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These following fourteen attitude patterns were given to me by my father’s example. I list them here in order to pass them on to all my grandchildren and their children.

The Secret of Achievers

Why is it that some people perform consistently well while others of equal talent and dedication never realize their full potential? The difference, declares Howard A. Westphall (IndustryWeek, January 1974), is attitude and how you feel about yourself and your environment. Attitude, Mr. Westphall points out, is the key to the full release of human potential, and he identifies fourteen attitude patterns which are exhibited by the high performers:

Self-Esteem

This is the foundation. You review yourself and your abilities in a positive way. You are an important, capable person who can accomplish what you set out to do. You deserve success and are not afraid to confront new situations, feeling that you control your own destiny.

Responsibility

You are accountable for your own actions. As a self-made person, you acknowledge your mistakes and take credit for your successes.

Optimism

You look forward to the next day and confident in your ability and judgment, feel that your efforts will be rewarded and that the future is promising.

Goal Orientation

If you are an achiever, you don’t just set goals and forget them. You have your goals, both immediate and long-term, in front of you continually to motivate you daily.

Imaginativeness

You are not limited and bound by the past but project a new experience for yourself. You actively seek and make change.

Awareness

You are sensitive to what is going on around you and absorb information which will be of benefit to you and help you achieve your goals.

Creativeness

The status quo does not satisfy you, and you believe that things can always be improved. You innovate and search for new approaches.

Communicativeness

You recognize the value of communication and ensure that your message is clear and that you understand what people are trying to convey to you. You develop empathy and relate to others.

Growth Orientation

Realizing that you cannot stand still in a world of change, you have chosen to grow and develop. You are concerned with developing your potential and making the most of your talents.

Positive Response to Pressure

When you are faced with crises, deadlines, and decisions, you actually function better. You have learned to take pressure and use it as a positive force to get the adrenalin flowing in your body and motivate you to act decisively.

Trust

You believe that people are basically honest, sincere, and responsible, and you act accordingly. This feeling of trust gives you relationships with others openness and credibility, which makes genuine cooperation possible.

Joyfulness

Life fascinates you, and you feel real enjoyment in whatever you are doing. You are happy with who you are and what you are, and your enthusiasm is passed on to those around you.

Risk-Taking

Recognizing that life never offers complete security, you welcome new ventures and are not afraid of reasonable risks. All activity involves some degree of chance, and you balance the probable gains against the probable losses.

Decision-Making

You relish the moment, and there is a real sense of intensity and urgency about you. You make decisions now, you act now, and you convey a feeling of vitality, motion, and accomplishment.

Great Lakes

Acknowledgments

I must thank the following:

Fulton Books

Scott Parker, My PA

Laurie Maurer Shelton, my daughter,

for the suggestion that I write my story

Mary Ann Horning Maurer, my wife of fifty-five years,

for her encouragement and patience

Stephen Andrew Maurer, my son, and my daughter-in-law,

Nicole, for their excitement about the project

Karin Mee-Lyn Maurer, my daughter, for her contributions to my memoirs

Zaza Urbanek Fetterly, my friend and an artist and writer (zazafetterly.com) for her invaluable support, expertise, and diligence, as she orchestrated my thoughts and my stories into a real book

Terry Maurer with Napa Valley CAMi Cabernet vines.

Introduction: Preview of Memoirs

Today, December 15, 2010, I am starting to write my life’s story so that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have a jump on ancestry.com. Everyone has their own story. This is mine. You should write yours as well. I am not sure what the title of my book will ultimately be. It might be Son of a Poor Michigan Dirt Farmer or Autobiography of Wolfgang Savage (one of my favorite aliases); it could be Oil and Water: My First Seventy Years or Never Quit; maybe I’ll call it The Story of Avita Water, From Chemicals to Water, or Daylight in the Swamp. Those of you who know me best will understand what’s behind my musings here. The rest will get the drift as you read on.

Whatever the title ultimately becomes, this will be the life story of me, Terry A. Maurer, and the times and my reflections beginning with my birth in Grayling, Michigan, USA, on October 1, 1942.

I was born during the early days of World War II when either Roosevelt or Truman was president. It was Roosevelt. I am not going to try and make every date in my book precise, but it will be very close. If you must know exact dates you may Google it or maybe find it on Facebook. I expect to end this book in my seventieth year.

Why am I writing my story? Well, it’s not just my story. It’s written for a broad audience who have witnessed these times and for those who want to know what happened. It’s also a reference for my children, Laurie M. Shelton, Stephen A. Maurer, and Karin M. Maurer, and their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. yet to be born. There will be stories they’ve heard and some they have not heard. It will also be entertaining, I hope, for my grandchildren, Trevor Scott Mansfield, Camille Elizabeth Shelton, Brianna Rose Maurer, Alison Amanda Maurer, and Colette Marie Maurer, and their children and grandchildren to be adults I would imagine in 2050 and 2080. I also have six step-grandchildren, Bryan, Jonathan, and Jessica Shelton and Kim, Mike, and Alec Schisler, who may enjoy parts of my odyssey. Now there are step great grandchildren Dylan and Elliot Riggs and to be born in 2020, a son (to be named Andrew) to Bryan and Sarah Shelton who will likely read this odyssey.

My story will have fourteen chapters and will cover the major events of my life as it unfolded. Interspersed throughout are my views on the events of the day and presidential politics. Obviously it will cover my early days on the farm in Northern Michigan.

My dad, Bernard Maurer, was the oldest son of twelve children of Laurence and Gertrude Lennon Maurer from Nashville, Michigan. He taught Tony, Louie, and me how to earn spending money by selling worms, minnows, strawberries, green onions, and sweet corn and also taught us how to milk cows by hand, raise chickens, and skin cedar rafters.

My mother, Pauline Cherven from Roscommon, taught us how to make ice cream, clean chickens, make the best fudge (better than what you get on Mackinaw Island), and how to pray.

My godfather, Dr. Bernard Godfroy originally from Monroe, Michigan, taught us how to fish, make soap from venison tallow, take honey from bees, make wine from apples and chokecherries, (if someone had told me in 1950 that a person could make a living formulating wine from grapes, I might have moved to Napa Valley instead of Detroit formulating chemicals for fasteners), load rifle shells, hatch baby chicks, shoot the crossbow, and how to monitor the artesian wells.

When the movie of Dirt Farmer’s Son is made, Renée Zellweger should play Mary Ann or if it were possible her look-alike, Kim Novak. Brad Pitt or Jeff Daniels could play Terry.

The story ends in Napa Valley, California, with me helping market my daughter Laurie M. Shelton’s Cami Wines.

Other chapters will cover events and stories from my days at a Catholic military boarding school in Monroe, Michigan, a grade school for the rich and, in my case, the privileged poor (kind of like Jack Dawson on Titanic and the stowaway who gets the rich girl). Also there are chapters about my time at the seminary in Holy Trinity, Alabama, and my education in four colleges as well as my continued ongoing business career as a chemist and founder of Maurer-Shumaker Industrial Coatings, a chemical manufacturer in Detroit.

This book will also cover my Avita Artesian Water company in Northern Michigan. At this time, Avita markets five major brands: Avita, Ecoviva, Aagwatt, Mr. Waterman, and 1-Litre. There are stories about my marriage to Ann Arbor’s cutest redhead, Mary Ann Horning, on July 10, 1965.

Tony Maurer as a child, far left, with the two well drillers, right, on Avita Artesian Water discovery day in 1946.

Terry and his rooster on the farm.