About the Author
He grew up during the post-World War II era listening to talk from his relatives about life during the Great Depression. He didn't have many store-bought toys; he didn't need them since his parents bought him real tools, taught him how to use them, and expected him to use them. And because his parents didn't have a lot of extra money and he saw them running their own businesses, he learned quickly that he would need a job to earn his own money.
He was inducted into the business world when he was four years old. He picked up abandoned soda pop bottles to get the two-cent deposit money that he used to buy his candy at Ray McNeil's Grocery Store.
Over the years his jobs have included operating a newspaper route, mowing lawns, selling produce door-to-door, changing tires, repairing cars and painting houses. He's dug ditches, hauled trash, and built and operated a stock-car-racing track. In 1997 he embarked on a new adventure by collaborating with his mother on a cookbook, Ultra-Violet's Pickled Egg Cookbook.
Mr. Shepherd, known to his close friends and family as Butch and Carl T, is a retired Licensed Crane Operator and has been a proud member of the Operating Engineers Union, Locl 513, in St. Louis for the past 35 years. He holds the unofficial world record for setting the largest water tower in two pieces, a task usually done in several sections.
He is a graduate of the United States Army Heavy Equipment School at Fort Leonard Wood, where he graduated first in his company.
Mr. Shepherd's uncommon depth and diversity of business experience is seen through his ability to recognize the marketability of opportunities that are in plain sight. He learned early in life that working is better than not working. And he found that working not only nets you a paycheck but also nets you valuable discipline and self respect.
