I recently heard that Jim Turgeon had passed away. I remember him as having a crusty personality with a great sense of humor.

In my late teens, I was a high school dropout flitting from one loser job to another. As a dropout, my prospects were pretty dim. I was quite excited when minimum wage went from 2.75 to 2.85.

My best friend was Ken and we were described in the parlance of the time as “idiot teens”. Ken’s dad was Jim. When complaining about how unfair life was, Ken mentioned to Jim that one of the smartest people he knew (meaning me, shucks) was wasting away at minimum wage with no prospects.

This got Jim’s attention because he happened to be a recruiter for Herzing Institute. (I hadn’t heard of them either. Think of ITT and you’ll be close enough for this story.) Herzing offered a one-year quickie course in computer programming.

It turned out that I was good with computers and ate up what the school had to offer. After a couple of false starts (idiot teen stuff) I got a diploma and a career with computers.

Of course, my magnificent future wasn’t all because of Jim, but he was a big part of getting me out of the minimum wage lifestyle.