Neil Smith

2 years ago · 4 min. reading time · ~100 ·

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Dennis.

Dennis.

        ‘How would you like to die?’

The question set me back in my seat and I took a moment before answering. I had been listening to Dennis Brown speak to our group of visiting retail staff about the genesis of Northwest Podiatric lab and Superfeet insoles. Along the way he had mentioned his work and play schedule; work every day, lift weights twice a week, hit the punchbag a couple of times a week, golf on the weekends and regular walks. I had asked whether he, at eighty something years old had any plans to take a break from work and slow down a bit as he got older. The question above was how he began to respond to me and I answered carefully as my own father had died the previous year after a very long, drawn-out dance with mesothelioma.

        ‘Quickly or in my sleep.’ I said ‘The less I know about it the better.’

At which point Dennis explained that in order to achieve this rare feat we had to look after ourselves as best we could in the meantime. Stay physically active and mentally sharp. Do the things you enjoy which keep you interested in life right up to the point where there was no more life to be interested in. He had a restless mind and so long as that restlessness drove him forward then he was willing to get up every day and give his best to whatever he encountered. To this end he was the epitome of work hard, play hard and enjoy every moment as if it was your last.

Later during our tour, I and one of the American guys in the group had a tea-break chat with Dennis and it isn’t too much to say that this, on top of the previous address was a life-changing experience. Both of us had come up from fairly lowly beginnings and felt that we had done some hard yards. Dennis told us about just some of his life story and we understood that we had barely skated over the surface. We both walked away feeling that this guy could get us to run through walls for him.

He had come home from school in London during the second world war to find a note from his mother saying that they were on their own now and would have to look after themselves. He was twelve. His fourteen-year-old brother joined the RAF soon after and Dennis tried to join the army but was turned down for being obviously too young even for those days. He tried again when he hit fourteen and this time was accepted. At sixteen he was the last NCO alive in his platoon in France and took charge of his men like a pro. He attributed his penchant for swearing like a trooper to being an actual trooper. As he said;

‘It’s difficult to get people to lower their heads urgently by asking them politely so you end up shouting “Get your F***ing head down” all the time.’

After the war he emigrated and joined the Canadian armed forces serving in the Middle East before retiring from the military and starting work at a local podiatry clinic.

One his first day in the new job he was cleaning up when the podiatrist came into the room and took a bag from the refrigerator. From this he removed a human cadaver foot which he placed on a table and began making incisions in it. He had an operation later that afternoon and wanted to practice before going to work on the patient. Dennis decided to leave his lunch in the fridge as he suddenly wasn’t feeling all that hungry. 

He invented a board game and ended up marketing and selling it himself. The money from this helped him buy the lab following the death of his employer and the only condition placed on the sale by his widow was that Dennis had to promise to continue to employ Glenn, the only other member of staff. In 2010 I met Glenn, still a Northwest Podiatric employee and an exceptional maker of orthotics with a real talent for working with plastercasts. 

From a standing start in 1964 Northwest Podiatric Laboratory became a company employing dozens of staff and grew to be a leader in the field. From here came the idea for Superfeet insoles; a high-quality OTC device that would work for most people without the cost of medical orthoses. By the time I came to Washington state for a visit, Superfeet was a worldwide company working with sports specialists and medics on nearly every continent.

In Blaine, Dennis spoke to our group about core values. Unlike most of the people who spout on about values though, Dennis actually tried very hard to live his values every day. He never said that his values were the only way but he certainly encouraged us to define our own and, having done so, to live them as best we could. 

        ‘If you don’t know who you are, who you want to be or where you want to go then you have little chance of achieving your goals. Your core values as a person define how you approach life and guide you forward.’

Having never given my core values a moment of consideration prior to this I began to think about and apply them to my life and, where my life diverged from the values I aspired to, I began to make changes. It’s not too much to say that this was an epiphany.

I found out today that Dennis had died. Normally I would feel that a light had been extinguished but, in this case, I know that it will take a bit more than mere death to dull the flame lit by Dennis. Once he became a success in business, he did everything he could to lower the drawbridge and make it possible for others less fortunate to follow the road to a brighter future. He funded student scholarships and supported youth groups locally and there will be many like me who met him all too briefly and walked away, inspired. 

His one flame lit a thousand smaller candles.

So, thank you Dennis Brown. From someone you wouldn’t remember or recognise.

May your God go with you.

Comments

Pascal Derrien

2 years ago #4

very profound article 

Ken Boddie

2 years ago #3

Neil Smith

2 years ago #2

Ken Boddie

2 years ago #1

Not many of us have clear goals in life, Neil, and even fewer record them for reference and for verification of achievement. Epiphanies are also rare, but are often a timely reminder that life is full of choices which only we can make. Such a pity that so many of us are drifting in mid stream with our course in life determined by the current created by others. Life can be hard, and change even harder, but oh the rewards that come from steering and maintaining the course we set ourselves. As for the opening question put to you by Dennis, it is surely rhetorical, in the absence of biomedical perfection or exposure to terrorist executioners? 😂

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