Who wants to live in a little house on prairie?

Because I Said So column for The Commercial Appeal

Sept. 16, 2010

My wife and I alternate reading to our daughters — Somerset, 8; Genevieve, 4 — every night at bedtime. For the past few months, we’ve been reading from the “Little House” series that Laura Ingalls Wilder first published in 1932. I read a chapter one night and Kristy reads one the next, and so on.

The girls enjoy the stories and talk to us about how they imagine a scene or a character to look. It has been a great experience for all of us to watch their imaginations grow and work in this way, and it highlights the importance of reading to our kids.

One night, my turn happened to fall during the reading of the chapter “The House on the Prairie,” in the book “The Little House on the Prairie,” in which Pa Ingalls begins building an entire house mostly alone, using only the most rudimentary of tools and his innate know-how.

Thanks, Pa.

My daughters do not yet possess the capacity for fantasy that it would take to imagine their own pa building a house from timber he had hewn with his own hands. They don’t have the imagination it would take to envision me simply making repairs with my own hands … (read more)

Kennedy gives back to U of M School of Law

Law Talk profile for The Memphis Daily News

Sept. 16, 2010

When it comes to his inspiration for entering the legal profession, David S. Kennedy, chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee, gives a nod to his father and to Atticus Finch, Harper Lee’s stalwart symbol of fairness for a generation in her novel “To Kill A Mockingbird.”

When it comes to his actually becoming an attorney, Kennedy acknowledges the local law school.

“I owe a deep debt of gratitude to the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law,” Kennedy said. “Without this law school, I would not be here today in the capacity of a member of the legal profession, or as a federal bankruptcy judge. I highly respect and admire the law school and its local and national impact, which is very significant in so many different ways.”

Kennedy, 66, has given back to his alma mater as a member of the adjunct faculty since 1981, saying he “loves the classroom” and by sitting on the alumni board for several years. He was named president of that board in July … (read more)

BWSC’s Goforth’s prints seen throughout firm’s work

Memphis Standout Profile for The Memphis Daily News

Sept. 10, 2010

Managing the Memphis office of the design firm of Barge Waggoner Sumner & Cannon Inc., to hear him tell it, is Charles Goforth’s day job.

Last April, Goforth was elected to what he calls his “part-time job” as chairman of the board for the firm.

As office manager, Goforth is tasked with managing his company’s architects, engineers, landscape engineers and surveyors. He leads in the marketing of new work for the office, making sure the work gets done properly, scheduling and working with clients and coordinating projects on a daily basis.

Put simply, he is the interface between the client and the technical staff.

“I’m an interpreter between architects and engineers, and real people,” Goforth said. “I make sure we’re asking the right questions.” … (read more)

Criminals stole more than mere possessions

“Because I Said So” column for The Commercial Appeal

Sept. 2, 2010

With the break in the weather last week, the goldfinches returned to our yard.

I’ve written here before of the wildlife we have managed to attract around our house with strategically placed feeders and water. Making the grounds attractive to colorful and curious creatures has been a source of entertainment for my kids and me.

The sighting of the goldfinches’ bright yellow plumage was a highlight of the week for us. Along with the break in the weather, however, came the break-in of our home. The bearable temperatures brought out all wildlife, good and bad, and someone, or a group of someones, came into our house in the middle of the day and liberated computers and video games, among other items.

It’s a difficult thing to cope with, this violation of space, the thought of a stranger going through your things to determine what is and is not salable in whatever twisted market they deal. When you have to consciously look past the day-to-day corruption, violence and malaise in this city to find the good, an act such as this takes the wind out of your sails. It picks the pork out of your greens and drops the backbeat from your favorite soul song … (read more)

Vaco banks on city’s logistics strength

Feature story for The Memphis Daily News

Sept. 1, 2010

Vaco, a specialized upper-management and executive staffing and consulting firm based in Nashville with 24 offices around the country, including Memphis, has seen tremendous growth since its founding in 2002.

With revenue at $130 million and inclusion for 2010 on the Inc. 5000 list for the fourth year in a row, Vaco also has been cited as the fastest growing privately held company in the country.

With this kind of track record, there is nowhere to go but up, and that is especially true at Vaco’s Memphis office, which opened in 2004 at 6000 Poplar Ave. in East Memphis.

Although Vaco has focused primarily on technology, accounting and finance in the past, when the time came to expand its services into the field of logistics, Memphis – with its robust infrastructure and impressive roster of transportation and distribution companies – was the obvious choice … (read more)

Youth isn’t a hurdle for Red Door founder Phillips

Memphis Standout profile for The Memphis Daily News

Aug. 27, 2010

The scant number of years John Phillips V has under his belt relative to others in his chosen industry is not lost on him.

