Page 30 - 2022-Spring Summer Magazine_FINAL Single_Neat

FOLLOW

THE

LEADER

AS HUMANS, WE ARE
CONSTANTLY PREOCCUPIED with
the life we lead. The contents of our
legacy; the mark we leave behind—
some of us obsess over it. But what
of the lives we in turn lead?

Franklin Simon has led many lives:
both literally on the battlefield of
humanity’s most trying conflicts,
and figuratively through his various
business and personal endeavors.
His is a story—nearly 98 years long
and counting—characterized by
a nigh insatiable drive to better
himself. It is one that has taken him
around the world, and resulted in a
lifetime of leadership.

Franklin’s young life was defined
by his strong work ethic; derived
from his family’s reliance on welfare
support after his father passed when
Franklin was only five. He held all
manner of jobs as an adolescent in
the Dorchester neighborhood of
Boston; selling newspapers, shining
shoes, washing dishes, and ushering
at the local movie theater. He was
also a gifted trombonist, and upon
high school graduation, accepted a
scholarship to attend the University
of California in the fall of 1941. A
few months on however, the Pearl
Harbor attack would change his
life forever. Franklin requested
enlistment—no longer wishing to
pursue music, but to stand tall on
the front lines of World War II.

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