For those in a hurry, here is the sixty-second ‘tell me about yourself’ reply:
I am Neal Ostman, retired CPA and Certified Mergers & Acquisitions Advisor. I grew up in the country’s heartland, was schooled and worked in the commercial world. I became a Chief Financial Officer for healthcare entities. I consider myself a pathfinder, a lover of words, and a student of philosophy and history. My family and faith are personal joys.
For more information on my business background and how I can help growing enterprises achieve goals to improve financial performance and scalability, please visit www.linkedin.com/in/nealostman.
I was blessed with a normative mid-western family upbringing, which is not to say that no bumps and bruises occurred, most of them my own doing. My father had an engineering background and, in his own words, was a cracker-barrel philosopher. In our talks, he would challenge my thinking. My mother was a nurse who was active for over fifty years, working full-time and intermittently to support the family. She nursed in hospitals, in units from OB to ICU, was an industrial nurse, and finished as the Director of Nursing at a nursing home. Mom was the financial and religious manager of the household.
Also, my younger brother and sister were formative. We grew up in the same household, had holidays and traveled, and had all the typical interactions with relatives as siblings. Since I was 4.5 years older than my brother and even further from my sister, I regret that, as I got into the teen years and high school, we didn’t spend much time together.
Mom was originally a member of the Church of the Brethren (Anabaptist) and converted to Dad’s Lutheran faith when they married. She made sure we went to church most Sundays and got confirmed. Dad was an agnostic at best, very rarely going to church. After Sunday School, he would challenge the Bible lessons, forcing me to defend them.
Mom was a farm girl with six sisters and a brother. I had cousins and cousins, some older and some younger. Even though I was a city boy in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I got to spend summers out on the farms, working on my uncles’ farms (all but one had farms) and helping my cousins. This gave me insights into that world. I recommend the farming/ranching experience for every young girl and boy – especially as they go from puberty into the teenage years.
One final key aspect of my ‘wonder years’ was the years we lived out East. Dad took a job with a firm involved in military contracts. We first moved outside Chantilly, Virginia, way before Dulles Airport existed, nothing but woods and hills all around. After five months, we moved to just outside Rockville, Maryland. We ended up moving back to Fort Wayne, halfway through my sophomore year. From fifth to 10th grade, I was in a different culture – this was the early and mid-sixties. There were more pronounced regional differences at that time. The East Coast youth culture of that place and time left a big impression. In Maryland, we lived in a lower middle-class area, and the kids were fast – there were some hoodlum gangs with kids in and out of reform school, the mid-sixties drug and anti-war scene was blossoming, it was the Beatles vs the Beach Boys. Like the title of a Temptation’s song, those times were ‘a ball of confusion’. When we got back to Indiana, I was different from the Midwestern kids. My new public high school was like something out of a genteel storybook. No jeans allowed for anyone, for the guys, no long hair or sideburns longer than your mid-ear, for the girls, no culottes or short skirts, it was a proper place. All this change left me with broader perspectives on the behaviors I witnessed.
I started attending the Indiana/Purdue regional campus in Fort Wayne after graduating in 1969.
During this time, a little conflict called the Vietnam War was in full swing. I was politically conservative, supported Barry Goldwater in 1964, and opposed the hippie counterculture of the day. Did enjoy some of the music but never had my hair long enough to reach my shoulders. I was into sports, playing football in high school, and always read a lot about military history. Likewise, my dad and I had many discussions about politics and the leaders of the day.
Another formative experience was factory work. That was going to be my life, at least until I found out my draft lottery number—whether I would get shipped to Vietnam or not. I took college classes part-time in 1970 71, trying to decide between college and factory life.
Well, I lucked out; otherwise, gung-ho as I was, I likely would be buried in a rice paddy and not clicking this keyboard. My 1970 number was 216, and the State never got that high.
I earned a B.S. degree in Accounting from Indiana University in December of 1975. The stories of those days are best left to conversations over a beer.
I was hired by the best ‘Big Eight’ public accounting firm Arthur Anderson & Co. From there came the challenge of climbing the corporate ladder.
The notes above offer some general background on who has guided, chastised, and educated me, and where I have been influenced and forced to pay for my decisions. In many respects I know I have been very fortunate. There is also a lot left out, which will no doubt come to light in future posts.