8, New York, NY 10001.
General Inquiries: AmericanEssence.net/help Advertisement Inquiries: ad@americanessencemag.com Submissions: editor@americanessencemag.com
www.AmericanEssence.com
Editor’s Note
Dear Readers,
The American spirit—freedom, resilience, and compassion—defines our nation’s heart. In this issue, we tell stories of transformation and reflection that demonstrate these values. Our cover story shines a light on entrepreneur and philanthropist Trish Duggan, who founded the Imagine Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. A glass artist in her own right, Duggan champions beauty, human rights, and opportunity (page 16).
Don’t miss the harrowing story of veteran Pepe Tomeu, who, after the loss of his homeland, found purpose and fierce devotion for his adoptive country—America (page 24). Visit Shemane Nugent on her ranch in Texas; having faced life-threatening danger due to toxic mold exposure, she now lives life close to the land and her family, while helping others on their path to wellness (page 38).
We also explore America’s innovative soul: through Charles Taylor, who handcrafted the Wright Flyer’s 180pound engine in six weeks (page 70); Knute Rockne, a Norwegian immigrant who led the University of Notre Dame’s football team to a record 88 percent win rate (page 62); and Ansel Adams, whose photography of Yosemite continues to inspire through its transcendent beauty (page 82).
Blessings,
Editor-In-Chief Editor@AmericanEssenceMag.com
Indulge in the finest at DAYES Coffee Roasters.
We’re proud to introduce our specialty, enzyme fermented coffee. This innovative coffee is low in caffeine, low in acidity, gentle on digestion, mycotoxin free, and deliciously smooth - with notes of dark chocolate, butterscotch, brown sugar, and nuttiness. Fermented with 50 enzymes, each premium quality bean is specially crafted and roasted at our own coffee shop in Middletown, New York.
Order Online: DayesCoffee.com or by Phone: 315-904-2768 →15% Off your first order. Use code: AE15OFF A healthier choice for your morning brew!
Freshly roasted in Middletown, New York - delivered to your home Available whole bean or ground.
SOCIAL CALENDAR
Cranberry-Pa-Looza WARRENS CRANBERRY FESTIVAL
Warrens, Wis. Sept. 26–28
Who knew that back in 1973 when the town of Warrens, Wisconsin, held the first Cranberry Festival, that it would grow into a three-day event, attracting more than 145,000 visitors, all for celebrating the tart fruit? There are hundreds of arts and crafts vendors, food booths, and farm booths to explore, plus a parade, live music, and walking tours of the nearby cranberry marshes.
CranFest.com
The Need for Speed FESTIVALS OF SPEED: MISSION RESORT + CLUB
Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla.
Oct. 26
The serene environs of the Mission Resort & Club in Florida’s Howeyin-the-Hills is the setting for a rare gathering of some of the world’s most exotic vehicles. Upwards of 175 cars and motorcycles will be displayed on the golf course fairways as guests can enjoy a cigar bar, fine dining, crafted cocktails, and more.
FestivalsOfSpeed.com/Events/MissionResort-Club
Beach Appetit! SOUTH BEACH SEAFOOD FESTIVAL
Miami, Fla. Oct. 22–25
Florida’s stone crab season kicks off in grand style as top chefs show off their culinary skills on South Beach. The event draws about 15,000 visitors of all ages to feast on a full bounty from the ocean, while three stages host live music for an unforgettable day of sun and fun.
SoBeSeafoodFest.com
Music and Pecans
NORTH CAROLINA
PECAN MUSIC FESTIVAL
Whiteville, N.C.
Nov. 1
Lovers of arts and crafts, car shows, live music, and all things pecan need to mark their calendars. Some of the region’s best bands will be performing on the festival stage, providing a soundtrack for enjoying a slew of pecan-oriented treats. NCPecanFestival.com
Living History WORLD WAR II WEEKEND
Gettysburg, Pa. Sept. 19–21
For three days, the Eisenhower National Historic Site is transformed into a time capsule from wartime 1945. Guest speakers, displays of vintage military vehicles and equipment, ranger-led guided tours, and more interactive events allow visitors of all ages an up-close glimpse into the realities of life at home and on the front lines during World War II.
NPS.gov/eise/World-War-II-Weekend.htm
Aw Shucks! URBANNA OYSTER FESTIVAL
Urbanna, Va. Nov. 7–8
The tiny town of Urbanna, with just 500 residents, is known for its oysters. About 50,000 visitors descend on the town the first Friday and Saturday of November for two days of feasting on oysters, parades, beauty pageants, live music, and street performers. Now in its 68th year, entry is free, with no vehicular traffic allowed in order to ensure easy access to attractions. UrbannaOysterFestival.com
A Book That Has Inspired Millions
Zhuan Falun is the main text of Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong. With millions of practitioners in over 100 countries, Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that teaches meditation exercises and the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.
Falun Gong is an entirely peaceful belief system which encourages the highest standards of moral behavior.
— Lord Avebury, House of Lords, UK
Falun Gong is, in my judgment, the single greatest spiritual movement in Asia today. There’s nothing that begins to compare with it in courage and importance.
— Mark Palmer, former U.S. ambassador
Falun Dafa has brought a totally new perspective to my life. In a world where everyone teaches you to fight back, Falun Dafa has taught me to take a step back and think of others first, which has made me a better person inside out.
— Pooja Mor, international fashion model
CULTURE SHORTLIST
WATCH
‘Chasing Bullitt’
Hollywood superstar Steve McQueen contemplates his life choices and the cost of fame as he searches for the famous Mustang GT 390 he drove in his hit 1968 movie “Bullitt.”
Somewhat fictionalized, the drama stays largely true to the actor’s life-story, while taking stylistic inspiration from his films.
DIRECTOR
Joe Eddy
STARS
Andre Brooks, Augie Duke, Jason Slavkin, Dennis W. Hall
RELEASED 2018
STREAMING
Prime, Peacock, Tubi, Plex, Roku Channel
‘So Big’
Set in a Dutch American farming community in the Midwest, this period drama follows Selina Peake as a school teacher, then as a wife and mother. The resilient woman faces loss, love, and hardship while raising her son to value education, perseverance, and a sense of success based on real contributions to the world.
DIRECTOR
Robert Wise
STARS
These pages are in the preview.
Jane Wyman, Sterling Hayden, Nancy Olson
RELEASED 1953
STREAMING Archive
‘Gettysburg’ READ
‘The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim’s Journey on the Great Wagon Road’
The Great Wagon Road ran from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Augusta, Georgia. Started in the mid-1700s, it was America’s first great immigration trail, the highway used by the Pennsylvania Dutch, Scots-Irish and other early settlers, as well as a supply line during the Revolutionary War. In his book, James Dodson follows its path in his own wagon, a 1994 Buick Roadmaster station wagon. He examines the Road’s history and describes his interactions with the people in the towns that formed around it.
Avid Reader Press, 2025 Hardcover: 416 pages
Numerous books have been written on the three-day battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that inspired President Lincoln to pen his famous address. But Civil War historian and author Stephen W. Sears’s book delivers firsthand accounts gleaned primarily from extensive research of soldiers’ journals, letters, memoirs, interviews, and more. In fact, the painstaking details shared in “Gettysburg” are evidenced by the 56 pages making up the book’s Notes and Bibliography. Upon completion, readers will feel as if they’ve been there.
Houghton Mifflin, 2004 Hardcover: 623 pages
Building Community With Kindness
A plate of cookies or a friendly wave goes a long way toward building community and warm relationships
By Annie Holmquist
A man’s home is his castle, the old saying goes. Today, many of us take that statement to the extreme, treating our homes as fortified structures and secluding ourselves from those in neighboring “castles.”
Yet with loneliness rising, we’re missing out on a precious commodity when we ignore those who live closest to us. To help us fight this epidemic, etiquette instructor Bethany Friske offers some practical and easy ways to reach out and welcome our neighbors with charm.
Meet Your Neighbors Early …
Greeting new neighbors early on diminishes their fears and makes them more eager to meet other neighbors, Friske says. “Bring a plate of cookies, bring them a loaf of bread or cupcakes.” Less tangible gifts like your phone number, the offer to loan a cup of sugar, or helpful neighborhood information can also make them feel welcome.
These early meetings reduce later awkwardness if you must approach neighbors about property line issues or other matters.
… And Often
Expand on that initial welcome by bringing treats to your neighbors on holidays, or by hosting them for coffee. Friske also suggests organizing a neighborhood garage sale or hosting a barbecue, having everyone bring his or her own meat to grill. Finally, lending a hand with various tasks, such as storm cleanup, is one way Friske herself has felt welcomed by her neighbors.
Continuing the Conversation
Because neighborhoods can be a melting pot of different viewpoints, Friske suggests preparing conversation starters that are non-political. “Are you local? Were you born and raised here?” is a question that opens an avenue of ways to seek connection and increase understanding of your neighbors, as are questions about what they do for work. “Communication makes people feel really welcomed and valued,” Friske says, particularly when we show interest in their lives.
