December 2, 2025 • 53 mins
A Detroit childhood filled with Belle Isle picnics, DIY bike “Olympics,” and a grandparents’ house that welcomed everyone set the stage for Chuck’s lifelong commitment to service. We sit down with him to follow the arc from neighborhood games to a 30-year Army career, a leadership run at Consumers Energy, and a purposeful reinvention as an educator, nonprofit founder, and leadership coach. The moments that shaped him—an English teacher who flipped his view on writing, a drill sergeant who turned pressure into fuel, and a young family that sharpened his ambition—become practical lessons anyone can use.
Chuck opens up about joining the Army at twenty for the challenge, carrying admin and training roles that supported drill sergeants and infantry skills, and later commissioning through BOLC as a Mustang officer. He shares how online college enabled a late-degree comeback, why balancing reserves with a demanding utility leadership job built resilience, and what it felt like to stand in final formation, uniform on for the last time. Along the way, we get real about promotions, the pull of command, and the choice to step away at captain to protect health, family focus, and long-term impact.
Today, Chuck channels decades of experience into teaching, the Chuck Folks Organization guiding people into skilled trades, and “Talk to Chuck Folks,” where he trains teams on leadership and resilience. His core message lands with clarity: discover your gift, maximize it until work becomes purpose, and use it to lift others. If you’ve ever wondered when to double down, when to pivot, or how to align career, family, and meaning, this conversation offers a grounded roadmap shaped by Detroit grit and military discipline.
If this story resonates, follow the show, share it with someone who needs a push, and leave a review so others can find it too.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (02:02):
Good morning.
Today is Wednesday, November26th, 2025.
We're talking with Chuck Folks,who served the United States
Army.
So good morning, Chuck.
Good morning, Bill.
How are you doing?
Great.
Always good to see you.
Great to see you as well.
It's been a minute, I think.
Yes.
Yeah.
So we'll just get started rightout with uh um questioning here.
SPEAKER_01 (02:21):
When and where were you born?
I was born in Detroit, 1965, atHarper Hospital.
Awesome.
What month?
I'm just curious.
SPEAKER_02 (02:30):
September.
Okay.
I was born in April of 65.
I'm a fall baby.
Okay, all right.
I'm a I'm a spring baby.
Okay.
I think we had tornadoes when Iwas born.
SPEAKER_01 (02:38):
That's almost two, by the way.
So great.
So did you grow up in Detroitthen?
Born and raised uh in Detroit.
A lot of history growing up inthe city of Detroit.
Um, as a kid, I remember uhgoing on the Bobolo boat,
Edgewater Park, uh spendingnumerous family outings at
Bellau Park.
(02:59):
Uh so I was born and raised inDetroit.
Okay, and brothers and sisters?
I have one brother and onesister.
Okay.
And I am the oldest.
Oh, you are?
SPEAKER_02 (03:08):
So you're in charge?
SPEAKER_01 (03:09):
Ah, Charles in charge.
I'm Charles in charge.
Uh, kind of sort of.
SPEAKER_02 (03:13):
Okay.
Well, my older sister thinksshe's in charge all the time.
So I think it might be a trend.
I don't know.
Um, and how far apart are you inage with your siblings?
SPEAKER_01 (03:22):
Actually, my brother, ironically, he just
turned 52.
My sister is 48.
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (03:29):
All right.
SPEAKER_01 (03:30):
And you just turned I just turned the big six, six.
Oh, I just joined the 60 club.
I uh consider myself uh old orolder gentleman.
Not the original gangster.
SPEAKER_02 (03:43):
Not the original gangster, no, the older
gentleman.
Older gentlemen.
We need to put together a lineof t-shirts for that.
SPEAKER_01 (03:50):
Yes, yes.
I think and just just for therecord, you don't become an
older gentleman and uh old untilthe age of 50.
Okay.
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (04:00):
All right.
So you might be able to get yourARP card before then, but you're
not going to be an oldergentleman before that.
That's correct.
That's that is correct.
So talk to me a little bit aboutgrowing up in Detroit and what
kind of the what are some ofyour earliest memories?
SPEAKER_01 (04:14):
Well, Bill, um, growing up in Detroit um was
just fantastic.
I can honestly say I had aphenomenal childhood.
I was raised by my grandparents,ironically.
My mom and dad were still uh agreat part of my life, but I was
raised by my grandparents.
Um with that being said, um, ourhouse was the Kool-Aid house
(04:38):
because we um our house was thehouse that everybody um migrated
to to visit uh my grandmotherand grandfather, and we had uh
numerous family uh dinners andthings, things of that nature.
Um I remember as a child uhhaving an extended family of
(04:59):
uncles, aunts, cousins.
It was just remarkable.
Uh recalling the time spent atBellau Island, which I just
heard uh rumors that they'retrying to re revive that
experience.
I don't know, uh not the islanditself, but the boat.
Uh I just heard rumors, I'm notsure how true that is.
(05:22):
Uh Edgewater Park, uh Seven MileEvergreen area, uh going to Bell
Al Park uh for family outingsand different um sporting
outings, things that things ofthat nature.
Uh then just playing with theneighborhood kids.
Of course, um remember uhplaying all three sports.
(05:44):
In the summertime, we could playall three sports in one day
baseball, basketball, foot,football, all in one day.
And uh another uh activity thatwe established in our
neighborhood, well, a couplecouple activities.
One was um in the summertime, weuh played what we call Olympic,
(06:06):
where we lined our bikes up andwe um utilized them as hurdles.
We ran races and we jumped overeach bike as a hurdle.
That was our our our Olympic.
Then me and the boys in theneighborhood, we got so good we
(06:26):
called uh called it on our bikescatwalking.
Catwalking is the art of beingable to ride a bike on one
wheel.
Oh yeah.
So we got we got pretty good atit where we can actually
strategically start at thebeginning of the block and go
for a full block on one onewheel.
(06:48):
It was just it would just, ofcourse, that was with numerous
practice.
You know, we started out, youknow, uh um a quarter of a mile,
half, you know, half a quarterof the block, half the block,
then the full block.
So things things like thingslike that um that we um engaged
in at as a kid and growing up inour neighborhood.
(07:11):
Um of course we wasn't angels byany stretch of imagination, but
we wasn't bad kids.
Right.
So sports was our way of uh, asI can say, keeping us out of uh
any um mischief.
SPEAKER_00 (07:25):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (07:26):
You know, because by the time we got finished with
sports, um, we're too tired tobe.
I was gonna say you probablyslept pretty well in the school.
I slept well, particularlyduring school, uh during the
school year, because after yougot out of school, you rushed to
do your homework, got out ofyour school clothes, then you
went outside and play for alittle bit, then you came in for
(07:48):
dinner, uh uh got bed, bathed,bedded down, started the whole
day over again.
So childhood was just great, andthen kind of uh wrapping up the
childhood uh memories, as Irecall, um I did a little
everything.
It's just just the nature of meas a person.
(08:13):
I remember uh being a Cub Scout,I remember being a Boy Scout,
um, of course, playing playingplaying sports.
I remember my dad uh, of course,after my mom and dad divorced,
my dad dating uh this young ladywhose mother was a square dance
(08:34):
teacher.
So I took square dancing.
Imagine a young African-Americankid in the 70s square dancing.
It was just uh wasn't wasn't, Icould say wasn't wasn't the
norm.
Yeah, I can't wrap my headaround that.
So I uh I square danced, uh uhdone junior achievement.
(08:58):
I can't remember anything that II I didn't I didn't try.
SPEAKER_00 (09:02):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (09:02):
Uh then then one significant uh uh point in the
childhood.
I was born in 1965, so duringthat whole 60 civil rights uh
era, and I remember uh my familymoving from the east side of
(09:24):
Detroit to the west side, whichmy whole uh childhood and adult
life was on the on the westside, but I remember our family
purchasing our first home on thewest side of Detroit in 1971.
We were the firstAfrican-American family on our
(09:45):
block in our in ourneighborhood.
Again, very fond memoriesbecause I remember um there was
a family that lived down thestreet.
They had a swimming pool andthey invited me down in the
summers, they invited me downthere every day.
I remember going down there,having meals.
(10:07):
One particular day I rememberthey had spaghetti.
We swam, ape spaghetti.
That's another uh uh memory ofuh of my uh childhood.
So um basically that's that'sthat's that's the uh Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (10:23):
Now, did you carry sports on through uh junior high
and high school?
Did you play like organizedsports in school?
SPEAKER_01 (10:32):
No.
I uh I played uh me and mycousin who grew up uh my first
cousin, we grew up more likebrothers than than cousins.
We were first cousin.
We played on the YMCA team, butum ironically, uh of course the
neighborhood guys, if they werehere, they probably would uh
(10:54):
challenge me on it.
Doing elementary, middle school,I was the best in the night.
SPEAKER_00 (11:02):
Playing, you know, all all all all the sports.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (11:05):
But I um the competition uh caught up with
me.
I I should say by the time highschool, of course, um my height,
you know, kind of slowed down.
You know, I was a normal uh arelatively short guy, uh skinny
(11:26):
and bill.
So um after middle school, Ididn't pursue any high school or
or any sports beyond that.
I got involved in otheractivities as uh uh uh like say
junior achieved uh co-op.
A lot of us for for whateverreason at that age a lot of
(11:46):
business um uh uh activitiesinterest me.
So I I pursued those over uhover sports.
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02 (11:55):
All right.
Any any favorite subjects inhigh school?
SPEAKER_01 (11:58):
Actually, uh my favorite high my favorite
subject throughout school andhigh school has been math.
Always been pretty pretty goodat math.
Um English is not so not sogood, but I um in the ninth
grade, I had an English teachernamed Mr.
Gates who turned my whole umperspective towards English
(12:24):
around.
Then I got more interested inthe dynamics of writing and
stuff like that.
But throughout school and highschool, college, the whole nine
math has always been okay.
SPEAKER_02 (12:39):
So you uh you got through high school and uh what
happens after high school?
