Acknowledgments

From time to time I look at my hands and see in them the hands of my mother and father. I thank them for bringing me into this world and protecting me.  I thank them for all they have given me – values, skills, uniqueness, love, support … I am grateful to be the son of Virginia Sibert and Don Melton.

It reminds me that I have not come to where I am without the support of many, many other people. Some of these human beings I will never meet again, some I met only briefly, some I have known for a long time. Many would not remember me yet I learned and grew from meeting them.

I thank these people for preparing the way for me, supporting me, teaching me, pushing me, cajoling me, arguing with me, having faith in me, telling me to dream, bringing me back to reality, taking a risk on me, demanding rigor and telling me to lighten up. I am grateful to all of these people who have given me special gifts of concern, honesty affection, ideas and time.

All of my teachers and mentors, especially Miss Ivans from Garden Oaks Elementary, Miss Butts at Spring Branch Junior High as well as Miss Scallett, Mrs. Anderson and Mr. Newell at Spring Branch High, Professor Weston LaBarre and Coach Al Buehler at Duke, Stewart Stein at Cornell, Alex Smallwood at Coverdale, Chefs Chambrette and Paul Ete at La Varenne, and most recently, James Flaherty at New Ventures West.

I have many friends, colleagues and family. In many respects, they are all family. Each has contributed to my life in a special way.

Bob and Oney Armstrong, Arnie Bellfontaine, Susan Crisman, George Epting, Alan Keffer, Ron Korona, Carol Mason, Joe Moffa, David Preece, Steve Price, Lil ten Brink, Wallace Whitworth.

And finally to those I have coached, as individuals or in teams around the world.   I have learned and grown immensely from our explorations.

Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know – we are here for the sake of each other, above all, for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of others, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received and am still receiving.

–Albert Einstein