Curb Appeal
A welcoming nature extends beyond gifts and gatherings, however. Our friendliness should shine forth through our property, Friske explains. “Keep your lawn neatly mowed,” she says, noting that such an action is a kindness to the neighbors and makes you look more approachable. “Having a wreath on the door looks kind of welcoming,” as do flowers planted around the yard. Sharing blooms spreads the welcome to other neighbors and their yards.
2 3 4 5 1
Don’t Confine Yourself to the House
“If you don’t get out, you’re not going to make friends,” Friske says. Things as simple as “sitting on the front steps, waving when people go by,” or taking walks enable you to present a friendly, welcoming attitude toward your neighbors. Friske also suggests joining the Turquoise Table movement, setting up a picnic table in your front yard with a sign explaining that its purpose is to give neighbors a place to gather and chat.
FEATURES
THE PEOPLE SHAPING AMERICA TODAY
A LIFE OF MUSIC
Celebrated singer Frederica von Stade is passionate about supporting the next generation of artists.
28
AT HOME AT SPIRITWILD
Shemane Nugent shares what she’s most grateful for.
38
Veteran Jose “Pepe” Tomeu on his farm in Alachua, Fla. Page 24.
A Illuminating Culture Through Glass Art
Philanthropist, artist, and entrepreneur
Trish Duggan believes art and imagination have the sublime power to uplift us
By Jared Pearman & Steve Lance Photographed by Adhiraj Chakrabarti
s an artist and the founder of the Imagine Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, Trish Duggan has made a name for herself that is synonymous with glass art. Light refracts and colors dance throughout, enveloping visitors in beauty. Home to a captivating collection of glass sculptures, it’s a space born of serendipity, unplanned passion, and unrestricted vision.
“The first piece of glass art I saw was at John Travolta’s house. The light was hitting it, and it looked alive! I was shocked. It was so beautiful,” Duggan said.
She began to collect pieces that caught her eye and touched her heart. One day, an artist whose artwork she collected asked her, “Would you like to see how it’s done?”
“I was mesmerized,” Duggan recalled. “Then she asked, ‘Would you like to do a piece?’ I said, ‘I’d love that.’ Well, that was the ‘Goddess of Compassion.’ That was my first piece that I ever did.”
Infused with deep spirituality, American values, and personal introspection, Duggan’s work as an artist, patron, and philanthropist reflects universal qualities and embodies her journey from humble beginnings to a life of profound influence.
Trish Duggan, the founder of the Imagine Museum, at home in Clearwater, Fla.
A Life Shaped by Spirituality and Creativity
Trish Duggan’s story begins in Guam, where she grew up in a military family. “I got my first pair of shoes when I was 5 years old,” she said. During those formative years, she was immersed in the island’s beauty. The beautiful sunsets fired up her love of nature; the ocean’s varied shades of blue and green were imprinted onto her imagination. It also filled her with a sense of abundance. Scarcity was never part of her mindset. Her mother and her father instilled in her a steadfast belief in the American dream. “My mom said, ‘If you study, you can be part of the American dream,’” Duggan recalled.
This ethos of hard work and big dreams propelled her to explore the world and discover a love of art. She still maintains a friendship with her Japanese high school art teacher in California— now 100 years old—who introduced her to Japanese printmaking techniques.
She headed to California to pursue a college degree in political science. Though she was an excellent student, she found herself getting Ds on her papers. When she questioned one of her professors about her low scores, he told her: “It’s your viewpoint [that he disagreed with].” That’s when she realized that she would have to take a different path.
“I’m a dropout,” she said. “It was during the Vietnam War when I went to university; all my teachers were anti-American.” That mindset ran counter to her core beliefs about herself and the world. Seeking an environment free from the political divisiveness in America, she traveled to Nagoya, Japan, to study at Nanzan University. While there, she reconnected with the art and culture she fell in love with in high school, and she began a lifelong appreciation for Buddhism.
After making her first piece of glass art based on a statue of Guan Yin, the Buddhist deity of compassion, she set about creating a series inspired by one of her favorite quotes. “Though you can conquer 1,000 men in battle 1,000 times, the one who conquers himself is the noblest victor of all,” she quoted by heart from a Buddhist text.
The Art of Glass: A Medium of Magic and Inspiration
“Glass is the most important thing that we’ve discovered,” according to Duggan. From microscopes to eyeglasses to fiber optic cables, glass has played
a central role in human history.
“How about the mirror alone? The mirror, I say, started the age of introspection: Who am I? What am I doing here? What’s my purpose? We’re all born to help, and where we can help, we should help,” Duggan said.
Her artistic process is deeply intuitive. She draws inspiration from everyday life—patterns in a magazine, a stranger’s outfit, or the natural beauty of Guam’s waves and stars. Her St. Petersburg, Florida, studio, TD Glass, is a space where she transforms these inspirations into glass. She became a working artist under glass artist Chuck Boux, who praised her artwork: “You open a portal to serenity that I have never seen before.”
These pages are in the preview.
Duggan is a prolific artist. Among her many creations is a 300-pound, pale pink molded-glass sculpture of Quan Yin, the Goddess of Compassion.
are not included preview.
Duggan founded the Imagine Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 2018. Its collections showcase the work of American and international glass artists.
American
Patriot
Jose Tomeu, a grateful Bay of Pigs survivor, is still ‘willing to die for this country’
Written & Photographed by Natasha Holt
He wasn’t born in the United States, but Jose “Pepe” Tomeu says he would die for it. “Any day, at any time—till the day I die,” the 81-year-old Bay of Pigs survivor told American Essence, his voice full with emotion.
Tomeu came to the United States with his parents in 1960 after their family farm was seized by the Cuban government under Fidel Castro. He was 16. He blames the communist dictator for stealing the life they had in their homeland. But America is the land that he loves now. By sharing his story, he hopes to encourage his fellow Americans to protect the United States from the creep of communism.
Leaving Home
The memory still stings.
Two pickup trucks filled with soldiers piled in the back rumbled onto their family ranch one day while they were vaccinating cattle. A lieutenant gave his father a letter informing him that they must leave their home. It read, “This land belongs to the people,” he recalled. In their eyes, “we were not people,” Tomeu said. “It wasn’t ours. And we had to leave.” As they rushed to pack their belongings, they were ordered to stop.
“The lieutenant [came] to the door and said, ‘Hey, hey, hey! I tell you, you can live, not that you can take anything.’
“I don’t know what Castro did with my grandmother’s picture or my picture or my family picture,” he said, recalling the images decorating their beloved home. “But we had to be glad we could take the car when we went away.”
Soon after fleeing to Florida, Tomeu signed up to fight in a mission being planned by the CIA. The
‘You’re one of the youngest,’ Castro said, peering at him. ‘What made you do this?’ “
goal was to send exiled Cubans back to their home country to overthrow Castro and establish a new government. Many hoped to reclaim their land and their old way of life.
“We went to town, and they [the CIA] were taking people from 18 years old. I went from 16 to 18 in about five seconds,” he said, chuckling at the memory.
He was sent off to be trained in Guatemala for the mission by CIA agents. After about a month, another group of volunteers arrived.
“I was training pretty good, and all of a sudden there comes another group,” he said. “And there was my dad.” He was shocked, but proud to be on the same mission as his father, who was trained to captain a small boat with a machine gun. Tomeu was trained to fight with a gun “like a cannon, that you can put on your shoulder.” It was “like a bazooka, but it’s more accurate,” he said.
The mission became known as the Bay of Pigs, the English name for Bahía de Cochinos, the body of water where invading soldiers clambered onto Cuba’s beaches. Castro had taken control of the country in 1959 after overthrowing the elected
Tomeu
was originally sentenced to 30 years in prison by Fidel Castro’s regime.
Jose “Pepe” Tomeu, 81, at home in Alachua, Fla.
forced to surrender. That’s when a hand grasped Tomeu’s neck from behind. He turned and was shocked by the familiar face staring back at him.
It was Fidel Castro.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said, “because I’d seen so many pictures.”
Later, a Cuban officer took him away from the other prisoners to a room where Castro awaited. The teen fighter was offered ice-cold orange juice. After days without eating, he guzzled the whole pitcher one glass at a time.
“You’re one of the youngest,” Castro said, peering at him. “What made you do this?”
“I just defended my country,” Tomeu replied.
Captive
Tomeu and almost 1,200 other prisoners were kept inside barracks for 20 months. They slept on the floors and were never allowed outside into the sunshine. For a couple of hours each day, they were given access to running water so they could rinse off, but soap was “very scarce.” A toilet was positioned at the end of the barrack, “but there was no privacy,” he said. “The guy on the end could see everybody.”
Three times a day, they were given the same meal—a square of something that resembled lasagna. They ate it three ways, Tomeu recalled with a laugh. “In the morning, there was one [way]: There was hot. Noon time is warm. And evening it was cold.”
These pages are in the preview.
In time, most of the men had nothing to wear but undergarments. Among the captured were priests, who helped their prison mates cling to their faith. “I don’t think too many Catholics have seen priests give a Mass in his underwear,” he said. “But we had a Mass every Sunday.”
leader of the island nation, Fulgencio Batista, and instituted communism.
