Today we’d like to introduce you to Kent Darwin.
Hi Kent, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My 33-year career with 3M Company ended when I retired on February 1, 2001. I retired at 60 so I could travel with my wife, Kay, and draw and paint parts of our good earth. There have been five major focuses for me in retiring to something, not from something. 1. Drawing and painting. 2. Singing in the Coppell Community Chorale. 3. Traveling until Kay’s health brought it to an untimely halt. 4. I am a volunteer for the Al Gore Foundation doing slide presentations on our Climate Crisis that focus on three questions: 1). Must we change? 2) Can we Change? 3) Will we change? 5. I am a volunteer for the Cochlear Implant Company, being an advocate and mentor to those who have profound hearing loss and are considering a Cochlear implant that helps retrain the brain to hear. (I had my implant in December 2017 and became a volunteer in 2018.) 5. Lastly, it is my responsibility to find artists to exhibit their art in our church sanctuary…we are booked through May 2024.
I am 82, and fortunately, drawing and painting have no age limits. For the same reason, I enjoy playing golf, the greatest, most difficult sport ever invented, with the most unusual rules of any sport that exists today. A day of golf results are like the words in a John Denver song”…some days are diamonds; some days are coal.”
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The journey of my life to date has been like a paved road, mostly smooth with some expected and unexpected potholes. Kay’s health with chronic pain from osteoarthritis affecting her from neck to hips, hit a wall in 2008. We have been seeking relief for many years, even before 2008. Health is the X factor in retirement and life in general. My hearing loss caused me to disengage from conversation, first in the car, then in noisy rooms in a group setting, and got to the point of not talking on the landline phones. My Cochlear implant reversed those experiences. My hearing went from 3% of understanding a conversation to 80%; I understand about 95% of what is said on my cell phone because Bluetooth sends the voice directly to my hearing devices. The 5% I don’t understand is my daughter talking at fast forward, and when I get customer service representatives who do not live in the U.S.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I worked with 3M Company during the best of times. The company has a great North Star, and year after year named one of the top ten most ethical companies in the United States. Most of my career was working in 3M Health Care Divisions, starting in sales in Tennessee, Promoted Regional Manager in Chicago…taking a troubled Region and made it the most improved Region the next year. During my time in Chicago, I had more representatives promoted than any other Regions. From Chicago, I was promoted to Contract Negotiator for all 3M products sold into the Health Care Hospital Systems. In 1985, I negotiated a 5-year, sole source products contract with Voluntary Hospitals of America (VHA) who represented 1,800 hospitals across the United States. Because of the size of the contract, I negotiated with 3M management to move me to the Dallas area where VHA was located. The move was approved, so Kay and I moved on January 28, 1986, to Coppell, Texas, the day that the NASA space shuttle blew up. Representing 3M, I negotiated contracts with most of the largest Hospital Systems in the country…Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Adventist Health Care Systems, Humana Health Care Systems to name a few. When traveling for 3M, I would take my sketch pad and create Pen and Ink drawings at night in my hotel room. It relaxed me, brought me great pleasure, and really introduce me to fine art that includes watercolor painting, drawing with watercolor pencils, and finally found “Turpenoid” (a no-smell turpentine) so I could learn to paint in oils. Whatever medium I am using, I love it. Our home is my gallery for guests view my art. I do a few art shows, do commissioned pieces, and donate art to some of my favorite organizations to help them raise money.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
My grandfather and grandmother owned and worked a farm outside of Hope, Arkansas. (I was born in Hope.) They loved me unconditionally. Papa taught me the love of God, the love music, how to plow behind a large, gentle workhorse, and the love fishing. My grandmother prepared the best food ever tasted on a wood cook stove that she and Papa grew, canned, and butchered. Dad taught me a strong work ethic and was one the most positive human I’ve known. Mom knew what I needed in the way of love and care that she gave willingly. I have two brothers and a sister. What is great about us as adults is that we all wish the best for each other and families.
Each day, I try to mindful that I have been given this day. To be mindful that I have been given gifts to use and share. To be mindful to treat family, friends, and strangers with dignity and respect.