“I’m young, I know that,” the 26-year-old said.

So Phillips, the founder and chief investment officer of Red Door Wealth Management, is not shy about calling on those with more experience and years who surround him.

“I enjoy learning from the experience of others,” he said. “I try to cram as much knowledge as I can into my brain at this point, but there’s only so much you can do without the experience. I definitely lean on older, wiser people so I don’t make the same mistakes they did.”

There is no shortage of, in his words, “gray hair” to advise him. Phillips and partner Fred Hiatt both worked previously for Waddell & Associates Inc. before being courted by the 16-year-old accounting firm Cannon Wright Blount.

“The next direction of the wealth management world is to partner or combine with an accounting firm which allows you a whole new level of services that you can provide for clients and their businesses,” he said. “We’re hoping this is the next evolution of the business, we’re trying to get ahead of the curve.” … (read more)

New lunch series brings biz leaders together

Feature news story for The Memphis Daily News

Aug. 25, 2010

The Lipscomb & Pitts Breakfast Club and the University of Memphis are teaming up to bring students, faculty members and business leaders together with the Leading Tomorrow Lunch Series.

The breakfast series has brought area executives together to strengthen the business community since 2005, and has organized at least 100 events per year including the Signature Breakfast, which brings 300 business leaders together. The Executive Lunch Series was built on that success to bring leaders together to discuss issues of the day and business strategies.

“It’s really interesting to see like-minded people who are trying to make positive things happen and the power of that,” said Michael Drake, chairman and CEO of MasterIT, and member of Breakfast Club.

As inclusive as the gatherings are, Lipscomb & Pitts looked around and saw a missing component – tomorrow’s leaders … (read more)

Happy 40th birthday, Dad! Now what’s for breakfast?

“Because I Said So” column for The Commercial Appeal

Aug. 19, 2010

Time is precious. Time is elusive and a difficult concept to comprehend, especially for a child. Parents and teachers seem ancient, the days between putting textbooks away for the summer and slipping into a new pair of shoes for the first day of school feel like seconds, and the wait for a Pop-Tart to show itself from the toaster is interminable.

As kids, we learn about time — the function of the clock’s hands, the Earth on its axis, our trip around the sun — but what does that mean to a child? It doesn’t make sense to want nothing but sleep when it’s time for school and then spring out of bed at first light for Saturday morning cartoons.

Children need a handle when it comes to the fickleness of time; dinner at 6, bed at 9. This they understand. They may not like it, but they get it.

I found out last weekend, when I celebrated my 40th birthday, another aspect of time kids get. “Daddy’s old,” they said. For days leading up to, and all day that day, from early morning cartoons until lunch time and beyond, they reminded me.

The abstract of it was lost on them — their father having lived through disco, the fall of communism and a life without cable television.

But they understood the humor of it. Daddy is old … (read more)

Preserving history

Chucalissa welcomes volunteers to process site’s artifacts

Feature news story for The Memphis Daily News

Aug. 19, 2010

Each month volunteers get a chance to work alongside professional archaeologists by processing and cataloging artifacts at Chucalissa, the site of Native American burial mounds discovered in the 1930s as workers prepared T.O. Fuller State Park in South Memphis.

Volunteers help staff at the site’s C.H. Nash Museum bring Chucalissa artifacts into compliance with the updated collections management policies used for exhibits, an important component of this historic and cultural gem.

“Because we’re so short-staffed, we depend very much on our dedicated volunteers, so we like to give volunteers the ability to decide where they would best fit,” said Rachael South, administrative associate for the museum and graduate student at the University of Memphis, which operates the facility … (read more)

MBA increases awareness of intellectual property law

Feature story for The Memphis Daily News

Aug. 16, 2010

A new section of the Memphis Bar Association will focus exclusively on intellectual property and entertainment law.

In an effort to boost membership in the legal community and promote its services within the business community, the bar association will host a seminar Thursday, Aug. 19, at the Hilton Hotel in East Memphis.

“Intellectual property is everywhere; it pervades every section of business imaginable,” said Bill Parks, an attorney with Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs LLP, and president of the newest Memphis Bar section. “You wouldn’t have the things you have today without intellectual property in place.”

Trademarks and copyrights are no longer the concern of only the largest corporations, said Doug Halijan, an attorney with Burch, Porter & Johnson PLLC and board member of the new MBA section, and those smaller companies should “be aware of what sort of patent or trademark or copyright rights they may have in work that they develop.” … (read more)