After receiving hasty military training, Tomeu and about 1,500 other Cuban men—known as Brigade 2506—landed in swampy areas of Cuba on April 17, 1961. Historians debate what caused the mission to fail. Tomeu said they simply ran out of ammunition.
“We just could not fight no more,” he shrugged. After three days of fighting, the invaders were
Each captive had been sentenced to 30 years in prison by the Cuban government, he explained. A picture in a book that documents the sentencing shows the men sitting in rows, facing a panel of judges. His eyes fill with tears as his fingers trace their names that fill the yellowed pages of the book.
One day in late December 1962, all of the prisoners were let outside the barracks for the first time and were given clothes. That’s when they knew something was happening, but they didn’t know what. They later learned that the United States had negotiated to give $53 million in baby food and medicine to the Cuban government
Tomeu still competes in calf roping. Above, he practices his roping skills on “Arturo,” a wooden roping dummy.
are not included preview.
as ransom for them.
The next day, the wary prisoners were loaded into the backs of trucks and taken to an airport, where Pan American planes idled on the tarmac. Then, prisoners were told to board the planes. Their names were called alphabetically.
“My name is Tomeu,” he said, with a wry grin. “I got the last plane.”
He paused, swallowing hard to hold back tears. “But it was awesome. I cannot describe it.”
Their flights took them to what was then known as Homestead Air Force Base in Homestead, Florida. There, they were fed, and some were reunited with family. It was Christmas Eve.
“We had a heck of a meal!” Tomeu said, eyes sparkling. They feasted on food they’d not tasted in years, such as chicken and steak, as they celebrated. “There was one woman serving soup, and everybody was passing her,” he laughed. “I don’t think she served two cups of soup.”
American Patriot
When he arrived home, skinny and malnourished from his time in prison, Tomeu focused on one
goal—gaining 20 pounds to meet the minimum weight to enlist in the U.S. Army. About a month later, he went back to serve in the military for a second time.
Thinking back on the Bay of Pigs mission, Tomeu, now a U.S. citizen, still marvels at the sacrifice made by four Americans. They helped train the Cuban exiles who were returning to their homeland in the hopes of overthrowing the dictator of Cuba.
Without permission, he said, those Americans flew into battle to help the men they’d mentored. They voluntarily jumped into the fight for freedom for a country that wasn’t their own.
They didn’t return.
Tomeu thinks of them often. They were, “to me, the greatest American people.”
Despite the haunting memory, Tomeu will tell you his life has been blessed. He and Fern, his wife of 57 years, raised two sons.
After leaving the Army, he started a successful pest control business in North Florida and worked as a firefighter and EMT. For decades, he helped local law enforcement agencies when they needed a translator.
He still competes in calf roping, even though, he admits with a chuckle, there are few competitors in his age bracket. Over decades, he’s won belt buckles and a championship saddle at contests around the country, and he’s earned a spot in the National Senior Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. Photos of winning rides cover the walls of his Alachua, Florida, home.
A few times a week, he and his trusted horse, Russell, join fellow calf-roper pairs to practice their high-speed skill. Back at home, he enjoys caring for the livestock on his farm, checking on the cattle he raises for beef, bottle-feeding orphaned lambs, or patting Elvis the donkey, who chases off coyotes.
On Wednesdays, he spends the day volunteering, driving patients to and from their appointments at the local VA hospital.
Tomeu said there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for the United States. He worries about what he sees as the threat of spreading communism. He wants his fellow Americans, especially young people, to understand how special it is to have the opportunity offered by living in the United States. To him, America represents “freedom, love, and prosperity.”
“We live in the best place on Earth,” he said. “Hopefully, we keep it that way.”
Tomeu pets orphaned lambs on his farm.
AJ Buckley in Charleston, S.C., in summer 2025.
Getting Into Character AJ Buckley With
By Kenneth LaFave
He’s dyslexic in a profession where reading is a daily requirement.
He calls ADD his superpower.
He’s been a computer nerd, a T. Rex, an upper-class thug, a paranormal investigator, a reckless criminal, a disgraced inspector for the San Francisco PD, and, most famously, a Navy SEAL.
In case you’re wondering, the movies and TV series attached to those characters are (in order) “CSI: NY,” “The Good Dinosaur,” “Disturbing Behavior,” “Supernatural,” “Justified,” “Murder in the First,” and of course, “SEAL Team.”
His friends call him “the chameleon.”
He’s okay with that.
“I disappear into the characters,” the chameleon said in a telephone interview with American Essence.
The dynamic actor has taken on vastly different roles with seamless ease
TOP Buckley in the role of Ed Zeddmore, an aspiring ghost hunter, in “Supernatural.”
RIGHT Buckley as U.S. Navy SEAL Sonny Quinn (in the back) in “SEAL Team.”
To play Sonny Quinn in the series “SEAL Team,” Buckley had an intense workout regimen.
“People will meet me and say, ‘You were great as Sonny Quinn on “SEAL Team,”’ and then they’ll go, ‘Oh, you were also that guy, and that guy, and that guy.’”
“That guy” in the real world is AJ Buckley, and all the earlier characters just scratch the surface of the work he’s done over nearly three decades of steady employment. Suffice it to say, if you watch television or go to the movies, avoiding AJ Buckley (sometimes “Alan Buckley” in older credits) is harder than checkmating a chess grand master blindfolded.
Although “SEAL Team” ended its seventh and final season last year, you’ll be seeing Buckley again soon, this time on the big screen, in a film that pits him against Mel Gibson. “Hunting Season” is set for international release in September.
“Mel Gibson’s character has a daughter who gets mixed up with the wrong crowd. Mel comes looking for revenge, and I’m on the wrong end of that stick,” Buckley said.
He’ll be a bad guy to Mel Gibson’s good guy?
“Being bad feels so good,” he said, with a grin you can see over the phone.
Buckley said he went “totally fanboy” while working with Gibson.
“What an amazing man Mel is. I was star-struck.
I thought, I’m working with William Wallace! ‘Braveheart’ and ‘Apocalypto’ and ‘Passion of the Christ’ are three of my favorite films.”
These pages are in the preview.
Being Sonny
Shooting “Hunting Season” came on the heels of Buckley’s farewell to his most iconic role. Playing Sonny Quinn in “SEAL Team” (2017–2024) garnered Buckley a huge fan following. It also taught him a lot about the men and women of the American military:
“I learned from the show how selfless the people who serve our country are,” he said. “We wouldn’t have the country we have without their ability to sacrifice. That these young men and women would see the country’s promise and put their life on the line for it—that’s incredibly admirable.”
“SEAL Team” told fictitious tales of the famous Navy unit in such locales as Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, and North Korea. Without a military background of his own, Buckley relied on real veterans who served as advisors on set.
“There was one guy named Goldie. I was told my character was based on him. He’d hang around a lot and I absorbed from him as much as I could. Sonny Quinn will always be one of my favorite characters, if not my favorite of all time.”
Sonny Quinn will always be one of my favorite characters, if not my favorite of all time. “
AJ Buckley are not included preview.
Salt of the Sea
With just seawater, sunshine, and greenhouses, Brady Ryan is reviving one of the oldest human trades
By Eric Lucas
Brady Ryan’s business is like a 5th-grade science project—on steroids. Instead of making rock candy crystals in a glass jar with sugar water, he’s growing salt crystals from seawater in 14 troughs about 6 inches deep. They are housed in large hoop greenhouses that rely on solar energy for evaporation. He’s using water from the Salish Sea, which surrounds San Juan Island just north of Seattle.
Each 90-foot trough holds 1,500 gallons of water and yields about 400 pounds of crystals, that is: salt.
Ryan’s San Juan Island Sea Salt is a thriving entrepreneurial business based on a whimsical idea he first tried out in his parents’ kitchen years ago while in college.
There, he heated saltwater in pans on the stove to make packets of sea salt for Christmas gifts. It worked, but—
“Kind of messy,” he recalled. “Not the most popular scheme I ever cooked up.”
San Juan Island Sea Salt produces about 20,000 pounds of salt a year.
“
I love letting nature do its work. I’m like any farmer, it fills me with pride and joy that people love my crop.
Brady Ryan
While working at a vegetable farm a few years later, Ryan grew enamored with the idea of local, sustainable food production. Then, he heard of a visionary in Maine who had pioneered salt-making in northern latitudes by using greenhouses. Like the Pacific Northwest, Maine is beautiful but not known for hot sun; the greenhouse idea worked just fine.
Ryan started his formal business in 2012 and found the southwest San Juan Island location ideal. His facility’s site is in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains and is one of the sunniest spots on the West Coast from May through September. That year, Ryan and his wife Leah Wymer sold $700 of sea salt on their first day at a farmers market.
Midsummer’s long days (13 hours of strong, direct sun) quicken the process. His “evaporation houses” create intense heat, as high as 130 degrees on a clear July day. While it takes just 3.5 weeks to produce a trough of salt in midsummer, the same amount of water could sit in a trough all winter, Ryan reports.
The overall result is 20,000 pounds of sea salt a year. He sells it as-is, as flake salt, or flavored with enhancements ranging from kelp to madrona smoke, 40 different products in all. A newly opened retail store in the island’s town, Friday Harbor, has proved quite successful. Here, visitors may find caramel cookies made by his wife and novelties like smoked sugar in addition to the salt products.
