1978 – First HFSC Trip – Vail, CO

The first HFSC trip took place in Vail in mid-December, 1978. There were seven skiers on that trip. All were Honeywellers except for one:

• Sam Hawkins
• Frank Rottier
• Don Bogle
• John Reliford
• Naz Selman
• Tom Glaser
• Howard Morgan  (3rd party sales training consultant)

At the time, the field sales organization reported to Honeywell Process Control Division in Fort Washington, PA where Dan Hughes was VP of Sales. Hughes scheduled Branch Sales Manager training in Denver, at the Stapleton Plaza Hotel near the old Denver Stapleton Airport. Howard Morgan was hired by Hughes to deliver a three day sales training program. When the training was nearing completion, Dan Hughes offered to pay for 2 rental vans for anyone interested in going skiing. Sam Hawkins had spent time previously in Denver as BSM, so Sam accepted the offer and suggested Vail as the destination. Sam convinced the other six to come along even though one participant, Tom Glaser, did not ski.

When we arrived in Denver on Sunday, there was hardly any snow in Vail. It began snowing hard on Tuesday and by Wednesday Vail was reporting over three feet of powder had fallen. None of us could ski very well so when we got on the mountain the deep powder caused us problems. Hawkins broke a binding and had to walk to Mid Vail for help. There were several times that I had to take off my skis to get safely down a GREEN run. Little did I know at the time that the conditions were every skier’s dream come true.

We stayed in a condo on the north side of I-70 and drove the vans over to Vail Village for daily parking to ski. There are no known pictures of that trip and my memories are foggy at best.

One thing that does stand out in my memory (probably because the tale has been told so many times) is the career mistake that Tom Glaser made. When we arrived in Vail, the skiers took off to rent skis and hit the slopes, and Glaser checked into the condo. When we returned from the slopes, all cold, wet, and thirsty we found Glaser had taken care of himself very nicely, but didn’t think about us at all. He bought one six pack of beer, and drank most of it. He brought in just enough wood to start a small fire, but let the fire burn out when he picked the best bedroom and took a nap. Hawkins was not happy.

At the time of the first ski trip, Hawkins and Glaser were organizational peers. However, as TDC 2000 was released, Hawkins quickly moved up the organization due to successful sales results in the Houston Branch. Soon, Hawkins was Glaser’s boss and an October re-organization was in the planning stage. Glaser didn’t make the cut on Hawkins’ team and was OTD (out the door).