Beating the odds

By Jeff Becraft

There have been several emails I’ve sent out about my Dad and here comes another one.

As I have said, my Dad is 98 now and totally bedridden. There are some days where it is more difficult than others, but he is still the same man. Still the same great man. He still thanks everybody for whatever they do for him. Even if he doesn’t like what some of the caregivers are having to do, he will still thank them afterwards. And so he’s still the great man that he’s always been.

One of the things is that my Dad is a person of great character. His life is a picture of beating the odds. When he was 12 years old, he had a paper route that was seven miles long.  His dog, Scrappy, would run along with him and Scrappy would go to the next house that was to get a newspaper and wait for my Dad riding his bicycle. My Dad worked his way and paid his way through college. During the summers, he would work in a canning factory. They saw his character and leadership ability and he would work from basically 5:00 in the morning to 11 o’clock at night. He would hitchhike into Washington to go to school. So, he was out on Route 355 before six o’clock in the morning, hitchhiking into Washington, DC, and then later in the day would catch another ride to the Naval Hospital and then hitchhike from there back to Gaithersburg, Maryland.

While my Dad was in college, he had an English professor tell him that he was not college material and that he should think about getting out of school and get a job. My Dad persevered, though, and he got a degree in civil engineering from George Washington University.

Later, he was working for a subcontractor, and again, he was working enormous hours. After several years of this, he went to his boss and said, “There’s got to be a better way to make a living.” His boss said to him, “Well, have you ever tried sales?”

They had a HR psychologist from Chicago evaluate my Dad. The psychologist told his company that my Dad didn’t have what it took or the right personality to be a salesperson. My Dad went on to become the number one salesperson in this national company . In fact, the production team could not keep up with his sales.

Dad was always somebody that loved other people. He cared about other people. He put other people first. And he eventually became Executive Vice President of Glen Construction. (If you read the Friday emails, you may remember that the American Subcontractors Association of Metro Washington honored him with the Arthur C. Meushaw Award for his significant contribution to the construction industry throughout his career.)

I heard recently a panel member say at the NAMI conference: “It’s not what they call you, it’s what you answer to.” My Dad is a great example of that. He has been someone who has overcome what others may have said and the doubts of others earlier in his life and beaten the odds… and has lived a full life.

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Our Place of Hope is a paradigm shift for people living with mental illness that encourages them to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].