”When I started out, my initial feeling was, ‘Oh my, this is fun,’” Ryan recalled. “Now, I realize how much more we can grow the business. But make no mistake, harvesting salt is still magical.
“I can’t say I grew up dreaming about sea salt, but I definitely grew enamored with the idea of local production of something. So, we make salt in a cool way, in a cool place, and it tastes great.
“I love letting nature do its work. I’m like any farmer, it fills me with pride and joy that people love my crop,” Ryan reported.
An ebullient, plainspoken, hands-on business owner, for Ryan the ethos of salt-making is such an avocation that he and his wife are contemplating an agritourism sideline in which visitors can witness the operation firsthand. It all begins with the company’s 50-year-old flatbed Ford, “Fred,” which hauls seawater in a large tank from a nearby private beach to the production facility. There, the water is sluiced through a filter into the evapora-
Juan Island Sea Salt founder
in a sea salt evaporation greenhouse. It takes about a month for the water to evaporate, leaving behind the sought-after sea crystals.
tion houses. “Sunshine and seawater. It’s a simple formula,” is the company’s slogan.
Ryan is among perhaps a dozen artisan salt-makers in the United States who have turned one of humankind’s oldest trades into a 21st-century niche business that now enjoys great visibility. Grocery store shelves that used to hold just two industrial brands of salt now stock three or four times that many, from across the globe as well as America. Branded sea salts are proudly tabbed in fine dining menus, and though dietitians say there is no proven significant health benefit, sea salt fans savor the condiment’s high mineral content.
No one has an exact count in the United States, but in the British Isles, the EcoSal trade group reports 21 artisan salt-makers. Dozens more around the world range from indigenous peoples in Mexico and Hawaii making salt exactly as it’s been done for countless generations, to 21st-century innovators utilizing sparkling new facilities.
They are practicing an ancient craft many thousands of years old; archaeologists have found evaporative salt flats in northern England dating back to 3800 B.C. The original impetus for salt making
San
Brady Ryan
was apparently the shift to an agricultural lifestyle in which humans vastly boosted their food-calorie access but lost the salt content that hunter-gatherers gained from game and fish.
Ancient Chinese pharmacology texts from 4,700 years ago describe 40 different kinds of salt. The mineral was used in early Egyptian religious offerings, and it was a key commodity traded by the Phoenicians. Centuries later, Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt—the genesis of the word “salary.” In medieval Europe, Venice’s Mediterranean hegemony was greatly boosted by the trading city’s monopoly on salt supplies.
Although Mesoamericans made salt in Central America centuries ago—and likely traded it with more northerly peoples—the art didn’t take hold in North America until after the American Revolution. Before then, settlers in the Colonies relied on British salt shipped across the Atlantic. When war came, salt disappeared; the first American salt-maker set up a facility along the Jersey shore in 1777.
As the now familiar big brands came to dominate store shelves, artisan salt-making largely disappeared until the late 20th-century revival of a focus on gourmet, handcrafted sustainable ingredients.
In the meantime, salt gained a bad reputation as a key element in the rise of cardiovascular disease, especially high blood pressure.
Though American artisan salt-makers shy away from health debates, the UK Salt Association argues that the dangers are exaggerated. “It has been painted as the villain in our store cupboard, responsible for everything from high blood pressure to osteoporosis. However, increasingly, experts worldwide are questioning the suggested links between salt and cardiovascular disease. There is also growing evidence that some groups— notably the elderly, pregnant women, and those who exercise—may be at risk from responding to blanket advice to reduce salt intake,” the trade group declares on its website.
Dietitians point out that Americans’ excess sodium levels are largely due to a modern diet highly reliant on takeaway fast foods and ultra-processed groceries. Virtually all packaged foods feature large portions of salt (and sugar).
These pages are in the preview.
“Seventy percent of the average American’s sodium intake comes from takeout and packaged foods—not from the salt shaker at the dinner table,” reported Chicago-based dietitian Cindy Chan Phillips. “As a result, the average American daily intake is 4,000 milligrams, almost twice the recommended 2,300 milligrams. Though some question the basis for that number, anyone who’s at risk for hypertension should actively manage their salt intake,” Phillips advised.
Roughly speaking, a teaspoon of industrial table salt equals the daily recommended amount; sea salt is somewhat less concentrated in sodium.
“That said, sodium is essential to survival. It’s a key electrolyte. It keeps our blood in balance. And I certainly understand the appeal of sea salt—it carries the mystique of the ocean, it enhances flavor, it seems more natural than industrial white table salt.
“My mother is 95, and she loves salt. So we dietitians say the answer is cook at home, pay attention to your preparations, use salt wisely and consciously,” Phillips said.
“Eating mindlessly is not good for us in many, many ways.”
Shall we take that advice with a grain of salt?
Many grains, please. The artisan salt revolution makes it possible for Americans to choose those grains of salt wisely and well—and savor the result.
A salt crystal stack in one of San Juan Island Sea Salt’s salt greenhouses.
From Sea to Salty Sea
OVER THE EIGHT OR MORE MILLENNIA of salt-making, humans have discovered numerous ways to harvest this vital substance. While virtually all salt on Earth was once sea water, oceanic salt is harvested in many different places, ranging from deep mines to salty bogs and seashore marshes to salt springs far inland.
Earth’s oceans average about 3 percent salinity, and unrefined sea salt is generally about 70 percent sodium chloride, with many other minerals that add flavor and trace nutritional elements. Industrial salt makers of what’s known as “table salt” generally produce nearly pure sodium chloride, with small amounts of anti-caking agents and iodine added. “Sea salt” is usually free of additives.
Sea salt is typically packed and sold as is, larger crystals not ground fine like table salt. Store shelves these days feature artisan salts from around the world—Ireland to the Himalayas—and American salt-makers represent a coast-to-coast array of styles and production techniques. All offer their products online as well as at their facilities.
are not included preview.
JACOBSEN SALT CO.: Located on the Oregon coast near Tillamook, Jacobsen, founded in 2011, pumps water from a pristine bay famous for its oysters, which help filter the water naturally. At its saltworks, the water undergoes a multi-step filtration, evaporation, and drying process. The resulting sea salt is hand-harvested and sorted to produce a sparkling ivory salt known for its “bright” taste and satisfying crunch. These larger crystals are beloved by
gourmet chefs for finishing meats, vegetables, and baked goods.
J.Q. DICKINSON SALT-WORKS: This West Virginia producer is a seventh-generation family company dating back 200 years that draws on ancient seawater buried beneath the Appalachian Mountains. Pumped to the surface, the water is reduced to brine, then heated in solar greenhouses and harvested by hand from the troughs using wooden rakes. Kanawha Valley salt won a prize for best in the world at a World’s Fair in London—in 1851.
AMAGANSETT SEA SALT CO.: Located far out on the tip of Long Island, this company utilizes Atlantic Ocean water for its solar salt-making. It’s evaporated in open-air salt pans called salterns—utilizing what is likely the oldest of all salt-making techniques. Founded in 2011 by two former attorneys, the company literally makes salt by hand, using buckets to gather seawater and relying only on the sun, wind, and sea air for evaporation. The resulting salt is slightly softer than most other salts.
TWO DAUGHTERS SEA SALT CO. : This small Maine company harvests water in Penobscot Bay and first uses wood-fired boilers to reduce it to a thick brine—one of humanity’s oldest salt-making methods, used in Japan for centuries. After that, the brine is reduced to salt crystals using the power of sunshine. One of their products, nigari, is lower in sodium than most salts and may be helpful for people who need to reduce their sodium intake.
J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works is a seventhgeneration salt-making family business in West Virginia.
Two Daughters Sea Salt Co. draws its seawater from Penobscot Bay, Maine.
Jacobsen Salt Co. harvests salt from Netarts Bay, along the Oregon Coast.
A Few Good Axemen
Each Brant & Cochran axe is hand-crafted in Maine, resulting in heirloom quality made to last several generations
By Anna Mason
Axe-making company Brant & Cochran was dreamed up by a few good friends over a glass of whiskey. Around 10 years ago, Steve Ferguson’s godson was heading to forestry school. While sitting with his brother Mark Ferguson and their friend Barry Worthing and enjoying a few drams of single malt Scotch, Steve lamented about not being able to find a good American-made axe to give his godson as a high school graduation present. So it was decided: The three men would found their own axe-making firm, right there in Maine.
The state is a vital location for forestry in the United States. Maine employs thousands of professional foresters and arborists. The trio reasoned that their products might also find traction with folks camping, canoeing, and anyone wanting a high-quality axe to use around the wood stove, hearth, or backyard fire pit. Steve and Mark’s grandfather had been a legend in the tool trade, and the brothers dearly wanted to continue his legacy.
Leland Ferguson was a master mechanic in the Detroit automotive industry during World
wedge pattern that’s highly prized for chopping wood.
Brant & Cochran’s Allagash Cruiser axe is based on a traditional Maine
War I. Post-war, he started a business buying and restoring Army surplus machine tools, selling his wares to vehicle makers and their suppliers. That business came to be known as Brant & Cochran.
