Specialist Thomas Conway stands a parade route in his ceremonial blues while serving with the 3rd Infantry Regiment in the Washington D.C. area during the early 1980s.
March 2020
Conway is proud of his service, but keeps quiet about it Do you know your next-door neighbor’s story? You might be surprised what you can learn if you ask. Take Tom Conway, a human resources manager at Lamb Weston who comes across as competent, professional and good-humored. He lives in a nice house in a middle-class neighborhood. He’s been married for 26 years to Jean, the younger sister of a high school classmate, and they have three grown sons and seven grandchildren. Tom moved here in January 2016 to work. The following year, he was appointed to fill the late Dave Rutherford’s seat on the Park Rapids City Council. What more could there be to know? Try adding these facts to your Tom Conway knowledge base:
Conway ► He learned to play a guitar at age 11 and still plays for relaxation. He even has a travel guitar, designed to fit in an airplane’s overhead compartment. ► Originally from Emmetsburg, Iowa, he has a bachelor’s degree in personnel management from Northwest Missouri State University and an MBA from St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. ► His career has included jobs with a construction company that builds
plants for Cargill and, later, with paper and construction materials giant Georgia Pacific. He also taught college for a couple semesters as an adjunct professor and chaired an economic development commission. ► Transferring from one office to another, he worked for about six years in Iowa, then 11 in Duluth, a couple years in Atlanta, Ga. and six in Las Vegas, Nev. before he and Jean decided to move back to the midwest, and he joined Lamb Weston. From 10,000 feet, it might look like everything fell into place, starting with that bachelor’s degree. But at ground level, Conway said, it wasn’t like that at all. “When you look back at somebody’s career at this stage of the game, it looks like it was planned out,” he said. “One thing seems to lead to the other. But when
you’re going through it, you’re 20-something and you’re thinking, ‘I’m having a heck of a time finding a job, so I’m going to join the Army.’ And then the Army leads to services that draw people’s attention.” People, for example, like then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. “I don’t think I would have had the career I’d had if I hadn’t joined the service, because I think the prestigious duty assignments that I had drew people’s attention, and that had a lot to do with getting interviews and getting (hired).”
Young man in the Old Guard
After finishing college in three and a half years, Conway said, “I struggled to find a job, probably because I was only 21, so I joined the Army.”
CONWAY: Page 4
Art Beat Quarterly Regional Guide
Inside this issue... 2 The secret to houseplant success 3 What is REAL ID? 5-8 Art Beat 9 PANTRY-PERFECT: Brown butter is gamechanging in these chocolate chip cookies 10 Monitoring solutions for loved ones with dementia 11 Helping family from a distance with memory care 11 Small gestures can reassure anxious or lonely older adults
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By Robin Fish rfish@parkrapidsenterprise.com