The Smartest Man In The Room

My full name is Christopher Curtis Goss. Curtis is a family name. My son Spencer's middle name is Curtis, my father's middle name is Curtis, and my grandpa's middle name was Curtis. My line of the Goss family goes back to Linn County, Kansas. In the Civil War my distant relative Capt. David Goss fought for the North, and you history buffs know how heated the Kansas Territory was over slavery and abolition! As the story goes, David was struck across the face by a saber on the battle field. His indentured servant seeing this didn't think to himself,"Woohoo! I'm free!" and run for the hills. Instead he carried the blinded David off the field and nursed him back to health. Since then that man, Curtis, has been honored by our family.

My Grandpa Chet used to tell me that story all the time growing up. He loved researching our family history. Grandpa Chet was from Ft. Scott, Kansas, probably better known for Gordon Parks than my grandfather. When he was four he and his parents contracted Scarlet Fever; he survived but they did not. So grandpa and his little brother Hank went to live with their maternal grandparents and when they passed they were raised by their aunts who ran the local diner. Everything you need to learn in life can be learned in a restaurant! One thing we managed to agree on. He worked with meaning and purpose every day of his life. After Pearl Harbor he hitch-hiked to California and joined the Navy like so many others, fought as a gunner, and survived again like so many others did not. He came home, married my grandmother, went to Columbia at night on the GI Bill, started a family, and joined the young executives program at CIT where he eventually rose to be CEO. He planned well and retired the day he could. I was the greatest beneficiary of that. He was always around when I was growing up. He told me so many important stories and things, things I didn't pay proper attention to until I was older. The one that comes back to me so often was when I was in high school and starting to consider colleges. He told me,"You don't have to be the smartest man in the room, but you'd better be damn sure he works for you!"

Well I can confidently say I've never been the smartest guy in the room but I've been blessed to know and work with so many of them over the years at jobs and in my personal life. I've thought of that phrase often since this campaign began too. I'm sure as hell not the smartest guy in Pt Pleasant, but I've met many who would be in contention. And more importantly I've gotten to be friendly with the sincerest people I've ever known. I'll tell you right now, I love Bill Schroeder. I'm so glad if any thing in this experience that it brought Bill into my life. He is a wonderful and sincerely caring man. And every time I talk to him I think to myself,"It's a good thing Steve McQueen is dead because Steve never could have lived with being the second coolest guy alive!"

I am a very fortunate man and I hope I always surround myself with the best people in the room.