Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2021 16:59:41 -0500
From: Daisy


Here is mine: My most memorable moment at OHS was when I was able to persuade
the Principal that I did not want to take physics and instead would like to take
art and music. How did I do that and stay in the Maths class? I must have been
good at the art of persuasion.

At McGill, I was a Psychology major but I did not want to take the experimental
lab course with rats so I persuaded the head of the department to let me out of
it.

I was convinced I wanted to be a psychotherapist. I volunteered at the Verdun
Psychiatric hospital, but when I was mistaken for a patient of the hospital I
decided to change my career path!
I got a Master's in Consumer Psychology from Rutgers (one of two schools that
offered a degree in this new field of psychology ) and embarked on a career in
Advertising (the art of persuasion). At 23, I landed my dream job at Dancer,
Fitzgerald, Sample, a large ad agency in New York. I was so happy because it was
a "real" job that gave me an office with a window and a secretary, and the
ability to have a New York apartment! This was a big deal for women at that
time.

I loved the work developing advertising strategies and evaluating ad campaigns
and I had fun too. (The series, Mad Men, portrays the advertising business very
realistically.)
I worked on a variety of categories from cookies to cars to laundry detergent.
This was the working woman I wanted to be, and I even was interviewed by Working
Woman magazine about how I juggled work and family. Eventually I became VP of
Consumer Research and Strategy at Saatchi and Saatchi.

After 20 years, I left the ad business and started my own consumer research
company specializing in focus groups which I had for 20 years.

Along the way, I married a lawyer, and had two children (both in the tech field,
one at Google and one at Microsoft), and two grandchildren who I haven't seen in
a year due to Covid. And I wrote 4 versions of the same book, an organizing
system for new parents.

I love to travel to places that are off the beaten track and then draw or paint
images from these trips. My last trip was to Borneo to see the orangutans.
Here's a pastel of a baby orangutan.

Daisy