SPEAKER_01 (12:44):
After high school, um I went to community college
here locally.
I graduated from Redford HighSchool in 1983.
And as I stated in the beginningof the interview, I'm an old
gentleman.
So I graduated in 1983.
Ironically, Redford High Schoolclosed in 2007, right there at
(13:07):
the uh corner of uh Grand Riverand Six Mile.
It is now Myers, a Myers store.
So I jokingly say the auditoriumis now the produce section at
Myers.
Oh no.
That's always sad when an oldschool goes into it.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
And and and it's kind of it'skind of uh um typical for a lot
(13:29):
of uh um popular schools inDetroit because Refert closed,
uh Cooley closed, and a couplewell-known schools close.
There's uh a couple of thosecore schools that are still open
that they're in the process ofuh uh rehabilitating, you know,
um closing the old schools, Imean rebuilding.
(13:50):
Oh, yeah.
I I should say.
But um I tend I tend to uh referrefer refer I so after high
school um went to Henry FordCommunity College for a couple
years, um, and then I umattended uh Oakland Community
College.
SPEAKER_00 (14:08):
Um and be quite frank, Frank, uh after I got out
of high school, I wasn'tserious.
SPEAKER_01 (14:15):
I think I maintained uh uh it was higher press C
average at best.
I just wasn't serious.
SPEAKER_00 (14:22):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (14:23):
Then after a couple years of uh Harry Ford
community, Oakland community, umstarted dating my who is now my
wife.
SPEAKER_00 (14:33):
Um then I stopped stopped going to school.
SPEAKER_01 (14:37):
Um married, had a family, and then go back to
school later on, which becameone of my um goals in life is to
achieve a college degree.
So I went back later on after mykids were a little older, family
a little family dynamics was alittle resettled.
SPEAKER_00 (14:59):
Um went back and got my how long have you been
married?
SPEAKER_01 (15:05):
Ironically, uh coming up this is uh end of
November come up on DC.
I've been married for 36 years.
SPEAKER_02 (15:13):
Well, congratulations.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That's pretty incredible.
SPEAKER_01 (15:16):
So I s I I say uh my running joke is I've been
married practically my wholeadult life.
I uh I got married at 23 yearsof age, had my first child uh at
25, had my second child at 28.
So uh got married and started myfamily pretty pretty early,
which um which was an assetbecause now uh my kids are grown
(15:43):
uh and I'm still relativelyyoung.
SPEAKER_00 (15:46):
I can pursue a lot of things right now life that
got at boy and still uh sharethose kids.
SPEAKER_02 (15:56):
Yeah, yeah, I I mean I highly recommend having kids
early, not too early.
Right.
But but early enough so that youyou aren't, you know, you're not
going to high school graduationwhen you're 75.
That would be tough, I think.
SPEAKER_01 (16:08):
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (16:09):
I mean my kids wore me out when I was in my you know
30s and 40s.
I can't imagine uh trying to dothat at an older age, but people
do it.
God bless them.
SPEAKER_01 (16:18):
God bless them, people people do it, but um yes.
SPEAKER_02 (16:21):
Absolutely.
So you uh um you have twochildren then, right?
Um married 36 years.
So how so you uh you met yourwife, um, decided hey, college
isn't for me right now, andstart your family.
Did you start working right awayor uh did you go in the
military?
What what happened kind of inthat mix?
SPEAKER_01 (16:41):
Actually, you you know what, Bill?
Um I'm now an educator afterretiring from Consumers Energy
and retiring from the military.
So kind of like on my thirdcareer, yeah.
Uh in the twilight, uh, as Isay, kind of in the later years,
twilight, if if you will, of uhof my life.
(17:02):
And I share with my students alloften this this point in my
life, um it's just uh uh morerewarding um because my focus
has turned off from myself intohow do I become more of a
(17:26):
positive impact diet, andhelping.
So and that's a combination ofwhere I'm I'm at in life and
from my uh uh personality.
SPEAKER_00 (17:41):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (17:42):
Well that's that's and that's great to pass down to
students too.
I think it I think your lifedoes go in phases like that,
right?
You um, you know, you're in thatkind of me where you're trying
to raise your family, you'retrying to work, you're trying to
do all this other stuff uh to uhfocus on others as you get
older.
Um so yeah, so let's uh so goingback a little bit, um, you know,
(18:04):
after you got married or youknow, you met your wife, did you
did you start working right awaythen?
SPEAKER_01 (18:10):
Right.
Um so so basically um again,what I share with people at this
point in my life, everybody tome, um everybody has that uh
most people, some people forwhatever reason never get it
(18:30):
that motivation.
So to answer your question, I uhme and my wife met at uh MBD
Bank, National Bank of Detroit,which is now Chase Bank.
Um worked there for uh about sixyears, I was making decent
money, just had got married witha couple kids, but it motivated
(18:50):
me because I had a family, I hadstopped going to school, so I
had to so basically mymotivation now was I gotta get a
job to make more money because Ihave a family.
SPEAKER_00 (19:01):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (19:02):
So I ran ironically at that particular time, started
working at consumers, startedout entry level, uh meter
reading, worked my way up, uheventually start, I mean worked
my way up and start graduallymaking uh real good money.
(19:23):
So uh started Consumers Energyearly uh uh after a couple years
after I got married, and one ofmy kids were very formative
years.
So basically I raised my familyworking out.
SPEAKER_00 (19:37):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (19:39):
And and another added point to that is uh what I
share with people, particularlymy my students, I started at
consuming this energy at 26years old.
Um a lot of people, or I shouldsay a a good percentage of
people, if you really haven'tfound yourself or found that
(20:01):
niche uh by mid-20s to early30s, I mean, the world's not
ending, but most people getthat, you know, fight, you know,
find that career path, startgoing down the road that they're
going down.
Of course, you switch gears, butby your mid-20s, 30s, if you
ain't on some type of path, uhsomething something is something
(20:25):
uh Yeah, it's gonna be rough.
SPEAKER_02 (20:28):
It's gonna be rough.
It's gonna be rough.
SPEAKER_01 (20:29):
It's gonna be rough.
So I can honestly say I startedat Consumers Energy at 26.
SPEAKER_02 (20:33):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (20:34):
And then oh where did the military come in?
The military came in at the ageof 20.
Okay.
Uh I joined the military at theage of 20.
And um, I often reflect back onthat because at that time, I I
believe I joined the militarybecause I always been over
(20:56):
ambitious, and that was justlike the next big challenge.
Um, so that's how I ended upjoining the military and looking
and reflecting back and lookingback on it, it was the best I
ever.
SPEAKER_02 (21:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you joined the army at theage of 20.
SPEAKER_01 (21:15):
At the age of 20.
SPEAKER_02 (21:16):
Okay.
Where'd you take your basictraining at?
SPEAKER_01 (21:18):
Fort Dix, New Jersey.
SPEAKER_02 (21:20):
Oh boy.
SPEAKER_01 (21:21):
In New Jersey.
SPEAKER_02 (21:22):
Yeah.
So what was that like?
Tell me a little bit about whatwas it like when you got there?
It's funny.
SPEAKER_01 (21:31):
Uh 20-year-old uh young kid joining the military.
Uh and I have similarexperiences, just a few
interview a lot of people whojoined the military at early age
have similar experiences.
SPEAKER_00 (21:49):
I remember my drill sergeant.
Wayne Edward Wigan.
SPEAKER_01 (21:56):
He had never he he he said it over and over in
basic training.
Um and I think it it was justhis his his uh uh motivational
tactic.
SPEAKER_00 (22:07):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:07):
He probably he he probably did this cycle after
cycle while he was a drillsergeant.
For whatever reason, I was thatguy, that trainee that he
decided to pick up.
So I'm here, uh 20-year-old kidfrom the city of Detroit in New
(22:27):
Jersey, out of my mind.
Really the first time being awayfrom home outside of being with
with uh my grandparents or myparents or what have you.
SPEAKER_00 (22:43):
He looked at me, looked right, got right in my
face.
You know, of course, with thebig uh drill sergeant hat
around.
I don't know what you didn'tknow and about you I don't know
(23:04):
why I don't know what it is.
I'm thinking, what did I do?
SPEAKER_01 (23:15):
I just showed up what again that was his
motivational tactic that heprobably used every cycle.
He picked up he picked on meprobably for about a week.
Then he realized that that uh umI wasn't going to uh succumb to
the pressure, I was just gonnado, you know, hey, I'm away from
(23:40):
home.
What what what am I gonna doother than uh do what I needed
to do to uh to survive?
SPEAKER_00 (23:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:47):
So um he realized that that uh he had achieved his
goal of intimidating me and mebeing able to to um as they say
man up.
SPEAKER_00 (24:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:00):
So that experience uh I carry from uh life and then
just the overall experience umof uh the you know what the
military represents, thediscipline, the camaraderie, um,
the lifelong friends that you uhthat you meet, the connections,
(24:23):
and of course now being theolder benefits uh are uh kicked
in.
SPEAKER_02 (24:31):
Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So you can't beat that.
No, no, not at all.
So you're did you do you go inon like a four-year enlistment
initially?
SPEAKER_01 (24:39):
Additionally, I signed up uh, I believe it was
uh a four-year enlistment,enlisted enlistment, and you
were obligated for eight years.
So you did four years, and Ithink you were obligated the
three or four years after that,uh, which they could, if you got
out, they could call you up orwhatever.
SPEAKER_02 (25:00):
Yeah, the IRR, the individual reserve, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:03):
Right.
But after that four years,ironically, I found myself um
re-enlisting, and um, next thingI know, I I re-enlisted looking
up, coming up on my 20 years,then I re-enlist, next thing I
know, I'm coming up on 30 years,so at that point I made it uh
(25:26):
made it a career.
And what what motivated mebecause simultaneously I
maintained a career ofconsumers, right?
And um the military as far asbeing in reserves.
I remember um after 15 years,you know, uh was pretty busy
(25:46):
with the family, had startedprogressing at consumers.
