“Listen to what people mean, not what they say.” My grandfather is a quiet man, but that doesn’t mean he’s not telling me anything.

John Pozorski grew up in Shorewood, Wisconsin. A small town of subdivisions, though life wasn’t easy. At the age of eight his father became very sick, and as a result he detached himself from his family, including my grandfather. At the age of nine his father died leaving his sister, mother, and himself behind.

His family thought it would be best for the children to have a father figure. They relocated to his uncle's farm where he would live out the rest of his childhood.

When he was 15 he got a job at a pinball repair shop, likely where he got to be so good with his hands. He then moved on to college, the first in his family to do so, where he received a degree in electrical engineering. This was, at the time, an innovative industry; which caught the attention of Johnson Controls, where he became the first degreed engineer they hired. He was put in charge of hiring new talent, which, I believe, is where he learned to read people so well.

Johnson Controls is where he met my grandmother. They married in 1959. She did most of the talking for the two of them. However, when my grandfather says something, everyone listens.

Nowadays, when I go over to help with gardening or to have dinner, my uncle does the talking. When I talk with my uncle I know that my grandfather is always listening.