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Today's Featured Biography

 
Seymour Pederson

I have always been pretty socially inept and never really got to know many of my classmates. Even though I didn’t leave much of an impression, my high school years did pretty much shape the rest of my life. Hopkins provided me with an excellent education and I have been blessed with good health.

I made an appearance at Eddie Websters in 1970. It was a difficult time in that I had quit drinking that May. I didn’t stay very long which was probably a good move. This spring marked 40 years sober. Through the process of recovery I have made many friends, lost some to the disease, and learned to appreciate each day.

I have been married and divorced twice and finally found someone who would put up with me thirty years ago and we have been together ever since. I have two children in their forties and three granddaughters, ages 2-7. I have lived close to where I grew up most of my life except for two years after college when we moved to Detroit so I could work for my beloved Chrysler Corporation.

After some false starts I found that I had an aptitude for accounting and that became my life’s work. It has provided me with a good living through the years. Wherever I worked I managed to find co-workers that shared a sense of humor, and I never had a job that I didn’t look forward to. In 1989 I was able to quit working full time so I could devote more time to other interests, primarily running and drag racing.

Anyone who was in Butzie Metzold’s phy-ed class with me will be surprised to learn that I became a pretty fair distance runner in my forties. I really didn’t have much talent for running, some said that my stride reminded them of a kangaroo, but I was rigorous about training and got pretty good at it. I ran the 10K in under 37 minutes when I was 44 and I completed 100 miles in 24 hours on the same weekend that the last reunion was being held. Since 1978 I have ran or walked over 75,000 miles. I love to eat and those miles have allowed me to maintain my weight at about 20 pounds less than in 1960.

It was Doug Johnson who really got me involved with cars and racing. In 1960 CBS broadcast the compact car race from Daytona on national TV, that day a fleet of specially prepared Valiants ran away from the rest of the field and it made a lasting impression on me. My first car was a 1961 Valiant with a slant 6 and I have had many others since. I might have accomplished more professionally, or done some great work, if I hadn’t put so much effort into finding out how fast a slant 6 powered 62 Valiant would go in a quarter mile, but it sure has been fun.

I am a fan of Joe Soucheray’s Garage Logic and fascinated by 30-70 politics. That’s where you try to keep the vocal 30% from screwing it up for the rest of us. I love to be tan and wear short shorts. I love to travel, especially out west. Our generation has lived through momentous social changes (How did you like that sexual revolution?) and benefited from a growing economy and a favorable investment climate. The only thing we have to worry about is our kids coming to get us when they get the bill.

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