Veteran reflects.

Since FEI is more than 70 years old, the organization has thousands of veteran and retired members. From time to time, we will feature some of those who were there to help FEI grow, and who particularly credit FEI for the value they gained from membership.

One such individual is Harold R. DeJager, a life-retired member. Still a member of the New York City Chapter, he's been with FEI for 55 years, having begun his membership in 1948. DeJager served in a variety of chapter and national committee and leadership positions. Among those, at the chapter level: Director, Vice President, President; and at the national level: Chairman, Admissions Committee; FEI, and FERF Treasurer, Committee on Corporate Pension Programs, and more.

DeJager began his career working with Ernst & Ernst from 1936-46, traveling on the road all winter while studying for his degree from the University of Minnesota (it took him 1-1/2 years to complete a three-year program, going to classes in the summer, spring and fall). He then took his first job in the private sector in Buffalo, N.Y., as Controller and Secretary for Welch's Grape Juice Co. (now Welch Foods Inc.).

It was following this job that his membership with FEI--then the Controllers institute--became a seminal event in his life, DeJager said in an interview. FEI helped him get his next job with Oxford University Press Inc., based in New York City. At that time, DeJager said, getting a job for a member was "frowned upon." But, for him, the job became his life's career, as he rose from controller to vice president and treasurer within the same company.

"It seems rather strange to write a letter like this, but time does keep on moving, regardless of one's wishes," DeJager wrote FEI in the letter announcing his retirement in 1980. Since retirement, he's been living in Punta Gorda, Fla., with his wife of 62 years and has some feisty comments about what he reads and hears through the media about his profession. Asked what he enjoyed most about his career, he replied without hesitation: "Working with people. People make the organization run." He advises finance executives to "get the best people you can afford."

What qualities does DeJager believe are necessary for today's financial professionals to get it right? "Competency, integrity and a sense of humanity," he asserts.