“The branding for our company is taken from a pack of Brant & Cochran matches found in one of Grandpa’s toolboxes,” said Mark, now the company’s president and co-founder. “Who needs graphic artists when you have Gramps?”
Axe-Making Legacy
Maine was once the axe-making capital of New England. From the late 1800s through World War II, the town of Oakland produced tens of thousands of axes every year. On a mission to match the original product’s unrivaled quality and craftsmanship, Steve, Mark, and Barry set out their nonnegotiables.
First, only American 1045 carbon steel, milled in New York or South Carolina, is used for the axe heads.
“Our biggest challenges were finding U.S. steel distributors to cut and sell us steel in relatively small quantities,” Mark told American Essence. “They were used to selling train carloads of steel. We need loads that can fit into my car every month!”
After numerous calls, emails, and meetings, the team finally discovered a steel distributor who wanted to help them bring craft axe making back to America. They also partnered with a small company in Indiana for hydraulic press design.
Secondly, each axe is made on-site at their shop in South Portland, Maine. This meant recruiting “skilled makers who were willing to take a chance on this crazy idea, and flexible enough to try, fail, and try again until we got it right,” Mark said.
With the help of the maker community in Maine, they found skilled blacksmiths and machinists.
Another essential was that the axe handles be made of strong, durable hickory wood. For this purpose, the trio reached out to skilled workers from an Amish community in Ohio who turn the wood to a Brant & Cochran-designed pattern. The custom leather sheaths that protect the blade are made in Maine.
1,500 Axes per Year
The small company’s axes—each handmade
All of the company’s axes are made at its shop in South Portland, Maine. They are guaranteed for the life of the axe, “which should be several generations,” said co-founder Mark Ferguson.
Our biggest challenges were finding U.S. steel distributors to cut and sell us steel in relatively small quantities.
Mark Ferguson
one at a time—couldn’t be more authentic. The head of the Allagash Cruiser, for example, is modeled off a Maine-forged axe from the 1930s that was borrowed from the Patten Lumbermen’s Museum. Brant & Cochran’s take on a traditional Maine wedge pattern camp axe, highly prized for its ability to chop wood, is produced following a rigorous process.
A billet of 1045 carbon steel is heated to a forging temperature of approximately 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit in a gas or induction forge before an eye for the handle is punched with a hydraulic press. Then, a hydraulic press or power hammer is used to fuller out the axe head, and the axe head is ground to its final shape. Then, it’s heat-treated to extreme hardness, sharpened, and hafted onto the handle. Every axe is guaranteed for life.
“Manufacturing is baked into the DNA of America,” Mark said. “While we don’t manufacture as many things here anymore, there is still a hunger to make quality products with your hands.”
TOP DOG
Police Sergeant David Rowland and Bo the bloodhound are a crime-fighting duo in Gastonia, N.C.
Bo the K9 bloodhound and his human handler are the crime-fighting duo that their town needs
By Randy Tatano
Arts and entertainment have always created classic partners in law enforcement: Holmes and Watson.
Scully and Mulder.
In the small city of Gastonia, North Carolina, the most famous real-life partners are Police Sergeant David Rowland and Bo. In this case, the team is more like the 1989 Tom Hanks movie “Turner & Hooch.”
Because Bo is a dog.
He’s not just any dog. The 2-year-old bloodhound won the top honor at the 2024 American Humane Society Hero Dog Awards.
His handler, 39-year-old Sgt. Rowland, has worked with a canine partner for years. His last dog, a German shepherd named Colt, actually saved his life once.
Police had been chasing two armed men. Rowland caught one and was in the process of subduing him, but he didn’t see the second man behind him.
In an interview, Rowland explained how the second man had “his gun pointed at the back of my head.” He recounted: “Colt sees this. And for whatever reason, this guy was just terrified of dogs. Colt goes in[to] protection mode and barks at this guy and freaks the guy out. He throws the gun down and puts his hands up. The guy was going to execute me, and this dog saved my life.”
When Colt retired from police dog work at age 15, Rowland made him a family pet. Now Rowland needed a new partner. This time, he wanted a bloodhound because the breed has an incredible skill: its ability to smell.
Solving Cases, One Sniff at a Time
“They’re the best at tracking. … A bloodhound’s nose is the third most powerful nose on the planet,” Rowland said. If you’re wondering what animals are better, they are grizzly bears and African elephants, according to scientific studies (neither of which would make a good partner for a cop).
He had to pass a test that required him to track a scent which had aged 75 minutes over 1.5 miles.
If you’ve ever heard the term “hangdog expression,” that sort of describes a bloodhound’s appearance. “His ears, they’re all goofy, and everybody makes fun of them.” But you might be surprised that those big floppy ears serve an important purpose when tracking. Rowland explained: “When Bo puts his nose to the ground, his ears are actually dragged against the ground and kick up
Bo as a puppy.
evaporated odors.” Typically, when an odor evaporates, the odor molecules fall onto the ground, making it difficult for a dog to distinguish the target odor from the surroundings. “But once Bo’s ears hit that stuff [the odor molecules], it’s lighter than the dirt.” The dog’s ears sweep the odor molecules back up into the air, which gives the dog the ability to smell it.
Bo gained national attention in May 2024 when he successfully tracked a 7-year-old child who had been kidnapped at knifepoint. Once the dog picked up the scent from the child’s clothing, he led Rowland for an incredible 7 miles over a fourhour period. And the track wasn’t a straight line.
“We went through a Walmart parking lot, a gas station, several drugstores, fast food restaurants, down a major highway, behind a Waffle House and through another neighborhood, and eventually came to an abandoned house,” he said.
After this exhausting search, Bo found the location where the child was being held. The kidnapper, high on drugs, eventually gave up the child
with the help of a negotiator. “I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this kid probably wouldn’t be alive right now if it wasn’t for Bo.”
Rowland always wanted to work with dogs because “that’s where all the excitement was. And that was really the big pull for me. I wanted to be in the excitement. I wanted to go where people needed the help the most. And it was awesome to see these dogs succeed.”
A Diamond in the ‘Ruff’
After Colt retired, Rowland got Bo as an 8-week-old puppy from the Jimmy Ryce Center, which provides bloodhounds free to police departments. The organization is named after Jimmy Ryce, a 9-yearold boy who was abducted and murdered in 1995. It is believed the boy might have been saved had a bloodhound been involved in the search.
Rowland feels that he and Bo were destined to be partners. “It was definitely fate. A lot of things lead up to that exact moment. If anything slightly changed, then I wouldn’t have ended up at that kennel for that litter. I wanted a boy, and he was the only boy in the litter. So it was definitely meant to be.”
Bo immediately started working with Rowland and Ryan Huneycutt, the trainer for the canine unit, and was certified to work in the field after six months. He had to pass a test that required him to track a scent which had aged 75 minutes over 1.5 miles.
These pages are in the preview.
When Bo is “off the clock,” he lives with Rowland, his wife, and their 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son. The Rowlands have quite a menagerie on their farm, including 110 chickens, 30 ducks, and some turkeys. “I’m an animal person. I love cats, birds—you name it. Bo loves my kids, and my kids love Bo,” he said. “He’s a big goofball.”
Bo got the royal treatment when he received his award last year, as he was flown to New York and got to sit in first class. Rowland took him to Central Park, and Bo ended up on the “Today” show. Rowland says that the award also helps people understand how valuable the breed is to law enforcement. “It’s really just getting Bo’s story out there, and putting the positive message behind these bloodhounds.”
Bottom line, Sgt. Rowland considers his assignment the best duty for a cop. “You get to come to work every day with your best friend.”
Bo lives with Rowland and his family when he’s not working as a K9.
WHAT IS WORTH REMEMBERING
American aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright, of the famous Wright brothers, performing a flight demonstration in Pau, a resort town in the south of France, 1909. are not included preview.
IMMORTAL OF AMERICAN SPORTS
Legendary coach Knute Rockne bettered not only football but also the young men he mentored.
ENGINEERING FLIGHT
Machinist Charles E. Taylor built and maintained the engine that changed the world.
The Immigrant Who Revolutionized College Football
Norwegian-born Knute Rockne became the intercollegiate sport’s first celebrity coach
By Brian D’Ambrosio
Knute Rockne was 5 years old when he arrived in America with his mother and sisters from Scandinavia. By the time a plane crash claimed his life at age 43, he was a national hero, “the dominant personality of American sportdom.” He developed and coached the “Fighting Irish” of Notre Dame into a sporting marvel.
Indeed, Rockne elevated the stature of college football, ushering in an era of prestige previously unknowable. Quotable, affable, and eminently successful, his 88 winning percentage set the highest standard in major college football history.
More than 90 years after his death, his name continues to be synonymous with wisdom, fairness, gentlemanliness, strong-minded determination, and high ideals.
Birth of a Tradition
Knute K. Rockne was born in Voss, Norway, on March 4, 1888. His father, Lars Knutson Rockne, had a competitive instinct and irresistible urge to develop success, to be on the winning side of the equation—traits seemingly genetically transmitted to his son.
