Wally Baer, CEO of Enform over the past five years and a friend and mentor of mine, retired at the end of May 2012. (Enform is the Canadian Association of Upstream Oil and Gas Associations for Safety and Training, based in Calgary). I was fortunate enough to be asked to say a few words at his retirement function in early May. Those words follow...
As I have gotten to know Wally over the last 5 years he always impressed me with his outdoorsman-ship – a hunter – an outdoor guy – and a real man's man. At one time he related the following story to me:
During one of his physicals, his doctor asked him about his daily activity level, so Wally described a typical day this way:
"Well, yesterday afternoon, I waded along the edge of a lake, drank eight beers, escaped from wild dogs in the heavy brush, marched up and down several rocky hills, stood in a patch of poison ivy, crawled out of quicksand, jumped away from an aggressive rattlesnake and took four "leaks" behind big trees."
Inspired by the story, the doctor said, "You must be one h*ll of an outdoorsman!"
"No," Wally replied, "I'm just a shi**y golfer."
I think I may have been one of the few humans to have actually golfed with Wally. I had nagged him for a year or so to come out. When he final caved in and agree he told me that story by way of introduction. It was pretty close to the truth! That may be why Wally's retirement from golf came sooner than his retirement from Enform.
Share This Column