{"id":5327,"date":"2013-09-13T10:27:51","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T15:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahrns.com\/blog\/?p=5327"},"modified":"2023-11-14T21:18:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T03:18:06","slug":"early-materials-handling-job-lasting-impression-university-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahrns.com\/blog\/forklifts\/early-materials-handling-job-lasting-impression-university-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Materials Handling Job Made Lasting Impression on University President"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Life<\/a>
Letourneau University President Dale Lunsford describes life lesson he learned while working in an auto parts warehouse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Minor events that happen to us when we are younger can make an important and lasting impression\u00a0that can be felt throughout\u00a0our\u00a0lives,\u00a0Letourneau University President Dale Lunsford recently told a group of incoming students at the school, which is located in Longview, Texas.<\/p>\n

During the university’s annual convocation chapel, which was held August 26,\u00a0Lunsford told a group of about 1,200 students about a memorable experience he had while\u00a0at an Oklahoma auto parts warehouse.<\/p>\n

Working at an Auto Parts Warehouse<\/strong><\/p>\n

The incident occurred in\u00a01978 and Lunsford, who\u00a0was a freshman at the University of Tulsa, got a part-time job\u00a0at Specialty Parts Warehouse, a an auto parts supplier located in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

“They stocked a wide variety of auto parts that were sold through various retailers,” Lunsford said. “I remember everything from floor mats to carburetors to, of course, tail pipes.”<\/p>\n

It was those tail pipes which made such a lasting impression on Lunsford, he told the students at the Christian university.<\/p>\n

“One of my jobs was driving a forklift at an auto parts warehouse,” Lunsford said. “It was kind of fun driving a forklift until the day the forklift clipped this huge rack of tail pipes, sending them crashing onto the cement floor. Just like this moment as president, if I mess up, thousands of people are watching. That’s how I felt driving the forklift that day.”<\/p>\n

Lunsford said he can “still remember the sound those tail pipes made when they hit the concrete floor.” Lunsford’s story was met with laughter and applause.<\/p>\n

Life Lessons Inspire University President<\/strong><\/p>\n

Later, Lunsford went on to receive a Master’s Degree from the University of Tulsa in 1985 and a doctorate in business administration from Oklahoma State University in 1989 before being appointed\u00a0Letourneau University president in July, 2007. But\u00a0he has never forgotten that\u00a0incident\u00a0at the auto parts\u00a0warehouse all those years ago and the important life lesson <\/a>he learned have stayed with him ever since.<\/p>\n

Alex Walker, a freshman from Texarkana who plans to major in mechanical engineering, was in the audience when Lunsford shared his story with the students. He told the Longview News-Journal <\/a>that\u00a0he was inspired by the way small moments can have long-range meaning and that he enjoyed the convocation chapel.<\/p>\n

“It\u00a0 is inspiring to start with the end point in mind,” Walker said. “I think it was very cool to spotlight the goal of serving God from the very beginning of the chapel.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minor events that happen to us when we are younger can make an important and lasting impression\u00a0that can be felt throughout\u00a0our\u00a0lives,\u00a0Letourneau University President Dale Lunsford recently told a group of incoming students at the school, which is located in Longview, Texas. During the university’s annual convocation chapel, which was held August 26,\u00a0Lunsford told a group … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,293],"tags":[976,1078,1079],"class_list":["post-5327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forklifts","category-material-handling","category-news","tag-featured","tag-forklifts","tag-material-handling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahrns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahrns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahrns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahrns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahrns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahrns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12784,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahrns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5327\/revisions\/12784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahrns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahrns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahrns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}