People From Boston

"It was a pretty basic job. But it gave me an appreciation of what it was like to be responsible for really important things in people’s lives and making sure that they were always done accurately and correctly"

"I demand pretty aggressive goal setting and a commitment to measured progress towards those goals because I don’t like surprises"

"I can only aspire to be as creative as [my father has] been in his career,” she says. “But that was always an influence on me: Don’t assume that the answers are out there in the form of somebody else already doing something. Sometimes they are. But you have to think beyond that. You have to think that the answer and the right answer for you and your organization might not be something that’s been done before. And it’s up to you to discover and work with your team to form and figure out how to do successfully"

"There are a lot of great reasons why anybody—but particularly women—should consider doing something like being an analyst"

"I was responsible for filling out the forms to correctly put in order the transactions that they were requesting"

"HBS was more important preparation for the role that I’m in now than I possibly could have appreciated at the time"

"taking smart risks and practicing pace over perfection"

"What’s important to us is that people who come to us with liberal arts backgrounds are dedicated students and want to learn. So if we put something in front of you, you’re going to learn it. You’re going to study it. You’re going to think, you’re going to ask questions, and you’re going to understand how to communicate well, because that’s a lot of what you learn from your liberal arts education"

"Keep moving, don’t get hung up on being a perfectionist"

"Some of them are good ideas, but at the wrong time, and we just move on to the next one. And some of them have to be reworked multiple times"

"I think a liberal arts education is actually a great background for our industry. I feel that really strongly"

"I got the stock-picking bug,she says. I enjoyed the intellectual challenge, and I liked interacting with the fund managers"

"No matter how senior you get in an organization, no matter how well you’re perceived to be doing, your job is never done"

"We are in the midst of a major transition that takes advantage of technology to deliver better service"

"You have to be a worrier. Every business has risks, and companies that feel comfortable are probably not paying enough attention"

"It’s a very independent kind of a job where you set your own direction on a day-to-day basis. You have a lot of demands and a lot of deliverables, but you actually have a lot of control over planning your time. You obviously have to be responsible and deliver your results, but there are a lot of different ways that you can do that"

"I had to learn to communicate to very different types of groups of managers with different orientations, different priorities,she says. And that was a real leadership challenge"

"Every day you get up and the world is changing, your customers are expecting more from you. Your competitors are putting pressure on you by doing more and trying to beat you here and beat you there"

"I can honestly say that rejections have made me a better writer. I tried to take on board any feedback I was lucky enough to receive, was spurred on to find out as much as I could about the industry, and I learned to bounce back when disappointments arose. Because of these experiences, I fully appreciate how far I have come, and I think this will help me to face the inevitable ups and downs that come with being an author"

"Every day you have to get up with new energy and new ideas to contribute to pushing the organization forward"

"My father was interested in technology and impressed upon me how important it was to business"

"Based on everybody’s contributions about what they see changing, what can we try that would be something new and different"

"lots of people will give you advice…and depending upon how well they know you, the advice might be valid or not so valid"

"The work of lectures to non-Catholics on questions of Catholic teaching and belief has always appealed to the spirit of the order, and of late years has been taken up with no little success. Splendid results have attended the lectures so far delivered. They have led to a better understanding of the Catholic faith on the part of non-Catholics, and a more friendly attitude towards it; they have shown that bigotry is on the wane, and that the non-Catholic mind is open to conviction."

"The fame of Sarbiewski is as wide as the world of letters."

"Once Japan is destroyed as an aggressive force, we know of no other challenging power that can appear in the Pacific. ... Japan is the one enemy, and the only enemy, of the peaceful peoples whose shores overlook the Pacific Ocean."

"As I stared at the grass under which my great-grandfather was buried, a single question ran through my mind: Was it worth it? The same question strikes me every time I visit the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., that honors the 58,000 who died in one of the longest and most controversial wars in the history of this country. Although 620,000 lives were lost in the Civil War, it brought us the emancipation of slaves and the preservation of the Union. There is no similar weighty statement I can make for the Vietnam War."

"College Lesson Number One: You find out who your true friends are when you stop doing favors for them."

"College Lesson Number Three: If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

"Before me stood a Marine recruiting poster come to life. Tall and with an athletic build and a dozen medals pinned to his chest, Marine Corps Major Kelly oozed confidence. Even his firm handshake and the way his eyes locked onto mine conveyed a no-nonsense attitude. I was about to graduate from the College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, Massachusetts, with an economics degree and no clue how to use it. I was looking for the next step. Several of my classmates who had been in the Navy ROTC program spoke with such reverence about Major Kelly, I was sure they'd stake their lives on his ability to walk on water. One day I bumped into him on campus and decided to introduce myself. My heart skipped a beat as Major Kelly uttered the words that would ultimately change the course of my life. "It's a shame that you couldn't be one of us," he said, referring to my failed attempt to get into the ROTC program due to my poor eyesight. Major Kelly congratulated me on my forthcoming graduation, wished me luck, and disappeared from my life. But his words stayed. They created a picture in my mind of a team that I knew I wanted to be a part of."