My responsibilities in and outuh were uh pretty uh pretty
taxing.
SPEAKER_00 (25:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:57):
And I remember saying at the 15-year mark, I
remember it's like I'm readyout.
But thank God I had theforethought to say, well, okay,
15 years, you're too close to20.
You might as well push it to 20,at least you can get a
retirement out of this.
Yeah.
So then I got to 20.
(26:18):
Um, once I got to twenty, uh Ibelieve I had achieved the rank
of uh like E6, E7.
Then I started looking at thechecks.
SPEAKER_00 (26:31):
Wow, okay, so that's pretty good money.
So that motivated me for acouple couple more years.
SPEAKER_01 (26:38):
And then um at that time, I that's when I made the
decision to go back to school toget my bachelor's degree.
At that particular time, I mean,I was doing pretty good at
consumers, so it it wouldn'taffect me one way or another.
I mean, it would look good forme to apply for, you know,
different upper mobilitypositions with a bachelor's
(27:01):
degree, but at that particulartime, you know, I was in
management making good moneyanyway.
So but it was a personal goal ofmine to get my degree, but it
did set me up because I made thedecision to commission as an
officer.
So my last rank as an enlistedwas an E7.
I decided to uh commission.
(27:24):
I kind of mauled around becominga warrant officer, but I decided
on becoming a becoming abecoming an officer.
So I ended up commissioning.
That was a great experience.
And I forget the term.
You you can help me with theterm.
Uh officers that was enlistednow as an officer has more
respect because you done seemeduh it's a term for it.
(27:46):
I can't think of it right thistime.
SPEAKER_02 (27:47):
Yeah, well, so in the Navy they're called
Mustangs.
Mustang, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, Mustang.
Same thing.
SPEAKER_01 (27:52):
Yeah, same thing.
You you'll you'll you're you'llyou're a must Mustang.
SPEAKER_02 (27:55):
So it was very close to my career because I um after
14 years enlisted, I was an E6,and then I went to OCS and got
my commission.
SPEAKER_01 (28:05):
Correct.
SPEAKER_02 (28:05):
Um, and then I retired as a captain as well.
SPEAKER_01 (28:08):
It's funny because I retired as a captain as well.
SPEAKER_02 (28:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:12):
And um so at that point, now, you know, I'm
progressing at consumers.
I'm an officer in the reserve,so I'm I'm doing pretty pretty
pretty pretty pretty good.
But um then I then I made thedecision again, you know, of
course my kids were older, so I,you know, my responsibility
(28:33):
level from a kid and the familystandpoint was, you know, kind
of tapering off a little bit.
But uh I made the decision as Igot close to my 30 years because
the responsibilities from thereserve component as I grew in
rank was becoming as I wasevaluating for like a full-time
(28:58):
status.
Right.
So it's like it's almost likehaving two full-time jobs,
because it wasn't like uh I wasjust a reservist, it was work
that I had to do outside of uhthat because of my uh
responsibility level at thattime.
So at that time I made thedecision when I get to the
30-year mark, I'm gonna retire.
(29:18):
Because there's other thingsthat I want to pursue.
If I stay in the military, I hadjust re uh achieved the rank of
a captain.
I haven't, I had at that time Ihadn't did my um um uh what's
the name time?
SPEAKER_00 (29:35):
My uh uh why does it take me?
Oh, your captain's careercourse?
SPEAKER_01 (29:44):
No, I haven't done the captain's career course, but
uh as a captain, you have to doyour uh time uh company
commander time.
Oh yeah, yeah.
I hadn't done my company'scommander time, so I decided to
retire.
I hit my 30-year mark, but if Ihad stayed in, I I uh at that
particular time I would havedone my uh uh um commander's
(30:08):
time.
Yeah.
And be honest with you, uhreflecting back on it to
alleviate the stress of jugglingconsumers and my military, I
would have requested uh activeduty time while I would do my
commander time.
So I would be away and I canfocus in on that.
Then after my commander time waswas up, then I would come back
(30:30):
and then I'd be promotable to uhmajor at that point.
But it would alleviatecommander's time, maintaining my
uh I mean it would to me it'sdoable.
I see people do it all the time,but it would just be more than
what I would work.
SPEAKER_02 (30:46):
It's a lot of work, it's just a lot of work.
SPEAKER_01 (30:48):
And it's a lot of work, a lot of commitment, and
basically you really have to uhblock out everything else,
really do it effectively, andthen not to not to uh stress
yourself out.
SPEAKER_02 (31:00):
Right, exactly.
So you so I want to back up alittle bit because we covered a
lot of territory, but there's alot of uh detail I'd like to get
to.
Okay.
Um, so uh first, what was yourwhat was your MOS?
What what did you do uh as anenlisted person in the in the
Army?
SPEAKER_01 (31:16):
Okay, so so so basically, and and and it goes
back to my MO uh as a person.
Every couple years, I look forthat challenge.
Right.
And as we started on themilitary career, as I reflect
(31:36):
back on it, that was the reasonwhy I joined the military.
As a 20 year old kid, I waslooking for that next challenge.
So every couple years I look forthat challenge.
So additionally, when Ienlisted, I enlisted as an
admin.
SPEAKER_00 (31:52):
Um and be honest with you, uh they call that uh
ad, call that a uh got theadmin.
Something special.
Basically, I was typing.
Right.
You know, taking care ofrecords, taking care of records,
type them up, uh, that that typeof thing.
SPEAKER_01 (32:11):
So it was a it was a great experience.
So basically, um, I was assignedto the Leadership Academy, which
was a drill sergeant school.
Basically, uh our our uh uhmission was to train drill
sergeants, reserve drillsergeants to become drill
sergeants.
(32:32):
They went through uh, I believethe program was like a year,
maybe two years.
Then they became drillsergeants, and then throughout
the brigade companies, they wentthrough, you know, they deployed
through the different companiesas a so I worked as the admin
specialist there as I umcontinue my career.
(32:55):
So where was this at?
This was in Lavonia.
Oh, okay.
Actually, my unit, they're stillthey're still up and running
right there, uh Lavonia at LevanRow and School Crow.
Okay.
If you're going, if you if youuh traveling east, M14, you'll
pass right by.
I mean 96 going catching M14,you'll pass right by it.
(33:19):
Okay.
So it's drills, it's uhLeadership Academy, which was a
drill sergeant school.
Then I transitioned into um uhinfantry training brigade, which
our mission was to um go to FortBenning every year and take over
for the Fort Benning Infantry umunit and train soldiers in
(33:43):
different specialties like uh umfirst aid, uh all types of, you
know, all the infantry subjectareas, right?
First aid and the other subjectareas, rifle uh marksmanship and
things like that.
Then as I progressed, as Icontinued to grow, I uh as an
(34:08):
enlisted person, I became thePAC section, PAC sergeant, PAC
NCO sergeant, because I was incharge of the the the uh office
personnel.
Then as I grew and commissioned,I became the S1 where I was in
charge of the PAC section fromthe officer uh side of it.
SPEAKER_00 (34:31):
Okay.
Then of course, you know, in thePAC section, uh personnel
section, your primary mission isthe soldier ready to maintain
the soldier medical uh Apersonnel.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (34:46):
So my uh whole military career was from an
admin point of view, I did dothat brief.
SPEAKER_00 (34:55):
I would say probably about seven years out of my 30
years as an infantry squadleader where I was in charge of
parksman.
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (35:10):
So uh so between being an NCO and getting a
commission, though, you did goto college.
Now, where did you get yourdegree from?
University of Phoenix.
SPEAKER_01 (35:18):
Oh, okay.
And actually, I was one of theum the first wave of online um
people to pursue their degree.
Now it's like commonplace.
Yeah, it's just how you do it,it's how you do you know how you
do it, especially for a busyperson.
Right, but right uh back in theearly 2000s, that was just a new
(35:42):
phenomenon.
And it worked out great for mefor the simple fact that I was
on afternoons at the time, gotup, dropped my kids off at
school, came back, did uh uh didall my schooling, um and went to
work.
So it was a perfect fit.
SPEAKER_02 (36:02):
It works out awesome.
(36:41):
So did you did you do the uh OCSprogram or did you do direct how
did that work?
Your commission?
SPEAKER_01 (36:47):
At that particular time it wasn't OCS, they call it
Bollock, basic off officerleadership course.
Yeah.
So um I went away uh threemonths at Fort Jackson, South
Carolina, which uh uh they hadan admin of officer program.
SPEAKER_00 (37:07):
Okay, and I'd be perfect.
SPEAKER_01 (37:11):
It was just it was the best experience is one of
the best experience experiencesof my uh military career.
Best school by far that I tookwhile I was in the military.
It was just like being incollege.
I went, I mean, I was there forthree months.
Um the barracks that they hadhad us in, we had maids that
(37:37):
cleaned up our, you know, ofcourse I'm a neat freak.
Um, so my maid, you know, had iteasy.
All she had to do just come in,clean the tiles, and clean the
bar from.
But um we got up, you know, ofcourse, the any military uh
operation.
We got up, we did RPT, cameback, showered up, we did uh we
(37:58):
had breakfast.
School was from like nine tofive after after five o'clock
was free.
But during the weektime, you youwould kind of review subject
areas that you had covered.
Weekend, weekends were free.
I kind of buddied up with acouple of the older older guys,
usually go out to dinner, playgolf or something like that.
(38:22):
Went to uh attended school withwith a lot of West Pointers.
SPEAKER_02 (38:27):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (38:27):
That was a great experience.
You know, young kids, of course,at that time I was like in my
early 40s.
SPEAKER_00 (38:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (38:33):
And to be able to interact with people, young,
young soldiers that were WestPointers, that was a great
experience.
SPEAKER_02 (38:42):
Well, and you have as an as a prior enlisted with
all those years of service, youhave a little bit better
understanding of of how thingsreally work instead of how they
theoretically work.
unknown (38:53):
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (38:53):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (38:54):
I I I had real life experiences that that uh at that
point, because at that point Iwas in my early 40s.