“A blonde Viking of a man with handle-bar moustaches and a roaring laugh,” according to the Portsmouth Star, Lars was a carriage-maker. Imbued with an inventive spirit, he had come independently to America, keen to exhibit his works at the World’s Columbian Exposition, in 1893. Lars purportedly won a second-place prize for his carriage; he was offered employment in the United
States and sent for his family.
Knute stuck close to his mother Martha’s side on the long voyage across the Atlantic. She was calm and gracious under uncertainty and anxiety, determined to start a new life with her husband and three children in the Midwestern United States. It was a new land, new language, and new start, and, as an impressionable young boy, he soaked it all up.
Knute’s childhood in the Logan Square area of Chicago was fairly typical. At school, it was reading, writing, arithmetic, and English immersion, as well as games such as baseball and football on the playground and in the gymnasium. At home, there was a warm foundation of laughter and love.
Knute was a formidable adolescent, ruggedly striking in appearance, singular in spirit, and keen in his ability to assimilate and learn. He earned a spot on the football team at Northwest Division High School as a third-string end, a defensive position, despite his less than imposing 110-pound frame, in addition to excelling as a pole vaulter and track star.
After he left high school without graduating, he accepted a series of demanding and dirty jobs, including overnight mail dispatcher in the Chicago Post Office for $100 a month, with an aim of furthering his education.
On the recommendation of a couple of friends, he fixed his attention on enrollment at a private Catholic school in Indiana, the origins of one of the most extraordinary relationships in American sports history.
The first inductee into the
National Football Foundation Hall of Fame, Knute Rockne, pictured circa 1920s, revolutionized the sport with his innovative coaching.
Notre Dame Days
After gaining admittance to the University of Notre Dame in 1910, Rockne began working as janitor for the chemistry department. He excelled in his studies. Not only was he a stellar student, but he was also captain of the football team. As a member of the Gold and Blue, he won All-American honors in his junior year.
Upon graduating with honors in 1914, he was appointed as a chemistry instructor. And, on top of this, he earned the job of assistant football coach, under Jesse Harper (1883–1961). In 1918, he was selected as head football coach at Notre Dame, replacing Harper.
He first gained widespread recognition in football spheres by coaching Notre Dame’s team through two years (1919–20) without a defeat. In 1924, Rockne led one of the most popular teams in college football history to 10 straight victories and, from 1929 to 1930, fielded yet another back-to-back undefeated team.
A gifted motivator, Rockne introduced new ways of thinking about the game, elevating speed and execution and de-emphasizing brute force. His teams mirrored his makeup: sharp-thinking,
Knute Rockne teaching football at the coaches school at Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) in 1928.
vigilant, and analytical.
He was respected as a strategist and theorist—popularizing the forward pass and passing offense—and was of genius in his diligence. The results of his reign are without equal: 13 years, 105 victories, 12 losses, five tied games, and three national championships.
These pages are in the preview.
“
In addition to his gridiron wizardry, there was something much brighter and more profound to the man in how he conducted himself off the field. He was remarkably well liked by his opposing teams, a fondness surpassed only by those who played for him. Indeed, his devotion to his players was singular. Football, to paraphrase Rockne, taught a boy many responsibilities, to himself and his own passions, to his teammates, and to his college; the sport was an opportunity to bring out “the best there is in every one.”
One of his former players, Elmer Layden (1903–73), once said that Rockne epitomized all that was worthy and decent in football. “It was his integrity, his knowledge, his battling personality—his ability to make a player perform better than he himself thought he knew how.”
His power to inspire the men on his teams to
His teams mirrored his makeup: sharpthinking, vigilant, and analytical.
achieve something better than what they believed themselves to be capable of was renowned. His pep talks were famously inspirational: The perfect phrase or precise tone could somehow whip the club into an emotional fervor. A psychologist with a clipboard and whistle, he knew what was in their hearts and on their minds.
are not included preview.
Hundreds of young coaches attended his summer school lectures, and other coaches copied his formations and plays in earnest. He wrote books on the mechanics of the game and was always in high demand as a speaker.
Immortal of American Sport
At age 43, it had been a good life for Rockne. Few could stake claim to similar honor and glory. There had been work, deeds, fatherhood, and family. Grounded and humble, he never let prosperity lift him up too much or adversity cast him too far down.
When the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, founded and headquartered nearby in South Bend, named Rockne as its spokesperson, there was no need to ask why. He excelled at public speaking, he understood the essence of good promotion, and who better was there to travel around and discuss reliance and dependence and sponsor the company’s cars?
On March 31, 1931, Rockne boarded a flight at Kansas City bound for Los Angeles, where a host of activities, including meeting with several Studebaker dealers and helping with a movie production called “The Spirit of Notre Dame,” packed
his itinerary. But the commercial Transcontinental and Western Air Fokker F-10 crashed in Bazaar, Kansas, landing in a sparse, grassy field in the Flint Hills.
The nation was stunned and stricken, and the expressions of grief and disbelief were many. Even the most eloquent had difficulty putting into words what exactly the loss of Rockne meant to them—and to the country.
Rockne’s status as an immortal of American sport was solidified deeper in the 1940 film “Knute Rockne, All American,” starring Pat O’Brien as Rockne and Ronald Reagan as George Gipp (1895–1920), a Notre Dame football player coached by Rockne. Perhaps the movie’s most outstanding moment takes place when a sickly Gipp, who died of pneumonia shortly after the conclusion of his college football career, told Rockne to tell the guys to “win just one for the Gipper.”
ABOVE
Theatrical poster for the 1940 American film
“Knute Rockne, All American.”
TOP
Ronald Reagan
starring as George Gipp (L) with Pat O’Brien playing Rockne in “Knute Rockne, All American.”
Anniversaries of Rockne’s death tended to trigger a deluge of pensive reflections about the man and his meaning, and the humane expressions of Tom Conley, captain of the 1930 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, expressed 25 years after his coach’s death are typical of the ones that people who loved him routinely shared:
“He was a football coach whose love for perfection never forced him to overlook the fact that he was dealing with boys whose future he might be shaping for their lifetimes. He had wisdom and greatness of heart and strength.”
“To hell with the guy who’ll die for Notre Dame—I want men who’ll fight to keep her alive!” That is one of Knute Rockne’s rallying lines. With one of the largest fan bases in college sports, these days the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football program without a doubt flourishes. Each victory carries the vestige of a Norwegian immigrant with an uncomplicated appetite for life, who once made great men out of promising boys, and who possessed all of the favored qualities to be classified as a hero.
First in Flight
Charles E. Taylor built the first practical aircraft engine for the history-making Wright Flyer
By Bob Kirchman
Wilbur and Orville Wright are rightly credited with the first airplane flight, but at the Washington Flight Standards District Office of the Federal Aviation Administration, analyst Maria Papageorgiou points out that creating the airplane was one thing. Maintaining aircraft integrity created a whole new (largely unsung) group of heroes.
She said, “If it hadn’t been for the engine that Charles E. Taylor built for the Wright brothers’ aircraft, the date December 17, 1903, would have marked nothing more than a day at the beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It was Taylor’s engine that turned the Wright glider into the history-making Wright Flyer.”
Taylor is called the “Father of Aircraft
Maintenance” for his work handcrafting the first practical aircraft engine. According to Papageorgiou, Taylor should rightly be credited with pioneering the skills of aircraft maintenance as he maintained the integrity and airworthiness of the first series of Wright Flyers. To preserve his memory and to honor all aviation maintenance technicians (AMTs), Taylor’s birthday, May 24, has been named AMT Day.
The Machinist
Taylor was born in a log cabin in Illinois in 1868. The son of a hog farmer, he possessed a natural talent for working with tools and machinery, which led him to become a skilled machinist. It is said that he began his career making metal
Front view of the 1903 Wright Flyer by the Wright brothers and engine mechanic Charlie Taylor.
house-address numbers, and this enabled him to start his own shop. In 1894, he married Henrietta Webbert. Two years later, he moved his family to Dayton, Ohio, where he operated a machine shop. It was through Henrietta’s family that Taylor met two brothers who operated a bicycle shop in Dayton: Wilbur and Orville Wright. They asked Taylor to make some parts for their bicycles. This began a relationship that changed the world.
Eventually, the Wright brothers invited Taylor to work at their bicycle shop. When the brothers went to the beach at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to test their gliders, Taylor took care of the shop, repairing and selling bicycles.
Once Wilbur and Orville were ready to add a motor to their machine, they wrote to several automobile companies. Only one responded, but its engine was too heavy. After the brothers unsuccessfully tried to find a manufacturer of a light engine, they turned to their own trusted machinist. They asked Charlie Taylor if he could build such an engine, and he responded, “Sure!”
The ‘Impossible’ Engine
The Wrights were working on the design of the craft’s twin propellers and had determined that the engine could weigh only 180 pounds at maximum. It would have to deliver over eight horsepower. Taylor sketched out the engine’s design on a napkin. These three ingenious young men crafted the impossible engine, and none of them had been to college.
