GREAT ARTICLE

I was honored this week with a very lengthy and flattering article in the Deseret News newspaper. It was like reading your obituary and hearing your eulogy prior to your death.

Doug Robinson, feature columnist for the paper, called and requested an interview regarding my past civic involvement and an update on my life after retirement. He interviewed me for maybe an hour and then followed up with several telephone calls. I had no idea what the final column would look like because the interview was wide and covered several topics.

 I was surprised and pleased when the article was published on Monday, March 24. It was a very lengthy article that featured a large photo of me in my home office. It was on a split page above the fold and the copy carried over inside the section for three pages with two more photos, (It must have been a slow news day.)

One of the sub-heads featured the line, "Dynamo Fred Ball says he's lousy at retirement." At the age of 81 years old, I miss work. I really do. Doug wrote about my past involvement win  several projects: bringing the Utah Jazz NBA franchise to Salt Lake City, establishment of the Delta Airlines Hub to Salt Lake International Airport and the winning of the 2002 Winter Olympics to Utah.

He mentioned my meeting in the Oval Office with President Ronald Reagan regarding the request from the government to organize a chamber of commerce in the nation of Belize and my efforts to stimulate a very weak economy in the new country, That assignment put in contact with Vice president George W. Bush, Casper Weinburger and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Well, there was much more in the article. I was pleased. I probably received over 100 Emails from people commenting on the article and as many telephone calls and text messages. It's nice to know that you are not completely "Yesterday's News" after you leave the public arena.