SPEAKER_02 (39:01):
So this would have been what, like 2005-ish time
frame then?
SPEAKER_01 (39:06):
That was in 2011.
SPEAKER_02 (39:09):
Oh, okay.
So we're okay.
SPEAKER_01 (39:12):
We down the road.
SPEAKER_02 (39:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now, um, so I served in theNational Guard, so the program
was a little bit different, butdid you have to come in on a
waiver then to get yourcommission?
SPEAKER_01 (39:23):
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (39:23):
Like I I think for me, I I was 38 when I got
commissioned.
So I I had a waiver, but I hadto go through OCS.
So I didn't know if I wasactually gonna get my commission
until after I had graduated OCSand then my waiver came through.
SPEAKER_01 (39:39):
Actually, I had to go through I had to uh fill out
a waiver prior to uh prior togoing and prior to uh uh being
awarded my commission.
All of that was done prior to megoing to the Bollock course, um,
but I did have to get a waiverfor one, um and and it was
(39:59):
primarily you know crossing overfrom enlisted to officer, but at
that point my age was right,right, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (40:09):
That's how the military sees it anyway.
Yeah, so you uh you get yourcommission, you come back, um,
you've got what 10 more yearsleft in the military then?
Because you're right at about 20years?
SPEAKER_01 (40:20):
Thereabouts.
SPEAKER_02 (40:21):
Okay, and and you're still working at consumers.
So what are you doing atconsumers around this time?
SPEAKER_01 (40:27):
About that time at Consumers, I was an operation
supervisor on the gas at the gasside of the business.
Um, so I had bounced around alittle bit, which gave me a lot
of uh experience in theoperations and running different
at different headquarters.
So I started out, ironically,when I first joined the
(40:50):
military, my unit was theLeadership Academy in Lavonia.
Right.
And I worked in Lavonia withconsumers.
SPEAKER_00 (40:59):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (40:59):
So uh I could literally walk from consumers'
headquarters to Army, our Armyunit.
So that's pretty convenient.
Yeah, that was uh, I mean, youknow, that was funny.
So for years I had that uh thatdynamic going.
But uh so uh at that at thatparticular time I was an
(41:20):
operation supervisor, and I hadbounced around, started out in
Livonia, went to um they hadjust opened up the Royal Oak
Service Center.
I mean, Royal Oak at that timewas a um uh uh customer service
where they took bills and a lotof uh admin administrator stuff.
So in 2007, they opened it backup to uh operations where we uh
(41:45):
moved back in distributionservice and uh a lot of the
operations uh um areas.
So we moved over there and thenI bounced around from Crawl Ope,
uh Macomb, Groveland, couplecouple different headquarters.
Yeah, so uh uh operationsupervisor, and then I was um at
(42:10):
that particular time withseasoned season supervisor, so I
was looking for uh kind of a umpositioning myself to become a
uh a senior manager.
SPEAKER_00 (42:21):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (42:23):
And so you uh so if I'm doing my math right, about
40 years, so around 2015 youretired from the Army?
26.
SPEAKER_01 (42:33):
Okay, and you were one year off.
Oh, okay, yes, yeah.
2016.
And actually, um time flies byMarch will be 10 years that I
retire.
SPEAKER_02 (42:46):
Yeah.
unknown (42:47):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (42:47):
Well, I retired in 2010.
So yeah, time flies.
Time flies.
It really does.
SPEAKER_01 (42:52):
It does.
SPEAKER_02 (42:53):
So talk to me a little bit about retiring from
the military specifically, likewhat was it like to like put
that uniform on for the you knewit was going to be the last time
that you're gonna wear that inan official capacity?
SPEAKER_01 (43:06):
Actually, reflecting back on it, it was a great time
because I enjoyed my wholemilitary career.
Of course, you know, like I likeI stated earlier, due to my uh
responsibilities, you know, Ihad to decide, you know, I I had
uh kind of mauled over gettingout, but throughout my military
(43:28):
career, I I so those last coupleyears was focused on retiring,
but at the same token, I wasenjoying that.
SPEAKER_00 (43:40):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (43:40):
So close to let me fast forward to that last year
that I was in, it was justphenomenal.
You know, just the you know,reflecting back over your
career, you can see the light atthe end of the light at the end
of the tunnel, then I rememberthe last couple months putting
(44:03):
that uniform on, then that lastday of them acknowledged me and
acknowledging me in formation.
This is Captain Folk's last dayhe's officially fired.
So it was surreal, surreal.
Um your whole military careerflashed before you.
(44:25):
You start reflecting back on onwhere you started, where you
came, where you are, and howproud you were to where that you
so uh that was it was it wasawesome.
Yeah, kind of bittersweet,right?
It was kind of it was kind ofbitter bitters bittersweet.
And then actually reflectingback on it, if I was uh stick it
(44:50):
out, uh most of my uh peersright now are majors promotable
clinic colonels.
SPEAKER_00 (45:00):
Yeah.
So if I had stayed in, I wouldbe a major promotable clinic
colonel.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (45:09):
Still, that's a lot of years to have to put in to
get there.
SPEAKER_01 (45:12):
That's a lot of years, a lot of responsibility.
SPEAKER_02 (45:17):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yes.
So you retire from the military,you continue your career on at
uh Consumers Energy.
Let's talk a little bit aboutthat.
SPEAKER_01 (45:26):
So basically, I ironically, retiring from the
military at 2016, there was onlya couple more years that I
before I left consumers in 2018.
So it was only like two yearsafter that.
SPEAKER_02 (45:42):
So you really so if we if I think about this right,
you really only had two years atConsumers Energy where you
weren't doing two differentjobs.
SPEAKER_01 (45:50):
Correct.
Yeah, correct, correct.
I mean, because actually, uh,just like I stated, you know,
that was the reason why, youknow, I was really motivated and
I kind of wanted that milestone.
I think I wanted that milestoneof retiring after 30 years.
Yeah.
Um, and then to be able toexperience life of working at
(46:11):
consumers and not have the uhmilitary.
SPEAKER_00 (46:16):
So reflecting back on it, it was only two two years
that uh that that happenedbecause I retired at uh from the
military 2016 uh consumers at2008.
So it's only a two year time.
SPEAKER_02 (46:31):
Yeah.
And our our paths had crossed acouple of times at uh the
consumers during that period.
So um, you know, uh what haveyou been doing since?
SPEAKER_00 (46:42):
Since I have um and I do um some speeches on it.
I have really reinvented myself,rebranded myself after leaving
consumers again after themilitary course throughout both
(47:03):
both entities I was in inleadership position.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (47:11):
So I developed and and perfected I wouldn't say
perfected, but just developed uhmy leadership style.
So after afterwards, now fastforwarding I became an educator
which uh working with uh youngyoung young people I have
(47:32):
develop uh started my nonprofitthe Chuck Folks organization,
which our mission is to helppeople get into skill trade.
SPEAKER_00 (47:42):
I've started my talk to Chuck Folks at L, which my um
which I specialize in leadershipdevelopmental resilience.
So basically uh reinventedmyself, rebranded myself, and I
(48:03):
can honestly say this stage andchapter in my life I have
committed to helping being aservice to others, uh because
it's before at this stage of mylife it's helpful.
Yeah.
And you get to pick what youwant to do.
(48:25):
And I can pick what I can I canpick what it's a great feeling.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (48:35):
Well, so it really so I had just a couple more
questions then.
The first question is Is thereanything that we haven't talked
about that you want to talkabout in this part of your
interview?
SPEAKER_00 (48:46):
Actually, I think we we we covered we covered uh most
of it.
SPEAKER_01 (48:52):
I I guess probably I can kind of embellish this stage
and this chapter in my life.
Um run and joke, um the run runand joke I have uh at this point
right now, I'm round in thirdbase, I'm in the fourth quarter,
(49:13):
I'm on the back nine of life,and I'm trying to make everyday
count.
SPEAKER_00 (49:22):
And how I um make everyday count is to be of
service to help.
Yeah.
And that's shooting thethree-pointer.
SPEAKER_01 (49:33):
And that's shooting the three-pointer.
That's that that's that'sshooting that's shooting the
tray.
That could that covers all thesports.
That covers that coverseverything.
So um again, um we we prettymuch covered me from from A to
Z.
Okay.
But again, you know, uh thatphase, that chapter, where I'm
(49:56):
at right now, um, I just I justreally enjoy helping other
people leaving.
SPEAKER_00 (50:07):
Oh no, all right.
SPEAKER_02 (50:09):
Well hold on one second because I'll ask you one
more question after that.
Okay.
Oh, you got the but don't forgetthe microphone.
Just you can just carry thatwith you.
SPEAKER_01 (50:20):
Oh, okay, gotcha.
SPEAKER_02 (50:21):
Otherwise, you'll be dragging it behind you.
SPEAKER_01 (50:22):
Okay, gotcha.
Yeah, that's man.
I thought I'd touch that on.
That's how it works.
Yeah, man, hold on.
Let me turn it off now.
SPEAKER_02 (50:32):
All right.
SPEAKER_01 (50:33):
So we have to edit that part out.
SPEAKER_02 (50:35):
Yeah, which by the way, I'm very good at.
SPEAKER_01 (50:37):
Okay, good, good, good.
I turned it off.
SPEAKER_02 (50:40):
All right, very cool.
SPEAKER_01 (50:44):
I'm probably I'm probably about the only person
who still has a ring tone.
SPEAKER_02 (50:48):
No, you know, you'd be surprised how often this
happens.
It's either it's either that orthey got a they got a stupid
grandfather clock.
SPEAKER_01 (50:54):
Really?
SPEAKER_02 (50:55):
Yeah, bong, bong, bong.
Okay, gotcha, gotcha.
Okay, I don't feel so bad, yeah.
All right.
Um, so with with all of thatsaid, uh, you're in this part of
your life where you're reallygiving back, although you've led
a life of service your wholeentire life, uh, it really just
kind of begs one last question.