Taylor handcrafted a relatively simple, four-cylinder engine in just six weeks. Beginning with a block of aluminum, he drilled it out and milled it using basic shop tools. His little four-cylinder engine, with a four-inch stroke and a four-inch bore, ended up weighing 180 pounds and delivered 12 horsepower.
On December 17, 1903, Taylor’s hand-built engine propelled the Wright Flyer on the world’s first successful powered flight. Getting off the ground was all about weight. Taylor not only built the engine, he became the first ever “airplane mechanic,” supporting the Wrights’ powered flights.
The ‘Other Wright Brother’
In David McCullough’s book “The Wright Brothers,” he details the journey from short flights launching into the wind from a track on the beach at Kitty Hawk to a practical heavier-than-air craft
American inventor, mechanic, and machinist Charlie Taylor in the late 19th or early 20th century.
Left, front view of the reconstructed 1903 Wright Flyer’s horizontal 4-cylinder engine.
capable of sustained flight. Taylor was now an indispensable member of the Wright team, accompanying them as they demonstrated the aircraft.
For the next five years, Taylor worked with the Wrights to build a sturdier, more powerful version of the Flyer—one that had practical military and commercial applications. Initially, Taylor stayed with Orville in the United States, while Wilbur went to France to demonstrate the airplane.
In September of 1908, Orville was demonstrating the flying machine at Fort Myer, Virginia. He promised to take Taylor up in the Flyer, but in a fateful, last-minute decision, he took Lt. Thomas Selfridge instead. On that flight, one of the propellers malfunctioned. The plane plummeted to the ground, killing Selfridge and seriously wounding Orville.
While Selfridge became the world’s first aircraft fatality, Taylor had missed a brush with death. He removed the bodies of the men from the wreckage—the unconscious Orville and the deceased Selfridge. Tests at Fort Myer ceased as Orville began a long and painful recovery. Meanwhile, Wilbur was in France setting records and becoming an international sensation.
Taylor packed his bags and joined Wilbur in France. The boy who grew up in a log cabin on a hog farm was now using his mechanical brilliance to provide essential support for a machine that would change the world.
These pages are in the preview.
Contributing to Transcontinental Flight
By 1911, Taylor was training aviators at Huffman Prairie, the Wrights’ flying field near Dayton. One of these early pilots was Calbraith Perry Rodgers, who was descended from a long line of naval heroes. When publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst offered a prize for the first flight across the continental United States, Rodgers decided to try for it in a Wright EX sponsored by the Vin Fiz soft drink company. Taylor left the Wright company to become Rodgers’s mechanic.
From the beginning, the attempt was fraught with problems: The engine exploded twice, and the plane crashed a few times, but was repairable. Rodgers did not even carry a compass; he navigated by following railroad tracks. He got lost several times, but he refused to give up. Even when all hopes of winning the Hearst prize were dashed, Rodgers pressed on, supported by the equally determined Taylor.
Orville Wright at age 34 in 1905.
Wilbur Wright at age 38 in 1905.
are not included preview.
The public loved it, and the flight of the Vin Fiz ended up becoming a strong argument for the possibility of transcontinental flight. Eighty-four days after he lifted off from a racetrack in Brooklyn, New York, Rodgers rolled the Vin Fiz into the surf at Long Beach, California, on December 10, 1911, to 50,000 cheering onlookers.
In the years that followed, Taylor worked for dirigible designer A. Roy Knabenshue and early aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin. He returned to the Wright company in 1912 and remained with Orville Wright’s laboratory until the aircraft manufacturing company was sold in 1915.
Orville had originally wanted to discard the Wright Flyer, but Lester D. Gardener, the publisher of Aviation Magazine, had written him a letter asking if the plane could be displayed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was Knabenshue, the balloonist, who convinced Orville that the machine was truly worth preserving. He saw it as representing a revolution in flight.
A year later, Taylor helped to restore the original Wright Flyer for exhibition at MIT.
Tribute to American Ingenuity
In 1928, Taylor moved to California and worked in a machine shop in Los Angeles. When the
Depression hit, he was out of work, and he lost money speculating in real estate. In 1937, Henry Ford wanted to preserve the memory of the invention of the airplane by moving the Wrights’ original bicycle shop and the house they lived in to his Greenfield Village living history museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Standing alongside Thomas Alva Edison’s laboratory, the relocated buildings would be a tribute to American inventiveness.
Ford hired Taylor to work with Fred Black, the director of the project, to restore the shop. Together, they located and acquired much of the original machinery and furnishings. Relying on Taylor’s memory, they recreated the home and the workplace of the pioneers of flight. The 70-yearold Taylor also built a replica of the first airplane engine for the museum. The exhibit was dedicated in 1938.
In 1941, Taylor returned to California. He corresponded regularly with Orville, hoping at some point to join him again in the laboratory. Sadly, Orville’s health was declining, and he died in 1948. In his last note to Taylor, he wrote; “I hope you are well and enjoying life; but that’s hard to imagine when you haven’t much work to do.” However, Taylor continued to work as a machinist, passing away in 1956 at the age of 88.
Taylor and the Wright brothers putting the plane on the launching rail for the first Army flight in July 1909.
“M
Wisdom From Author Mark Helprin
Reflections on life from one of America’s greatest living novelists
By Jeff Minick
ark Helprin belongs to no literary school, movement, tendency, or trend. As many have observed, and as Time Magazine has phrased it, ‘He lights his own way.’” This introduction on his website is as true of the man as it is of the writer. Born in Manhattan in 1947, Helprin grew up in the Hudson River Valley. He attended Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford.
His 20s delivered another sort of education. Between and beyond his academic studies, Helprin worked jobs that ranged from washing dishes in restaurants to his service in both the Israeli army and air force. Characters in his eight novels, bestsellers like “A Soldier of the Great War” and the recent “The Oceans and the Stars,” his short stories, and his three children’s books reflect this mix of wanderlust, adventure, and brushes with all manner of people. His books have won numerous literary prizes, been translated into more than 20 languages, and touched the lives of fans around the world.
ladder. Here, he reflected on a variety of topics and shared wisdom garnered from a lifetime of adventure and writing.
On Where He Gets His Energy
“Usually, I sleep from seven to nine hours, and I’m up at 6:30 a.m. Then, I do about two and a half to three hours of exercise, either rowing, in which I row a single shell, very strenuous at my age, or walking and running either 3 or 5 miles, and calisthenics, weights, that kind of stuff. That sets me up for the rest of the day and gives me a lot of energy.”
One thing I love about America is ordinary Americans. “
Mark Helprin, author
Helprin has written about military and foreign affairs with an expertise that won the attention of diplomats and politicians. He is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, where he writes political commentary.
For the last three decades, Helprin and his wife Lisa have lived on a 56-acre farm, Windrow, in the rolling hills and fields just north of Charlottesville, Virginia. On a Friday, at the tag end of May, Helprin spoke with American Essence in his magnificent library. This room is a wonderland for any bibliophile with its nearly 50-foot-long wall of bookcases stretching up 16 feet high and serviced with a rolling
On Hard Times
“On really tough days—and there will be tougher ones ahead, which at my age of 78 has to be the case—I think of the most difficult things that I got through, including the death of people I loved. I think of when I was in the army, which was the most difficult thing I ever did in my life and the most dangerous, even the basic training. In the Israeli army, it’s much different than the American Army. It’s tougher, and it almost killed me.
“All over the world, people suffer immensely. So, it’s easy not to give in to depression or despair when you think of what others have to go through.”
On Doing What’s Right
“I can look back and be happy that I did what I thought was right despite the consequences. And that also is a definition of honor. The most honorable things I’ve done, I’ve done despite the fact that I knew it would hurt me, but I thought it was right.”
On Becoming a Writer
“What caused me to focus on writing was language
itself, not any particular book.
“For instance, when I was in college, and even before college, I took to Shakespeare like you wouldn’t believe. When I was a freshman, the leading professor at Harvard of Shakespeare was Harry Levin. He was one of the great Shakespeare authorities of the world, because that’s what Harvard does. It collects the great professors.
“Anyway, as a freshman, I went to Harry Levin’s office, and I said, ‘I’d like to be in your course.’ And he said, ‘Well, we don’t admit freshmen.’ And I said, ‘Ask me about Shakespeare.’ He said, ‘Ask you what?’ ‘Ask me anything. See how I do.’ And he did, and I did well enough so he admitted me as a freshman to his course. I was deeply in love with Shakespeare’s language.
“It was [through] the language itself, and in making sentences and paragraphs, that from a very early age, I wanted to tell stories that were edifying and touched
upon the religious, that had a deeper meaning than just a story. I wanted to make beautiful sentences and paragraphs. That’s craft. If it’s good enough craft, it becomes art. And so, you enjoy practicing the craft, and you do so with as much intensity as you can marshal, and if you’re lucky, the craft becomes art.”
Advice to Young Writers
“Make sure that you have another boat in which to put your other foot. Although I never really wanted to make use of it, I had a parallel career in journalism and politics, consulting, and the military. Whatever it is, it can’t hurt you. Chekhov was a doctor. Smollett was a doctor. William Carlos Williams was a doctor. Dante, Milton, and Hawthorne were diplomats. Wallace Stevens was an insurance executive. Melville was a teacher and a whaler, eventually a customs clerk. Most writers have had other vocations, among
other things. Then you don’t have to just sit and write about your own navel. You learn things, you’re in the world, and it’s invaluable.
