For this week’s blog post I will be talking about the wild life of my grandfather; Ronald Regan (yes like the past American President)! This is the father of my mother for reference.
Last week, we talked about the many children that my grandmother took care of, so we won’t be discussing that topic too much in this blog post. However, my grandfather had 9 different careers so that will be our talking point for this blog post.
Born on July 15th, 1943 in Toronto, Ontario the life of my grandfather started. After his high school career, my grandfather went to Toronto Teacher’s college and got his teaching certificate in 1965. This was his first career, being a teacher of grade 5 for 1 year.
His reason for stopping was quite frank, not enough money. So he decided to go back to school to increase his pay grade. He chose to go to Waterloo to work towards his degree in Political Science and French. (Fun Fact: He can read French, but not speak it!) In his last year of his degree, he went to the job fair at the university he was then interviewed P&G (Procter and Gamble) where he got a Sales Associate w/ Company Car. A big part of taking this job was for the car. He got this job in 1966, making this his 2nd official career.
In 1968 (after winning the Man of the Year Award for Outstanding Sales Excellence) he attended an interview with IBM (International Business Machines). This time they offered him a job titled; Territory Manager in London, Ontario selling typewriters and copiers. He obviously left P&G for this job where we won a free trip to Hawaii for the family after receiving the Top Performer Award. IBM being his 3rd official career, he stayed with them for 10 years including a transfer to Calgary. It was here where he quit IBM a day after receiving his 10 year pension.
After this job, he secured a franchise ownership of a Campbell River McDonalds. This was when he shipped the family from Calgary to Campbell River for obvious reasons of opening the first McDonalds in Campbell River. During his tenure of 3 years of owning this McDonalds, it is a requirement that he was to attend the University of Hamburgerology in Oakbrook, Illinois. This marking his 4th career choice. My grandfather would like to note that he had the fastest Drive-Thru in all of Canada, winning him a free car which he gave to his manager.
Due to the stress of McDonalds, he decided to leave Campbell River and move to Victoria to secure employment of another career. This career being another Sales Associate position at Xerox Corporation aka the world’s largest supplier of photocopiers at the time. Marking his 5th career choice.
After only 1 year with Xerox, my grandfather decided he would give the fast-food industry another shot. Securing the rights to open a Burger King franchise in Victoria. After great success with the first restaurant, Ron decided to open up his second location in Victoria. Within one year, and I quote “the sales were not satisfactory in the second location resulting in personal bankruptcy for both franchise locations.” This marking the end of his 6th career, and the end of his fast-food involvement.
After Burger King, my grandfather secured his Life Insurance Certificate meaning he can now sell Life Insurance. Due to “unforeseen circumstances”, he went to sell insurance at Great West Life Insurance Company. Making career number 7. While he was selling disability insurance, he took another course in real estate sales.
After getting his Real Estate certificate, he quick the Life Insurance job to pursue his Real Estate career in Victoria. His slogan as a Realtor was “Ron Regan: I Never Sleep”, because he claims he was the Realtor “that never slept” always on duty 24/7. Marking his 8th career choice.
After finally retiring, my grandfather still can’t sit still becoming a volunteer at the BC Cancer Agency in Chemotherapy for 10 years where he is still there to this day.
My grandfather is quite the man of the people having great personable skills, and the ability to not take no for an answer. I love him with all my heart because he never fails to put others in front of himself, and put a smile on my face with all his crazy stories and adventures.
Here are some picture of my wild Grandfather to give you a visual of Ron.
Riley