"College Lesson Number Two: It's dangerous to step outside of your comfort zone, particularly when mobsters are involved."

"Okay, Mr. Kelley, everything looks good. We'll send this package to Boston, and you should be hearing from us in a few days." I thanked the sailor and walked out with mixed emotions. What had I gotten myself into? Was my dream of being a sailor and my desire for naval service, after many setbacks along the way, finally going to be realized? I could now tell my parents I had an opportunity to serve my country, and they'd be proud of me. I was ecstatic. Finally, a week or so before graduation, the door opened for me, and a path lay ahead. Life gave me a second chance, and I took it."

"I downplayed the fact that I was a Medal recipient until recently. I was too busy being a naval officer, and I certainly did not want to let having the Medal of Honor give me any special advantage when it came to accomplishing certain things, okay? I bent over backward to avoid that, so I ended up downplaying the Medal completely. But now I found that it does permit me to have doors opened here in the state of Massachusetts to help veterans, and for that reason alone I am probably more active than I used to be."

"I don't consider the Medal my personal property. As a recipient, I feel I am wearing it to represent all the men and women who have served over the years with the same dedication and courage. Having said that, it did make me very awre of my responsibilities as a recipient, talking to kids, trying to instill the values of service, courage, honor, and duty, so it's been a very good part of my life. Personally and professionally it added a dimension. I certainly don't dwell on events of thirty-one years ago. That was thirty minutes out of my life and it came and went and life goes on. I've led a wonderful life since then."

"A couple of years after high school is a good time, and it should be mandatory. In the Vietnam era there were so many ways to avoid service, college deferments, this, that, and the other thing, so that notion of service fell on the shoulders of those who were less advantaged and were unable to do college and things like that. I just don't think that's the way it should be. I like to think back to the way it was when this country was formed. When people like John Adams and George Washington led the way, men of substance, means, and intellect. Yet they were the ones who sacrificed the most to make this country what it is today."

"[About September 11, 2001] We agreed earlier that this was a wakeup call, but I think the pain is being felt by other people. The American public is not going to have a sense that hey're at war. We still have an all-volunteer force fighting our wars, so different from the way it was during World War II whene very block had sons and daughters overseas. I'd love to see not necessarily a return to the draft as much as some sort of national service involving everybody. I think that would give us all a sense of sharing and belonging to the crisis we're in right now. I mean, it's almost business as usual: People are inconvenienced, revenues are down because of dot-com companies going out of business, but nobody is really feeling the pain yet except those who lost loved ones in the events of September eleventh and now overseas in Afghanistan."

"It may sound as though I joined the Navy on a whim because I didn't have any other career options, and that wouldn't be entirely false, but it's not entirely true either. My love of the sea began in early childhood, and a sense of adventure had pushed me to join the sea service even before college. I'd been imbued with the importance of service by my parents and church my entire life. This was simply the inevitable coming to fruition."

"There's a tradition in Massachusetts, starting with the North Bridge in Concord, with U.S. history starting here, a history of service. We take care of our own. When you think of John Adams, people like that who just embody service. Abe Lincoln's family was from here, right out near where Tom Hudner lives in Concord. There's a tradition here. The first Vietnam veterans' memorial in the U.S. was built in South Boston in 1982. The towns here seem to have paid more than their proportion in sending sons off to war."

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in the afternoon while serving as commander of River Assault Division 152 during combat operations against enemy aggressor forces. Lt. Comdr. (then Lt.) Kelley was in charge of a column of eight river assault craft which were extracting one company of U.S. Army infantry troops on the east bank of the Ong Muong Canal in Kien Hoa Province, when one of the armored troop carriers reported a mechanical failure of a loading ramp. At approximately the same time, Viet Cong forces opened fire from the opposite bank of the canal. After issuing orders for the crippled troop carrier to raise its ramp manually, and for the remaining boats to form a protective cordon around the disabled craft, Lt. Comdr. Kelley, realizing the extreme danger to his column and its inability to clear the ambush site until the crippled unit was repaired, boldly maneuvered the monitor in which he was embarked to the exposed side of the protective cordon in direct line with the enemy's fire, and ordered the monitor to commence firing. Suddenly, an enemy rocket scored a direct hit on the coxswain's flat, the shell penetrating the thick armor plate, and the explosion spraying shrapnel in all directions. Sustaining serious head wounds from the blast, which hurled him to the deck of the monitor, Lt. Comdr. Kelley disregarded his severe injuries and attempted to continue directing the other boats. Although unable to move from the deck or to speak clearly into the radio, he succeeded in relaying his commands through one of his men until the enemy attack was silenced and the boats were able to move to an area of safety. Lt. Comdr. Kelley's brilliant leadership, bold initiative, and resolute determination served to inspire his men and provide the impetus needed to carry out the mission after he was medically evacuated by helicopter. His extraordinary courage under fire and his selfless devotion to duty sustain and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service."

