5 Chapter Five: Coming Home Again
As mentioned in the previous chapter, Doug and Dixie got married right out of the Marines. In Doug’s time in the Marines, he had started slacking on his faith. Dixie, who was a Methodist, normally wouldn’t have been allowed to marry Catholic. However, Dixie’s father bonded with Doug over their time in the military, and he took enough of a liking to Doug to allow him to marry his father. The two of them were therefore married not in Church, but before a Justice of the Peace.
When they got out, they went to Milwaukee, and Dixie actually started going through RCIA. However, after going through the whole program, the priest told them that in order to have their marriage approved by the Church they had to get married in his office. Dixie refused, wanting to be married in front of the altar. The priest told her that “you can’t do that, you’ve already been living together.” The two later learned that the priest, who became the Bishop of Milwaukee, had a boyfriend and had been siphoning funds off of the Church coffers to keep it quiet.5 While this saddened them, they did not lose their faith because of the failings of a person. They instead changed parishes to a priest who allowed them to take their vows in front of the altar as they desired. Once he become a bishop, however, he was the one who confirmed their daughter. They later moved to Pennsylvania, where their son was confirmed by Bishop Don Wuerl, who is now a Cardinal.
While they were in Milwaukee, Doug worked for the Avis Truck Rental as a rental manager. Doug had to keep records of what trucks, large trailers, and vans were being rented and make sure they were sent out to the shops when they needed maintenance. He was in charge of processing the paperwork from the various rentals. They primarily rented to businesses, who needed extra trucks in the summer and fall when produce deliveries were far larger than in the winter. These businesses would rent a truck from Avis rather than pay the expense of owning an extra truck they didn’t need in the winter.
Now Avis was the second-best truck rental in that area, one Hurtz was number one. Doug was good at his job, and a good worker, and soon Hurtz started trying to recruit him. Doug moved over to Hurtz and worked with them for a while. They soon asked him to become a regional manager for the Hurtz rentals in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Doug would have moved to Minneapolis, and taken over from the guy there. However, as Doug said, “God intervenes.”
His brother Gary–who was trying to make a career for himself as a rock musician–had been working as a “bird dog” for a life insurance company. He would recommend people to a specific life insurance salesman, and in return, he got a discounted life insurance policy from the salesman’s company as well as 40% commission. Now, the manager from the salesman’s company–Modern Woodmen Life Insurance–was trying to get in touch with Gary. However, the number Gary had listed in the phonebook was disconnected because he didn’t want his fans to spam his actual phone number. The manager found Doug’s number, however, and came and visited him at his house trying to find Gary. As it turns out, he wanted to offer Gary a job making up to $60,000 a year.
Doug on meeting the insurance manager- 22 seconds
This sounded like a pretty nice deal to Doug, so he asked why they didn’t take him instead. So he interviewed with the manager, and he was able to land the job. He recalls it was hard to start on the bottom on the insurance business, being a salesman. Especially because he was selling life insurance. He remembers it was very hard to try and sell life insurance to young people. Thye felt like they were invincible, “I’m young, I’m not gonna die.” Selling is “98% understanding human beings, and only 2% product knowledge,” Doug remarked. It was long hours and hard work, but it paid well. Dixie ended up becoming Doug’s office manager as he went further up in the company. Doug recalls “she would be at the office looking out for my interest instead of having a girl there falling their nails, worrying about her next date again.”
Doug was good at his job, and he figured out a system that both helped his company and himself. Whenever he hired a new person, his goal was to get them good enough to be able to take his job. If he could find a good worker and train them to take over his job, he could get a promotion. The company would reward him for bringing in good employees. When he became a manager, he made better managers. When he became a supervisor, he made better supervisors. He worked himself all the way up to just below the National Sales Director.
This is where Doug finally retired. He had worked to a point where he felt qualified enough to work, and once he reached the peak of his “line of competency,” he felt satisfied enough to retire. After he retired, Doug was able to return home to his roots–Door County.