“Also, since the most important thing one can do is to have a family and have children and take care of them, then really that’s one’s first responsibility. They’re your first priority.”
Advice to Young Men on Growing Up
“Boys should defy fashion, not wearing backwards baseball caps or shorts that come to mid-calf. If they value themselves and their masculinity, or their incipient masculinity, they should dress with dignity. That would help right off the bat.
“The second thing is, they would stop pitying themselves. One of the essential characteristics of being male is that you don’t have self-pity. And since selfpity is taught to everyone in this society, they pick it up too. They should have a little more stiffness in their spines, more self-respect, honor, decency.
“They have to have a kind of framework. That framework is something that has evolved down through the ages, and it defines traditional concepts of masculine behavior, which are very much out of favor. My advice to them is to adopt those characteristics, even if they’re out of favor, even if you have to be defiant to do it.”
On Admirable Public Figures
“If you look around my bookshelf, you’ll see Churchill all over the place. He had the compounded qualities of literary genius, great statesmanship, strategic genius, personal courage, and spectacular wit.
“Seldom has there been a combination like that. Then, there would be Lincoln. I think of Lincoln as
Select Works
These pages are in the preview.
having almost touched upon the divine in the beauty of his language and the depth of his understanding and his suffering and martyrdom. And then Mozart—I always thought that Mozart was actually touched by God in order to make the music that he made.”
On Belief in God
“That’s been a constant in my life. I encounter people who are embarrassed if I say I believe in God, because they’ve been taught that there is no such thing. They Winter’s Tale (1983)
Set in a mythic version of New York, this sweeping novel follows Peter Lake, a fugitive thief who is saved by a mysterious white horse, as he falls in love with a dying heiress. Their story spans decades and explores the mystery of time itself.
A Soldier of the Great War (1991)
Alessandro Giuliani, a Roman professor of aesthetics, recounts his experiences in World War I to a young stranger as they walk the Italian countryside together. As he recalls brutal combat, lost love, and moral dilemmas, the novel examines how beauty and meaning persist even amid the horrors of trench warfare and personal loss.
Mark Helprin’s extensive personal library holds thousands of books.
foolishly believe, in my view, that reason is the only tool with which we can apprehend the truth, and reason is very limited, obviously.
“People are afraid to appeal to the emotions and to beauty. So many people have been educated to reject them, like faith in God, like patriotism, like respect for honor and courage and seeking beauty.”
On America’s Challenges
“Honoring and abiding [by] the Constitution and the principles of the Founding: If we get away from that, we’re lost. We’re done, and that’s happening more and more in both parties. That’s the most essential thing.
“The second thing is understanding that the world is a dangerous place, and our sovereignty and survival are not guaranteed. We’ve been so used to that because we’ve been victorious and safe for so long, protected by the oceans and by our strength and the virtues that saw us through all the difficult times, the Revolution, the Civil War, World War I and II, the Depression. We’ve lost a lot of virtues and a lot of good sense, and meanwhile, the world has become far more dangerous. In general, my point is that we have not attended to our defense sufficiently, and we may pay for that, ultimately with a loss of sovereignty and independence.
are not included preview.
“The third thing is the question of values and virtues, if those are not restored to some semblance of decency—because I think it’s indecent now. For instance, I remember that in the ’70s, maybe the ’80s, a grant [was awarded] to an ‘artist’ whose art was piling manure about 10 or 12 feet and then jumping out of the third story of his apartment building into the manure. That’s supposedly his art, and that’s insane. If a society is insane, it’s going to pay for it.
Paris in the Present Tense (2017)
Elderly Jules Lacour, a Holocaust survivor and cellist, grapples with aging, financial strain, and his grandson’s illness in modernday Paris. When he takes drastic action to help his family, past and present collide. “People picks” book by People magazine.
We’re paying for it now.”
On Why He Loves America
“That’s easy. First of all, despite all the nonsense and corruption, one thing all about America is Americans. We have neighbors. They’re such good people. They’re honest, strong, decent people you can rely on, and those are the people I know. I encountered this all the time, the people that I worked with in the many jobs that I’ve done all my life. So, one thing I love about America is ordinary Americans.
“Another thing is the magnificence of its origins, its miraculous origins, the Founders, their documents, the government they designed, the generosity and courage with which they did it, and the beauty of their prose. The substance and style of things like the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, all the other writings which are not as well known: Those things are really beautiful and of genius. And in some cases, there’s a touch of divine influence in them. It’s a beautiful thing as the story unwinds.
“Then the art of America, the art and literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s magnificent, and that’s America, and it’s great. And then the physical beauty of the country and the history, the suffering and the courage and the devotion and the stories of people’s lives who went through something that demands love.
“We have immense capital sunk in this country, in its history, in its basic ideas, its arts. There’s an immense weight. The sinews are still there. Now the way things are, they have degenerated, but it’s there for the taking if we have the courage to do it.”
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (2023) Navy Capt. Stephen Rensselaer is unjustly removed from command after a principled act of mercy. As he returns to sea in the shadow of war, he wrestles with duty and an unexpected love for lawyer Katy Farrar.
IMPORTANT: DO NOT ENLARGE, REDUCE OR MOVE the FIM and barcodes. They are only valid as printed! Special care must be taken to ensure FIM and barcode are actual size AND placed properly on the ma il piece to meet both USPS regulations and automation compatibility standards.
Everything a magazine should be—a perfect gift delivered right to your giftee’s door.
IMPORTANT: DO NOT ENLARGE, REDUCE OR MOVE the FIM and barcodes. They are only valid as printed! Special care must be taken to ensure FIM and barcode are actual size AND placed properly on the ma il to meet both USPS regulations and automation compatibility standards.
Life-Changing Mentorship
The right questions fuel a purpose-driven life
By Andria Pressel
Ruth Gotian built her career on success. Her research focuses on highly successful individuals. She makes their methods and mindsets available to her coaching clients.
Her most recent book, “The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring,” shares Gotian’s insights on creating meaningful mentoring relationships that unlock potential and lead to higher achievement.
chair of her department.
As mentors, we may not always realize the significance of our responses, but they can have a lasting and profound impact on the lives of those we mentor.
AE: What are some strategies a mentor can use to build others up?
“Belief from a mentor,” Gotian said, “serves as both a beacon and a safety net.”
American Essence: Could you share memorable words that a mentor has said to you?
Ruth Gotian: Dr. Bert Shapiro once told me, “Do something important, not just interesting.” This guidance has been a cornerstone of my work, particularly in my research on high achievers and my efforts to help others achieve their full potential. It continually reminds me to aim higher and to ensure that my contributions are meaningful and impactful. With these six words in mind, I can help thousands of people I will never have the opportunity to meet.
AE: Could you highlight an anecdote that illustrates the power of the right words?
Dr. Gotian: One story I share in my book involves Odi Ehie, a young college student I mentored through a summer program. One day during medical school, she sent me an email questioning whether her lifelong ambition of becoming a physician was truly the right choice.
Responding to her email was just one of my daily tasks. However, that response led to a phone conversation, an introduction to someone in my network, and ultimately a research position that reignited her passion for medicine. Odi went on to complete her residency and fellowship, and today, she is a pediatric anesthesiologist and the vice-
Dr. Gotian: Ask open-ended questions that encourage self-reflection and growth. For example, asking, “What do you think was your biggest win this week, and what made it possible?” prompts the mentee to focus on their successes and the strategies that led to them, reinforcing positive behaviors.
A strategy I often recommend is to frame challenges as opportunities for growth. Instead of focusing on what went wrong, a mentor could say, “This didn’t go as planned, but what can we learn from this? How can we use this experience to improve moving forward?” This approach shifts the conversation from a potential negative to a constructive learning moment, empowering the mentee to view setbacks as stepping stones to success.
AE: What are some destructive words to avoid?
Dr. Gotian: Phrases like “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” or “Maybe you should aim lower, just to be safe” can seem like cautious advice but they actually plant seeds of doubt instead of seeds of ambition. These words can make a mentee question their abilities and settle for less than they’re capable of.
Saying something like “This isn’t good enough” without providing specific guidance on how to improve leaves the mentee feeling defeated and unsure how to move forward. It’s essential to pair any critique with actionable advice and encouragement, so the mentee knows how to grow from the experience.
Telling a mentee “In my experience, this doesn’t work out” can discourage them from pursuing innovative ideas or taking risks. Every mentee’s journey is unique, and it’s important to encourage them to explore their own path rather than imposing limitations based on past experiences.
Avoiding these pitfalls is crucial for mentors who truly want to uplift and empower their mentees.
Stories That Make You PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN
Rediscover the heart and soul of our nation with American Essence, a bimonthly magazine celebrating America’s rich tapestry of cultures and landscapes. You’ll find inspiring tales of courage, fascinating tidbits from history, expert tips for healthier living, and more. Meticulously curated and full of hopeful stories, each issue is a celebration of the American spirit.
Stories That Make