"I've found in this job something I never stopped to think about before: Someone who serves in the military has no control over whether there's a war or no, so this state and all states treat their wartime vets different from how they treat their peacetime vets, which I think is fundamentally unfair. I'm trying to get that changed, so that anybody who serves is treated the same way when it comes to benefits. The Cold War was won by men and women who were not considered wartime veterans, tracking their subs, doing sonar, playing cat-and-mouse type of games."

"Had I gone to my other option, Boston College, this opportunity wouldn't have come my way, because there was no Navy ROTC program there and, consequently, no recruiter to goad me into following my dream. As mentioned, the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy had all rejected me. Backing up a bit, while attending one of those schools had been my dream, I chose Holy Cross over B.C. partly because of what the school's symbol and nickname- the Crusader- meant to me. The Crusader image is that of a knight mounted on an armored horse. Imagine having beliefs so strong- religious beliefs or otherwise- that you would sacrifice the daily comforts and security of ordinary life. Imagine having beliefs so strong that you would be willing to give your life to uphold them. Of course, the early Christian martyrs also gave their lives for their faith, but knights held a special pull on me. They drew strength and courage from their beliefs, but also from miliary service. Would I ever have that kind of courage? Becoming a modern-day knight appealed to me as a way to stand up for what I believed in, even if it was unpopular and resulted in personal sacrifice. Serving others and doing unto them as you would have done unto yourself seemed like a good life motto."

"Eventually Tom and I found our way to one another. We married in 2005. I moved to another agency. Temporarily, Tom moved into my house, but we both yearned for our own single-family home. Cambridge was too expensive, so after our marriage, we looked next door in Somerville and found a lovingly cared for Victorian that needed a little work. It's where we live today. We have great neighbors, and the gentrification that's taking place ensures a happy future with more young families moving in. Not even a winning lottery ticket could take the place of the life Tom and I now lived. Home, marriage, even my new job were blessings. We were a team. We thought alike in many ways, yet respected each other's differences. We were determined that nothing would get in the way of our new happiness. We planned to keep the stress out of our lives by realizing that certain events were beyond our control, looking for silver linings, keeping a sense of humor, and focusing on the gift of our great love. Unfortunately, large dark clouds were gathering that would negatively impact us both. But life never stays the same. Nothing is forever. Change is constant and all we can do is adapt."

"The Catholic Church is conspicuous in the United States. The number of her adherents, the wealth of her churches, the activity of her religious orders of men and women, her parochial schools, colleges, academies, and 'universities, her compact and widespread hierarchical organization, attract universal attention. Whether the observers be friends or foes, she cannot be and is not ignored. She is a huge fact in the life of the republic. Her present homogeneity is remarkable if we consider the various sources whence she sprang and the various elements of which she is composed."

"I feel like one who has charge of a vessel. There are numbers of men aboard who work, one for one purpose and another for another purpose. He who guides the vessel has the whole credit, and still he but represents the whole. And so it is with him at the head of the diocese. If I have done anything for which I should take credit to myself, it is, as I say, owing to my clergy, and also to the laity. I have simply to hold the rudder strongly, give the vessel the right direction, and the winds and waves will carry it where I wish it to go. They simply require a hand to guide them and to restrain them."

"For many years the bishop was an invalid and a great sufferer, but he kept up his activities to the end and before his death on 13 February, 1866, saw the prosperity of the diocese increased nearly threefold."

"The bishop's solicitude was not limited to the general needs of the diocese; it extended also to the wants of the children and the needy."

"This news causes me a great sorrow. I feel utterly unworthy of such dignity and incapable of properly discharging its duties. What shall I do? God only knows."

"A man of wide reading, acute mind, and judicial temperament, a lover of order and method, he has devoted himself to the task."

"War, they say, is just business conducted through other means."

"That’s all I remember, really. We fly around. I shoot the guns. The explosions are pretty. People die. What the hell are they fighting for? Freedom? What the hell is that? You’re born out of nothing. You live for a while. You die. You go back to nothing. What kind of fool dies for a word? A better class of fool than the one who dies for a paycheck? Don’t know."