(51:15):
And that question is you know, ahundred years from now, when
someone's watching this video orlistening to you talk about your
life, what would you like themto take away?
SPEAKER_00 (51:25):
What kind of advice would you have for people?
What I would like the audienceto take take away from my
journey and my experience as aperson, as a person of faith,
the sooner you discover yourGod-given talent and maximize
(51:52):
that that's what real life isbecause your work doesn't feel
like work because it becomesmore of a passion.
SPEAKER_01 (52:05):
So seek to find your God-given talent because God has
given each one of us a talent togive to the world, find that
talent, maximize that work.
Well, thanks for that, andthanks for spending your morning
with me, Chuck.
(52:25):
Thank you for driving out onthis soggy uh fall soon to be
winter, um winter, but uh fallmorning, and uh I appreciate the
opportunity to share my story.
Good morning.
Today is Wednesday, November26th, 2025.
We're talking with Chuck Folks,who served the United States
Army.
So good morning, Chuck.
Good morning, Bill.
How are you doing?
Great.
Always good to see you.
Great to see you as well.
It's been a minute, I think.
Yes.
Yeah.
So we'll just get started rightout with uh um questioning here.
SPEAKER_01 (02:21):
When and where were you born?
I was born in Detroit, 1965, atHarper Hospital.
Awesome.
What month?
I'm just curious.
SPEAKER_02 (02:30):
September.
Okay.
I was born in April of 65.
I'm a fall baby.
Okay, all right.
I'm a I'm a spring baby.
Okay.
I think we had tornadoes when Iwas born.
SPEAKER_01 (02:38):
That's almost two, by the way.
So great.
So did you grow up in Detroitthen?
Born and raised uh in Detroit.
A lot of history growing up inthe city of Detroit.
Um, as a kid, I remember uhgoing on the Bobolo boat,
Edgewater Park, uh spendingnumerous family outings at
Bellau Park.
(02:59):
Uh so I was born and raised inDetroit.
Okay, and brothers and sisters?
I have one brother and onesister.
Okay.
And I am the oldest.
Oh, you are?
SPEAKER_02 (03:08):
So you're in charge?
SPEAKER_01 (03:09):
Ah, Charles in charge.
I'm Charles in charge.
Uh, kind of sort of.
SPEAKER_02 (03:13):
Okay.
Well, my older sister thinksshe's in charge all the time.
So I think it might be a trend.
I don't know.
Um, and how far apart are you inage with your siblings?
SPEAKER_01 (03:22):
Actually, my brother, ironically, he just
turned 52.
My sister is 48.
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (03:29):
All right.
SPEAKER_01 (03:30):
And you just turned I just turned the big six, six.
Oh, I just joined the 60 club.
I uh consider myself uh old orolder gentleman.
Not the original gangster.
SPEAKER_02 (03:43):
Not the original gangster, no, the older
gentleman.
Older gentlemen.
We need to put together a lineof t-shirts for that.
SPEAKER_01 (03:50):
Yes, yes.
I think and just just for therecord, you don't become an
older gentleman and uh old untilthe age of 50.
Okay.
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (04:00):
All right.
So you might be able to get yourARP card before then, but you're
not going to be an oldergentleman before that.
That's correct.
That's that is correct.
So talk to me a little bit aboutgrowing up in Detroit and what
kind of the what are some ofyour earliest memories?
SPEAKER_01 (04:14):
Well, Bill, um, growing up in Detroit um was
just fantastic.
I can honestly say I had aphenomenal childhood.
I was raised by my grandparents,ironically.
My mom and dad were still uh agreat part of my life, but I was
raised by my grandparents.
Um with that being said, um, ourhouse was the Kool-Aid house
(04:38):
because we um our house was thehouse that everybody um migrated
to to visit uh my grandmotherand grandfather, and we had uh
numerous family uh dinners andthings, things of that nature.
Um I remember as a child uhhaving an extended family of
(04:59):
uncles, aunts, cousins.
It was just remarkable.
Uh recalling the time spent atBellau Island, which I just
heard uh rumors that they'retrying to re revive that
experience.
I don't know, uh not the islanditself, but the boat.
Uh I just heard rumors, I'm notsure how true that is.
(05:22):
Uh Edgewater Park, uh Seven MileEvergreen area, uh going to Bell
Al Park uh for family outingsand different um sporting
outings, things that things ofthat nature.
Uh then just playing with theneighborhood kids.
Of course, um remember uhplaying all three sports.
(05:44):
In the summertime, we could playall three sports in one day
baseball, basketball, foot,football, all in one day.
And uh another uh activity thatwe established in our
neighborhood, well, a couplecouple activities.
One was um in the summertime, weuh played what we call Olympic,
(06:06):
where we lined our bikes up andwe um utilized them as hurdles.
We ran races and we jumped overeach bike as a hurdle.
That was our our our Olympic.
Then me and the boys in theneighborhood, we got so good we
(06:26):
called uh called it on our bikescatwalking.
Catwalking is the art of beingable to ride a bike on one
wheel.
Oh yeah.
So we got we got pretty good atit where we can actually
strategically start at thebeginning of the block and go
for a full block on one onewheel.
(06:48):
It was just it would just, ofcourse, that was with numerous
practice.
You know, we started out, youknow, uh um a quarter of a mile,
half, you know, half a quarterof the block, half the block,
then the full block.
So things things like thingslike that um that we um engaged
in at as a kid and growing up inour neighborhood.
(07:11):
Um of course we wasn't angels byany stretch of imagination, but
we wasn't bad kids.
Right.
So sports was our way of uh, asI can say, keeping us out of uh
any um mischief.
SPEAKER_00 (07:25):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (07:26):
You know, because by the time we got finished with
sports, um, we're too tired tobe.
I was gonna say you probablyslept pretty well in the school.
I slept well, particularlyduring school, uh during the
school year, because after yougot out of school, you rushed to
do your homework, got out ofyour school clothes, then you
went outside and play for alittle bit, then you came in for
(07:48):
dinner, uh uh got bed, bathed,bedded down, started the whole
day over again.
So childhood was just great, andthen kind of uh wrapping up the
childhood uh memories, as Irecall, um I did a little
everything.
It's just just the nature of meas a person.
(08:13):
I remember uh being a Cub Scout,I remember being a Boy Scout,
um, of course, playing playingplaying sports.
I remember my dad uh, of course,after my mom and dad divorced,
my dad dating uh this young ladywhose mother was a square dance
(08:34):
teacher.
So I took square dancing.
Imagine a young African-Americankid in the 70s square dancing.
It was just uh wasn't wasn't, Icould say wasn't wasn't the
norm.
Yeah, I can't wrap my headaround that.
So I uh I square danced, uh uhdone junior achievement.
(08:58):
I can't remember anything that II I didn't I didn't try.
SPEAKER_00 (09:02):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (09:02):
Uh then then one significant uh uh point in the
childhood.
I was born in 1965, so duringthat whole 60 civil rights uh
era, and I remember uh my familymoving from the east side of
(09:24):
Detroit to the west side, whichmy whole uh childhood and adult
life was on the on the westside, but I remember our family
purchasing our first home on thewest side of Detroit in 1971.
We were the firstAfrican-American family on our
(09:45):
block in our in ourneighborhood.
Again, very fond memoriesbecause I remember um there was
a family that lived down thestreet.
They had a swimming pool andthey invited me down in the
summers, they invited me downthere every day.
I remember going down there,having meals.
(10:07):
One particular day I rememberthey had spaghetti.
We swam, ape spaghetti.
That's another uh uh memory ofuh of my uh childhood.
So um basically that's that'sthat's that's the uh Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (10:23):
Now, did you carry sports on through uh junior high
and high school?
Did you play like organizedsports in school?
SPEAKER_01 (10:32):
No.
I uh I played uh me and mycousin who grew up uh my first
cousin, we grew up more likebrothers than than cousins.
We were first cousin.
We played on the YMCA team, butum ironically, uh of course the
neighborhood guys, if they werehere, they probably would uh
(10:54):
challenge me on it.
Doing elementary, middle school,I was the best in the night.
SPEAKER_00 (11:02):
Playing, you know, all all all all the sports.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (11:05):
But I um the competition uh caught up with
me.
I I should say by the time highschool, of course, um my height,
you know, kind of slowed down.
You know, I was a normal uh arelatively short guy, uh skinny
(11:26):
and bill.
So um after middle school, Ididn't pursue any high school or
or any sports beyond that.
I got involved in otheractivities as uh uh uh like say
junior achieved uh co-op.
A lot of us for for whateverreason at that age a lot of
(11:46):
business um uh uh activitiesinterest me.
So I I pursued those over uhover sports.
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02 (11:55):
All right.
Any any favorite subjects inhigh school?
SPEAKER_01 (11:58):
Actually, uh my favorite high my favorite
subject throughout school andhigh school has been math.
Always been pretty pretty goodat math.
Um English is not so not sogood, but I um in the ninth
grade, I had an English teachernamed Mr.
Gates who turned my whole umperspective towards English
(12:24):
around.
Then I got more interested inthe dynamics of writing and
stuff like that.
But throughout school and highschool, college, the whole nine
math has always been okay.
SPEAKER_02 (12:39):
So you uh you got through high school and uh what
happens after high school?
SPEAKER_01 (12:44):
After high school, um I went to community college
here locally.
I graduated from Redford HighSchool in 1983.
And as I stated in the beginningof the interview, I'm an old
gentleman.
So I graduated in 1983.
Ironically, Redford High Schoolclosed in 2007, right there at
(13:07):
the uh corner of uh Grand Riverand Six Mile.
It is now Myers, a Myers store.
So I jokingly say the auditoriumis now the produce section at
Myers.
Oh no.
That's always sad when an oldschool goes into it.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
And and and it's kind of it'skind of uh um typical for a lot
(13:29):
of uh um popular schools inDetroit because Refert closed,
uh Cooley closed, and a couplewell-known schools close.
There's uh a couple of thosecore schools that are still open
that they're in the process ofuh uh rehabilitating, you know,
um closing the old schools, Imean rebuilding.
