Earl Ronneberg

Work - a Memoir Earl Ronneberg

Publisher Marketing: As a gentle rain from heaven brings forth the ghost-like Indian Pipe in clumps and individual stems from the decayed organic material of the forest floor, so too, does John Sherman bring forth from memory, words, and the lifeless, dry paper fragments of his basement, the vivid green of his working life, its groups, and individuals, as they react with Sherman's youth, his upbringing, and his own romance of illusions. Work -- A Memoir is a story spanning a thirty-four year odyssey of one man's journey into and within the most successful business enterprise the world had, at the time, ever experienced; a tale of working within a span of years that many would call a golden age of our own times, and of the company that crafted it IBM. Departing from his fictional trilogy of short stories -- Old Friends and Other Stories (2008), Stories of Identity (2009), and Stories of Groups (2010) -- Ronneberg switches to non-fiction but yet never ceases to examine the elements of his prior works: stories, the formation of a work identity, friendships, groups, excitement and the adventure of the spirit as lived across nine successive careers, their corollary activities, and the high and low points of his odyesey. As such, readers of Stories of Identity will detect why it can also be called: A Biography of the Spirit Part Two -- The Middle Years -- Work. Contributor Bio:  Ronneberg, Earl Earl Ronneberg has authored four books of short stories, two books of memoirs, a book of poetry, philosophy, and a novel. He holds an undergraduate degree from Princeton, having attended that school on an NROTC scholarship; he served for three years as an officer on the USS Hank (DD-702), a general purpose destroyer. After his military service he earned a graduate degree from Stanford and, during 32 years with IBM, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago. After retiring in June of 1997, he earned his third master's degree, a Master of Liberal Arts degree from the University of Chicago. Married, with two adult children and three grandchildren, Earl has spent his entire married life of 48 + years in Hyde Park in Chicago. The back cover of The Gospel of Marriage anticipates his 50th wedding anniversary in 2015; it reads as follows: "Oh, it's a long, long time from May to December - But the days grow short when you reach September - When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame - One hasn't got time for the waiting game - Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few - September, November - And these few precious days, I'll spend with you - These precious days, I'll spend with you. Time is stretched when the long year becomes fifty; each week now a year. The horizon of knowing the love of one's life becomes close enough to sense the change of autumn's flaming leaves to a golden anniversary. But the autumn breeze carries lines from within a prayer of Kierkegaard's, to will one thing, during those precious days: 'So may Thou give to the intellect, wisdom to comprehend that one thing; to the heart, sincerity to receive this understanding; to the will, purity that wills only one thing. . . . As the day wanes, may Thou give to the old man a renewed remembrance of his first resolution, that the first may be like the last, the last like the first, in possession of a life that has willed only one thing'. The lines do not arise from the motives of remorse and repentance, but gather up two elements that combine to confess the fiery point from which the transfiguration of the world can begin: love and marriage."