In a day when a convicted felon can become President, I hang my head in despair and get inspiration from my dad, Jack M. Clark Sr., who was once fired from a job because he REFUSED to break the law.
Dad changed jobs when I was in fourth grade, and we moved from Elmira, NY, where he worked as accounting manager at Thatcher Glass, to Rochester, NY, where he became controller of Toledo Scale’s commercial kitchens division.
We lived in the Rochester area less than two years, and unbeknownst to my brothers and I, dad was fired shortly into his second year.
The reason? The general manager and one or two other division executives wanted him to “cook the books” to inflate earnings so their bonuses would pay out. They offered dad a big bonus to play along.
The tangled web
Dad’s predecessor in the job apparently cooperated at first, then left on his own. Dad, on the other hand, REFUSED outright. He reasoned, rightly, that eventually the auditors at corporate would uncover the falsification, and HE would be the one taking the blame or, perhaps even be prosecuted, since it was his job to verify the falsified financial statements with his signature.
The general manager, Bob Brethen, even called up the president of dad’s former employer, trying to dig up dirt on dad to coerce him into cooperating. But that failed, too, because he gave dad a glowing recommendation, as well as a friendly call alerting him that his current boss was asking suspicious questions.
Brethen and his partners in crime then had dad meet them at the office on a Saturday, where they asked him to resign quietly. But when dad refused to do that as well, Brethen fired him, gave him six months severance pay, and summarily dismissed him.
Dad told mom what happened right away, but during those six months he dressed in his suit and tie every weekday and pretended to go to work so us kids wouldn’t worry. He spent his days at the library, reading the help-wanted ads in out-of-town newspapers and sending out resumes. Then he’d arrive home around 5:30 p.m., as if coming home from work.
Outcomes
My brother Jack, who was 17 and a senior in high school at the time, remembers more about it than I do. “Watching Dad, he never sat around and felt sorry for himself,” Jack said. “I never saw him down, sad, disappointed. He attacked the problem and got a better job. He told me, ‘self pity as a therapy is greatly overrated.’ I never forgot his example.”
Neither have I, even though I was only 11 at the time.
About the time dad’s severance ran out, he found a job at Glass Container in Oil City, PA. A friend from Thatcher Glass had taken an upper-echelon position there and CREATED a place for my dad because he liked and respected him. We moved back to Pennsylvania for a little over a year and then on to Indianapolis, IN, when Glass Container promoted dad to eastern division controller.
“I once asked him why he didn’t go along and take the money, since no one would know,” my brother Jack said. “He replied, ‘I would know.’ I never forgot that either. ‘I would know.’”
Some might also think dad could have saved face by resigning at Toledo Scale and not having it on record he was fired. But he knew if he was fired, the higher-ups at corporate headquarters would wonder why and start poking around. And he wanted them to poke around, the sooner the better.
Sure enough, within a year, the truth was discovered, and all the culprits were themselves fired—first and foremost, Bob Brethen.
Brethen’s ups & downs
Brethen went next to Allis Chalmers in Atlanta, GA, where he was involved in yet another scandal. He apparently oversaw purchasing and got a kickback on some cut-rate photocopiers to replace the Xerox brand copiers. The executive offices had just been remodeled and two of the bargain-basement copiers installed. They short-circuited over the weekend and caused a devastating fire, after which Brethen was again fired.
Seems fitting. What goes around, comes around. Or does it these days?
Brethen seemingly landed on his feet, though, eventually serving as CEO of Philips Industries in Dayton, OH, where he gained some reputation locally as a philanthropist and had an endowment named for him at his alma mater, Syracuse (NY) University.
Then shortly after he retired, the Securities & Exchange Commission charged him with insider trading for selling shares of Philips stock right BEFORE unfavorable information was made public and thus avoiding more than $550,000 in losses when he sold his shares for $2 million. The SEC demanded he give up the money he avoided losing and pay an additional $1.7 million fine, which more than wiped out his anticipated windfall.
An Internet search led to this notice of the complaint against Brethen in the March 1990 SEC Digest and at least two articles in the New York Times. The Times stated his attorneys advised him against the trade, but he ignored their advice.
I’ve no idea how or if Brethen wiggled out of that one. None of the dirt on him appeared in his January 2022 obituary in the Dayton Daily News, of course. It was full of sweetness and light.
Last words
But on learning of Brethen’s passing, my brother Jack had the final word. He quipped gleefully, “Brethen is no longer breathin’. That makes my day!”
Amen to that, and no tears shed. Wish dad could have been alive to hear it, too.
Use comments to share…
- A favorite story about your dad
- A story of integrity triumphing in your life
& {sometimes} WHY 
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