(13:50):
Oh, yeah.
I I should say.
But um I tend I tend to uh referrefer refer I so after high
school um went to Henry FordCommunity College for a couple
years, um, and then I umattended uh Oakland Community
College.
SPEAKER_00 (14:08):
Um and be quite frank, Frank, uh after I got out
of high school, I wasn'tserious.
SPEAKER_01 (14:15):
I think I maintained uh uh it was higher press C
average at best.
I just wasn't serious.
SPEAKER_00 (14:22):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (14:23):
Then after a couple years of uh Harry Ford
community, Oakland community, umstarted dating my who is now my
wife.
SPEAKER_00 (14:33):
Um then I stopped stopped going to school.
SPEAKER_01 (14:37):
Um married, had a family, and then go back to
school later on, which becameone of my um goals in life is to
achieve a college degree.
So I went back later on after mykids were a little older, family
a little family dynamics was alittle resettled.
SPEAKER_00 (14:59):
Um went back and got my how long have you been
married?
SPEAKER_01 (15:05):
Ironically, uh coming up this is uh end of
November come up on DC.
I've been married for 36 years.
SPEAKER_02 (15:13):
Well, congratulations.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That's pretty incredible.
SPEAKER_01 (15:16):
So I s I I say uh my running joke is I've been
married practically my wholeadult life.
I uh I got married at 23 yearsof age, had my first child uh at
25, had my second child at 28.
So uh got married and started myfamily pretty pretty early,
which um which was an assetbecause now uh my kids are grown
(15:43):
uh and I'm still relativelyyoung.
SPEAKER_00 (15:46):
I can pursue a lot of things right now life that
got at boy and still uh sharethose kids.
SPEAKER_02 (15:56):
Yeah, yeah, I I mean I highly recommend having kids
early, not too early.
Right.
But but early enough so that youyou aren't, you know, you're not
going to high school graduationwhen you're 75.
That would be tough, I think.
SPEAKER_01 (16:08):
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (16:09):
I mean my kids wore me out when I was in my you know
30s and 40s.
I can't imagine uh trying to dothat at an older age, but people
do it.
God bless them.
SPEAKER_01 (16:18):
God bless them, people people do it, but um yes.
SPEAKER_02 (16:21):
Absolutely.
So you uh um you have twochildren then, right?
Um married 36 years.
So how so you uh you met yourwife, um, decided hey, college
isn't for me right now, andstart your family.
Did you start working right awayor uh did you go in the
military?
What what happened kind of inthat mix?
SPEAKER_01 (16:41):
Actually, you you know what, Bill?
Um I'm now an educator afterretiring from Consumers Energy
and retiring from the military.
So kind of like on my thirdcareer, yeah.
Uh in the twilight, uh, as Isay, kind of in the later years,
twilight, if if you will, of uhof my life.
(17:02):
And I share with my students alloften this this point in my
life, um it's just uh uh morerewarding um because my focus
has turned off from myself intohow do I become more of a
(17:26):
positive impact diet, andhelping.
So and that's a combination ofwhere I'm I'm at in life and
from my uh uh personality.
SPEAKER_00 (17:41):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (17:42):
Well that's that's and that's great to pass down to
students too.
I think it I think your lifedoes go in phases like that,
right?
You um, you know, you're in thatkind of me where you're trying
to raise your family, you'retrying to work, you're trying to
do all this other stuff uh to uhfocus on others as you get
older.
Um so yeah, so let's uh so goingback a little bit, um, you know,
(18:04):
after you got married or youknow, you met your wife, did you
did you start working right awaythen?
SPEAKER_01 (18:10):
Right.
Um so so basically um again,what I share with people at this
point in my life, everybody tome, um everybody has that uh
most people, some people forwhatever reason never get it
(18:30):
that motivation.
So to answer your question, I uhme and my wife met at uh MBD
Bank, National Bank of Detroit,which is now Chase Bank.
Um worked there for uh about sixyears, I was making decent
money, just had got married witha couple kids, but it motivated
(18:50):
me because I had a family, I hadstopped going to school, so I
had to so basically mymotivation now was I gotta get a
job to make more money because Ihave a family.
SPEAKER_00 (19:01):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (19:02):
So I ran ironically at that particular time, started
working at consumers, startedout entry level, uh meter
reading, worked my way up, uheventually start, I mean worked
my way up and start graduallymaking uh real good money.
(19:23):
So uh started Consumers Energyearly uh uh after a couple years
after I got married, and one ofmy kids were very formative
years.
So basically I raised my familyworking out.
SPEAKER_00 (19:37):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (19:39):
And and another added point to that is uh what I
share with people, particularlymy my students, I started at
consuming this energy at 26years old.
Um a lot of people, or I shouldsay a a good percentage of
people, if you really haven'tfound yourself or found that
(20:01):
niche uh by mid-20s to early30s, I mean, the world's not
ending, but most people getthat, you know, fight, you know,
find that career path, startgoing down the road that they're
going down.
Of course, you switch gears, butby your mid-20s, 30s, if you
ain't on some type of path, uhsomething something is something
(20:25):
uh Yeah, it's gonna be rough.
SPEAKER_02 (20:28):
It's gonna be rough.
It's gonna be rough.
SPEAKER_01 (20:29):
It's gonna be rough.
So I can honestly say I startedat Consumers Energy at 26.
SPEAKER_02 (20:33):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (20:34):
And then oh where did the military come in?
The military came in at the ageof 20.
Okay.
Uh I joined the military at theage of 20.
And um, I often reflect back onthat because at that time, I I
believe I joined the militarybecause I always been over
(20:56):
ambitious, and that was justlike the next big challenge.
Um, so that's how I ended upjoining the military and looking
and reflecting back and lookingback on it, it was the best I
ever.
SPEAKER_02 (21:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you joined the army at theage of 20.
SPEAKER_01 (21:15):
At the age of 20.
SPEAKER_02 (21:16):
Okay.
Where'd you take your basictraining at?
SPEAKER_01 (21:18):
Fort Dix, New Jersey.
SPEAKER_02 (21:20):
Oh boy.
SPEAKER_01 (21:21):
In New Jersey.
SPEAKER_02 (21:22):
Yeah.
So what was that like?
Tell me a little bit about whatwas it like when you got there?
It's funny.
SPEAKER_01 (21:31):
Uh 20-year-old uh young kid joining the military.
Uh and I have similarexperiences, just a few
interview a lot of people whojoined the military at early age
have similar experiences.
SPEAKER_00 (21:49):
I remember my drill sergeant.
Wayne Edward Wigan.
SPEAKER_01 (21:56):
He had never he he he said it over and over in
basic training.
Um and I think it it was justhis his his uh uh motivational
tactic.
SPEAKER_00 (22:07):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:07):
He probably he he probably did this cycle after
cycle while he was a drillsergeant.
For whatever reason, I was thatguy, that trainee that he
decided to pick up.
So I'm here, uh 20-year-old kidfrom the city of Detroit in New
(22:27):
Jersey, out of my mind.
Really the first time being awayfrom home outside of being with
with uh my grandparents or myparents or what have you.
SPEAKER_00 (22:43):
He looked at me, looked right, got right in my
face.
You know, of course, with thebig uh drill sergeant hat
around.
I don't know what you didn'tknow and about you I don't know
(23:04):
why I don't know what it is.
I'm thinking, what did I do?
SPEAKER_01 (23:15):
I just showed up what again that was his
motivational tactic that heprobably used every cycle.
He picked up he picked on meprobably for about a week.
Then he realized that that uh umI wasn't going to uh succumb to
the pressure, I was just gonnado, you know, hey, I'm away from
(23:40):
home.
What what what am I gonna doother than uh do what I needed
to do to uh to survive?
SPEAKER_00 (23:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:47):
So um he realized that that uh he had achieved his
goal of intimidating me and mebeing able to to um as they say
man up.
SPEAKER_00 (24:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:00):
So that experience uh I carry from uh life and then
just the overall experience umof uh the you know what the
military represents, thediscipline, the camaraderie, um,
the lifelong friends that you uhthat you meet, the connections,
(24:23):
and of course now being theolder benefits uh are uh kicked
in.
SPEAKER_02 (24:31):
Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So you can't beat that.
No, no, not at all.
So you're did you do you go inon like a four-year enlistment
initially?
SPEAKER_01 (24:39):
Additionally, I signed up uh, I believe it was
uh a four-year enlistment,enlisted enlistment, and you
were obligated for eight years.
So you did four years, and Ithink you were obligated the
three or four years after that,uh, which they could, if you got
out, they could call you up orwhatever.
SPEAKER_02 (25:00):
Yeah, the IRR, the individual reserve, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:03):
Right.
But after that four years,ironically, I found myself um
re-enlisting, and um, next thingI know, I I re-enlisted looking
up, coming up on my 20 years,then I re-enlist, next thing I
know, I'm coming up on 30 years,so at that point I made it uh
(25:26):
made it a career.
And what what motivated mebecause simultaneously I
maintained a career ofconsumers, right?
And um the military as far asbeing in reserves.
I remember um after 15 years,you know, uh was pretty busy
(25:46):
with the family, had startedprogressing at consumers.
My responsibilities in and outuh were uh pretty uh pretty
taxing.
SPEAKER_00 (25:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:57):
And I remember saying at the 15-year mark, I
remember it's like I'm readyout.
But thank God I had theforethought to say, well, okay,
15 years, you're too close to20.
You might as well push it to 20,at least you can get a
retirement out of this.
Yeah.
So then I got to 20.
(26:18):
Um, once I got to twenty, uh Ibelieve I had achieved the rank
of uh like E6, E7.
Then I started looking at thechecks.
SPEAKER_00 (26:31):
Wow, okay, so that's pretty good money.
So that motivated me for acouple couple more years.
SPEAKER_01 (26:38):
And then um at that time, I that's when I made the
decision to go back to school toget my bachelor's degree.
