Today's Featured Biography

 
Gary Close

One year after high school, I married 1963 fellow classmate Marty Hadfield. We were married for 42 years until her death from cancer in 2006. We have 5 children, all married, who have produced 17 grandchildren (w and 4 great grandchild. Marty and I had a good life together, full of plenty of challenges, but also filled with good times and success. We lived in five different states before settling for good in Fair Oaks, California, near Sacramento, almost 38 years ago.

I attended Weber State University after high school, because I didn’t know what else to do. It turned out to be a good choice for me. After graduation with a degree in accounting, I went to work for Arthur Anderson, an international CPA firm, in Denver. The next 4 years were ones of many adjustments and many lessons learned. From there we moved to Las Vegas, when I worked full time as an audit manager and attended the University of Nevada at nights. I obtained an MBA in 1973, which lead to my next job opportunity, at Amfac Inc. in San Francisco, where I spent the next 16 years working a variety of jobs in a variety of industries. The final job as a Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations for a group of trouble companies turned out to be a career and life changing experience. After four years all companies had been turned to profitability, and I lead a team to dispose of all seven companies, which raised about $1.5 billion for the parent company. The president of the last business, a regional pharmaceutical distribution company, and me were successful in raising capital to buy this “lost gem” with hope of doing something big. Well, big is what happened during the next 8 years, as the company grew to national prominence with annual revenues of over $3 billion, and an industry leader in profitability. In 1996, we merged with Cardinal Health, Inc., which became the largest and most profitable in the industry, and is now one of the world’s largest health services company with annual revenues over $150 billion. When I “retired” as an Executive Vice President and President of the Western Group, in 2003, they were only at $20 billion, so you can see how much my leaving hurt them.

The years since retirement have been a whirlwind. I have been a volunteer in a variety of situations: for Weber State, several local charities, and for the LDS Church. I spent two years as one of the Chairman of the committee planning and managing the public open house for the new LDS Sacramento Temple, and have served at several roles since its opening in 2006, currently as the lead assistant engineer over volunteer cleaning and maintenance. My work with Weber State led to them awarding me with an honorary doctorate degree, but I have to admit they did a lot more for me that I did for them.

After nearly 4 years of being single, I married Crystal. Together we have 9 children, which keep us busy and occupied. If I had been allowed to design the perfect wife, it would be Crystal. She has youth (17 years younger than me), beauty and amazing talent. She is an accomplished and awarded artist (painter), who has also had good success commercially. Take a look at www.crystalclose.com for some of her work. I feel very fortunate to have her in my life. After serving an LDS mission in Ukraine, we returned to Fair Oaks, when we live today.

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