At that particular time, I mean,I was doing pretty good at
consumers, so it it wouldn'taffect me one way or another.
I mean, it would look good forme to apply for, you know,
different upper mobilitypositions with a bachelor's
(27:01):
degree, but at that particulartime, you know, I was in
management making good moneyanyway.
So but it was a personal goal ofmine to get my degree, but it
did set me up because I made thedecision to commission as an
officer.
So my last rank as an enlistedwas an E7.
I decided to uh commission.
(27:24):
I kind of mauled around becominga warrant officer, but I decided
on becoming a becoming abecoming an officer.
So I ended up commissioning.
That was a great experience.
And I forget the term.
You you can help me with theterm.
Uh officers that was enlistednow as an officer has more
respect because you done seemeduh it's a term for it.
(27:46):
I can't think of it right thistime.
SPEAKER_02 (27:47):
Yeah, well, so in the Navy they're called
Mustangs.
Mustang, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, Mustang.
Same thing.
SPEAKER_01 (27:52):
Yeah, same thing.
You you'll you'll you're you'llyou're a must Mustang.
SPEAKER_02 (27:55):
So it was very close to my career because I um after
14 years enlisted, I was an E6,and then I went to OCS and got
my commission.
SPEAKER_01 (28:05):
Correct.
SPEAKER_02 (28:05):
Um, and then I retired as a captain as well.
SPEAKER_01 (28:08):
It's funny because I retired as a captain as well.
SPEAKER_02 (28:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:12):
And um so at that point, now, you know, I'm
progressing at consumers.
I'm an officer in the reserve,so I'm I'm doing pretty pretty
pretty pretty pretty good.
But um then I then I made thedecision again, you know, of
course my kids were older, so I,you know, my responsibility
(28:33):
level from a kid and the familystandpoint was, you know, kind
of tapering off a little bit.
But uh I made the decision as Igot close to my 30 years because
the responsibilities from thereserve component as I grew in
rank was becoming as I wasevaluating for like a full-time
(28:58):
status.
Right.
So it's like it's almost likehaving two full-time jobs,
because it wasn't like uh I wasjust a reservist, it was work
that I had to do outside of uhthat because of my uh
responsibility level at thattime.
So at that time I made thedecision when I get to the
30-year mark, I'm gonna retire.
(29:18):
Because there's other thingsthat I want to pursue.
If I stay in the military, I hadjust re uh achieved the rank of
a captain.
I haven't, I had at that time Ihadn't did my um um uh what's
the name time?
SPEAKER_00 (29:35):
My uh uh why does it take me?
Oh, your captain's careercourse?
SPEAKER_01 (29:44):
No, I haven't done the captain's career course, but
uh as a captain, you have to doyour uh time uh company
commander time.
Oh yeah, yeah.
I hadn't done my company'scommander time, so I decided to
retire.
I hit my 30-year mark, but if Ihad stayed in, I I uh at that
particular time I would havedone my uh uh um commander's
(30:08):
time.
Yeah.
And be honest with you, uhreflecting back on it to
alleviate the stress of jugglingconsumers and my military, I
would have requested uh activeduty time while I would do my
commander time.
So I would be away and I canfocus in on that.
Then after my commander time waswas up, then I would come back
(30:30):
and then I'd be promotable to uhmajor at that point.
But it would alleviatecommander's time, maintaining my
uh I mean it would to me it'sdoable.
I see people do it all the time,but it would just be more than
what I would work.
SPEAKER_02 (30:46):
It's a lot of work, it's just a lot of work.
SPEAKER_01 (30:48):
And it's a lot of work, a lot of commitment, and
basically you really have to uhblock out everything else,
really do it effectively, andthen not to not to uh stress
yourself out.
SPEAKER_02 (31:00):
Right, exactly.
So you so I want to back up alittle bit because we covered a
lot of territory, but there's alot of uh detail I'd like to get
to.
Okay.
Um, so uh first, what was yourwhat was your MOS?
What what did you do uh as anenlisted person in the in the
Army?
SPEAKER_01 (31:16):
Okay, so so so basically, and and and it goes
back to my MO uh as a person.
Every couple years, I look forthat challenge.
Right.
And as we started on themilitary career, as I reflect
(31:36):
back on it, that was the reasonwhy I joined the military.
As a 20 year old kid, I waslooking for that next challenge.
So every couple years I look forthat challenge.
So additionally, when Ienlisted, I enlisted as an
admin.
SPEAKER_00 (31:52):
Um and be honest with you, uh they call that uh
ad, call that a uh got theadmin.
Something special.
Basically, I was typing.
Right.
You know, taking care ofrecords, taking care of records,
type them up, uh, that that typeof thing.
SPEAKER_01 (32:11):
So it was a it was a great experience.
So basically, um, I was assignedto the Leadership Academy, which
was a drill sergeant school.
Basically, uh our our uh uhmission was to train drill
sergeants, reserve drillsergeants to become drill
sergeants.
(32:32):
They went through uh, I believethe program was like a year,
maybe two years.
Then they became drillsergeants, and then throughout
the brigade companies, they wentthrough, you know, they deployed
through the different companiesas a so I worked as the admin
specialist there as I umcontinue my career.
(32:55):
So where was this at?
This was in Lavonia.
Oh, okay.
Actually, my unit, they're stillthey're still up and running
right there, uh Lavonia at LevanRow and School Crow.
Okay.
If you're going, if you if youuh traveling east, M14, you'll
pass right by.
I mean 96 going catching M14,you'll pass right by it.
(33:19):
Okay.
So it's drills, it's uhLeadership Academy, which was a
drill sergeant school.
Then I transitioned into um uhinfantry training brigade, which
our mission was to um go to FortBenning every year and take over
for the Fort Benning Infantry umunit and train soldiers in
(33:43):
different specialties like uh umfirst aid, uh all types of, you
know, all the infantry subjectareas, right?
First aid and the other subjectareas, rifle uh marksmanship and
things like that.
Then as I progressed, as Icontinued to grow, I uh as an
(34:08):
enlisted person, I became thePAC section, PAC sergeant, PAC
NCO sergeant, because I was incharge of the the the uh office
personnel.
Then as I grew and commissioned,I became the S1 where I was in
charge of the PAC section fromthe officer uh side of it.
SPEAKER_00 (34:31):
Okay.
Then of course, you know, in thePAC section, uh personnel
section, your primary mission isthe soldier ready to maintain
the soldier medical uh Apersonnel.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (34:46):
So my uh whole military career was from an
admin point of view, I did dothat brief.
SPEAKER_00 (34:55):
I would say probably about seven years out of my 30
years as an infantry squadleader where I was in charge of
parksman.
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (35:10):
So uh so between being an NCO and getting a
commission, though, you did goto college.
Now, where did you get yourdegree from?
University of Phoenix.
SPEAKER_01 (35:18):
Oh, okay.
And actually, I was one of theum the first wave of online um
people to pursue their degree.
Now it's like commonplace.
Yeah, it's just how you do it,it's how you do you know how you
do it, especially for a busyperson.
Right, but right uh back in theearly 2000s, that was just a new
(35:42):
phenomenon.
And it worked out great for mefor the simple fact that I was
on afternoons at the time, gotup, dropped my kids off at
school, came back, did uh uh didall my schooling, um and went to
work.
So it was a perfect fit.
SPEAKER_02 (36:02):
It works out awesome.
(36:41):
So did you did you do the uh OCSprogram or did you do direct how
did that work?
Your commission?
SPEAKER_01 (36:47):
At that particular time it wasn't OCS, they call it
Bollock, basic off officerleadership course.
Yeah.
So um I went away uh threemonths at Fort Jackson, South
Carolina, which uh uh they hadan admin of officer program.
SPEAKER_00 (37:07):
Okay, and I'd be perfect.
SPEAKER_01 (37:11):
It was just it was the best experience is one of
the best experience experiencesof my uh military career.
Best school by far that I tookwhile I was in the military.
It was just like being incollege.
I went, I mean, I was there forthree months.
Um the barracks that they hadhad us in, we had maids that
(37:37):
cleaned up our, you know, ofcourse I'm a neat freak.
Um, so my maid, you know, had iteasy.
All she had to do just come in,clean the tiles, and clean the
bar from.
But um we got up, you know, ofcourse, the any military uh
operation.
We got up, we did RPT, cameback, showered up, we did uh we
(37:58):
had breakfast.
School was from like nine tofive after after five o'clock
was free.
But during the weektime, you youwould kind of review subject
areas that you had covered.
Weekend, weekends were free.
I kind of buddied up with acouple of the older older guys,
usually go out to dinner, playgolf or something like that.
(38:22):
Went to uh attended school withwith a lot of West Pointers.
SPEAKER_02 (38:27):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (38:27):
That was a great experience.
You know, young kids, of course,at that time I was like in my
early 40s.
SPEAKER_00 (38:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (38:33):
And to be able to interact with people, young,
young soldiers that were WestPointers, that was a great
experience.
SPEAKER_02 (38:42):
Well, and you have as an as a prior enlisted with
all those years of service, youhave a little bit better
understanding of of how thingsreally work instead of how they
theoretically work.
unknown (38:53):
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (38:53):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (38:54):
I I I had real life experiences that that uh at that
point, because at that point Iwas in my early 40s.
SPEAKER_02 (39:01):
So this would have been what, like 2005-ish time
frame then?
SPEAKER_01 (39:06):
That was in 2011.
SPEAKER_02 (39:09):
Oh, okay.
So we're okay.
SPEAKER_01 (39:12):
We down the road.
SPEAKER_02 (39:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now, um, so I served in theNational Guard, so the program
was a little bit different, butdid you have to come in on a
waiver then to get yourcommission?
SPEAKER_01 (39:23):
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (39:23):
Like I I think for me, I I was 38 when I got
commissioned.
So I I had a waiver, but I hadto go through OCS.
So I didn't know if I wasactually gonna get my commission
until after I had graduated OCSand then my waiver came through.
SPEAKER_01 (39:39):
Actually, I had to go through I had to uh fill out
a waiver prior to uh prior togoing and prior to uh uh being
awarded my commission.
All of that was done prior to megoing to the Bollock course, um,
but I did have to get a waiverfor one, um and and it was
(39:59):
primarily you know crossing overfrom enlisted to officer, but at
that point my age was right,right, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (40:09):
That's how the military sees it anyway.
Yeah, so you uh you get yourcommission, you come back, um,
you've got what 10 more yearsleft in the military then?
Because you're right at about 20years?
SPEAKER_01 (40:20):
Thereabouts.
SPEAKER_02 (40:21):
Okay, and and you're still working at consumers.
So what are you doing atconsumers around this time?
SPEAKER_01 (40:27):
About that time at Consumers, I was an operation
supervisor on the gas at the gasside of the business.
Um, so I had bounced around alittle bit, which gave me a lot
of uh experience in theoperations and running different
at different headquarters.
So I started out, ironically,when I first joined the
(40:50):
military, my unit was theLeadership Academy in Lavonia.
Right.
And I worked in Lavonia withconsumers.
SPEAKER_00 (40:59):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01 (40:59):
So uh I could literally walk from consumers'
headquarters to Army, our Armyunit.
So that's pretty convenient.
Yeah, that was uh, I mean, youknow, that was funny.
So for years I had that uh thatdynamic going.
But uh so uh at that at thatparticular time I was an
(41:20):
operation supervisor, and I hadbounced around, started out in
Livonia, went to um they hadjust opened up the Royal Oak
Service Center.
I mean, Royal Oak at that timewas a um uh uh customer service
where they took bills and a lotof uh admin administrator stuff.
So in 2007, they opened it backup to uh operations where we uh
(41:45):
moved back in distributionservice and uh a lot of the
operations uh um areas.
So we moved over there and thenI bounced around from Crawl Ope,
uh Macomb, Groveland, couplecouple different headquarters.
Yeah, so uh uh operationsupervisor, and then I was um at
(42:10):
that particular time withseasoned season supervisor, so I
was looking for uh kind of a umpositioning myself to become a
uh a senior manager.
SPEAKER_00 (42:21):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (42:23):
And so you uh so if I'm doing my math right, about
40 years, so around 2015 youretired from the Army?
26.
SPEAKER_01 (42:33):
Okay, and you were one year off.
Oh, okay, yes, yeah.
2016.
And actually, um time flies byMarch will be 10 years that I
retire.
SPEAKER_02 (42:46):
Yeah.
unknown (42:47):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (42:47):
Well, I retired in 2010.
So yeah, time flies.
Time flies.
It really does.
SPEAKER_01 (42:52):
It does.
SPEAKER_02 (42:53):
So talk to me a little bit about retiring from
the military specifically, likewhat was it like to like put
that uniform on for the you knewit was going to be the last time
that you're gonna wear that inan official capacity?
SPEAKER_01 (43:06):
Actually, reflecting back on it, it was a great time
because I enjoyed my wholemilitary career.
Of course, you know, like I likeI stated earlier, due to my uh
responsibilities, you know, Ihad to decide, you know, I I had
uh kind of mauled over gettingout, but throughout my military
(43:28):
career, I I so those last coupleyears was focused on retiring,
but at the same token, I wasenjoying that.
SPEAKER_00 (43:40):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (43:40):
So close to let me fast forward to that last year
that I was in, it was justphenomenal.
You know, just the you know,reflecting back over your
career, you can see the light atthe end of the light at the end
of the tunnel, then I rememberthe last couple months putting
(44:03):
that uniform on, then that lastday of them acknowledged me and
acknowledging me in formation.
This is Captain Folk's last dayhe's officially fired.
So it was surreal, surreal.
Um your whole military careerflashed before you.
(44:25):
You start reflecting back on onwhere you started, where you
came, where you are, and howproud you were to where that you
so uh that was it was it wasawesome.
Yeah, kind of bittersweet,right?
It was kind of it was kind ofbitter bitters bittersweet.
And then actually reflectingback on it, if I was uh stick it
(44:50):
out, uh most of my uh peersright now are majors promotable
clinic colonels.
SPEAKER_00 (45:00):
Yeah.
So if I had stayed in, I wouldbe a major promotable clinic
colonel.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (45:09):
Still, that's a lot of years to have to put in to
get there.
SPEAKER_01 (45:12):
That's a lot of years, a lot of responsibility.
SPEAKER_02 (45:17):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yes.
So you retire from the military,you continue your career on at
uh Consumers Energy.
Let's talk a little bit aboutthat.
SPEAKER_01 (45:26):
So basically, I ironically, retiring from the
military at 2016, there was onlya couple more years that I
before I left consumers in 2018.
So it was only like two yearsafter that.
SPEAKER_02 (45:42):
So you really so if we if I think about this right,
you really only had two years atConsumers Energy where you
weren't doing two differentjobs.
SPEAKER_01 (45:50):
Correct.
Yeah, correct, correct.
I mean, because actually, uh,just like I stated, you know,
that was the reason why, youknow, I was really motivated and
I kind of wanted that milestone.
I think I wanted that milestoneof retiring after 30 years.
Yeah.
Um, and then to be able toexperience life of working at
(46:11):
consumers and not have the uhmilitary.
SPEAKER_00 (46:16):
So reflecting back on it, it was only two two years
that uh that that happenedbecause I retired at uh from the
military 2016 uh consumers at2008.
So it's only a two year time.
SPEAKER_02 (46:31):
Yeah.
And our our paths had crossed acouple of times at uh the
consumers during that period.
So um, you know, uh what haveyou been doing since?
SPEAKER_00 (46:42):
Since I have um and I do um some speeches on it.
I have really reinvented myself,rebranded myself after leaving
consumers again after themilitary course throughout both
(47:03):
both entities I was in inleadership position.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (47:11):
So I developed and and perfected I wouldn't say
perfected, but just developed uhmy leadership style.
So after afterwards, now fastforwarding I became an educator
which uh working with uh youngyoung young people I have
(47:32):
develop uh started my nonprofitthe Chuck Folks organization,
which our mission is to helppeople get into skill trade.
SPEAKER_00 (47:42):
I've started my talk to Chuck Folks at L, which my um
which I specialize in leadershipdevelopmental resilience.
So basically uh reinventedmyself, rebranded myself, and I
(48:03):
can honestly say this stage andchapter in my life I have
committed to helping being aservice to others, uh because
it's before at this stage of mylife it's helpful.
Yeah.
And you get to pick what youwant to do.
(48:25):
And I can pick what I can I canpick what it's a great feeling.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (48:35):
Well, so it really so I had just a couple more
questions then.
The first question is Is thereanything that we haven't talked
about that you want to talkabout in this part of your
interview?
SPEAKER_00 (48:46):
Actually, I think we we we covered we covered uh most
of it.
SPEAKER_01 (48:52):
I I guess probably I can kind of embellish this stage
and this chapter in my life.
Um run and joke, um the run runand joke I have uh at this point
right now, I'm round in thirdbase, I'm in the fourth quarter,
(49:13):
I'm on the back nine of life,and I'm trying to make everyday
count.
SPEAKER_00 (49:22):
And how I um make everyday count is to be of
service to help.
Yeah.
And that's shooting thethree-pointer.
SPEAKER_01 (49:33):
And that's shooting the three-pointer.
That's that that's that'sshooting that's shooting the
tray.
That could that covers all thesports.
That covers that coverseverything.
So um again, um we we prettymuch covered me from from A to
Z.
Okay.
But again, you know, uh thatphase, that chapter, where I'm
(49:56):
at right now, um, I just I justreally enjoy helping other
people leaving.
SPEAKER_00 (50:07):
Oh no, all right.
SPEAKER_02 (50:09):
Well hold on one second because I'll ask you one
more question after that.
Okay.
Oh, you got the but don't forgetthe microphone.
Just you can just carry thatwith you.
SPEAKER_01 (50:20):
Oh, okay, gotcha.
SPEAKER_02 (50:21):
Otherwise, you'll be dragging it behind you.
SPEAKER_01 (50:22):
Okay, gotcha.
Yeah, that's man.
I thought I'd touch that on.
That's how it works.
Yeah, man, hold on.
Let me turn it off now.
SPEAKER_02 (50:32):
All right.
SPEAKER_01 (50:33):
So we have to edit that part out.
SPEAKER_02 (50:35):
Yeah, which by the way, I'm very good at.
SPEAKER_01 (50:37):
Okay, good, good, good.
I turned it off.
SPEAKER_02 (50:40):
All right, very cool.
SPEAKER_01 (50:44):
I'm probably I'm probably about the only person
who still has a ring tone.
SPEAKER_02 (50:48):
No, you know, you'd be surprised how often this
happens.
It's either it's either that orthey got a they got a stupid
grandfather clock.
SPEAKER_01 (50:54):
Really?
SPEAKER_02 (50:55):
Yeah, bong, bong, bong.
Okay, gotcha, gotcha.
Okay, I don't feel so bad, yeah.
All right.
Um, so with with all of thatsaid, uh, you're in this part of
your life where you're reallygiving back, although you've led
a life of service your wholeentire life, uh, it really just
kind of begs one last question.
(51:15):
And that question is you know, ahundred years from now, when
someone's watching this video orlistening to you talk about your
life, what would you like themto take away?
SPEAKER_00 (51:25):
What kind of advice would you have for people?
What I would like the audienceto take take away from my
journey and my experience as aperson, as a person of faith,
the sooner you discover yourGod-given talent and maximize
(51:52):
that that's what real life isbecause your work doesn't feel
like work because it becomesmore of a passion.
SPEAKER_01 (52:05):
So seek to find your God-given talent because God has
given each one of us a talent togive to the world, find that
talent, maximize that work.
Well, thanks for that, andthanks for spending your morning
with me, Chuck.
(52:25):
Thank you for driving out onthis soggy uh fall soon to be
winter, um winter, but uh fallmorning, and uh I appreciate the
opportunity to share my story.
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