6

Choices

In her new book,

Connie Glaser left teaching
for consulting in order to
make more time for her
family.

former Detroiter

Connie Glaser shows

DINA FUCHS

Special to the Jewish News

hen Brenda Barnes
climbed the corporate
ladder to become presi-
dent and CEO of Pepsi-
Cola North America, she became one
of the highest-ranking women in the
business world. But by the time she
reached her early 40s, she was begin-
ning to burn out and had grown tired
of sacrificing her family life for her
job.
So she quit.
The idea that a woman would
purposefully give up such a high-
profile career was inconceivable to
many people. Barnes' departure
made headlines across the country,
in the Wall Street Journal, USA
Today and on news programs like
the Today Show. If a woman like
Brenda Barnes couldn't handle her
workload, just what did this say to

women how to live

their lives, and their

careers, to the fullest.

other women working so hard
to prove they really can have it all?
"There is no one-size-fits-all defini-
tion of success," notes Connie Glaser,
co-author of When Money Isn't
Enough (Warner Books, $22). "People
want purpose and meaning, but I
think most importantly that people
want control over their lives. They
want balance between work and life."
Glaser knows about career
change first-hand. The former high
school and college teacher estab-
lished her own consulting business
as a way of continuing to work,
while at the same time making

Hampton Alum

She went from a happy childhood in Detroit
to renown in publishing.

ESTHER ALLWEISS TSCHIRHART

Copy Editor

A

uthor Connie Glaser says
she has wonderful child-
hood memories of growing
up in Detroit's Livernois
and Seven Mile area, a neighborhood
where people looked out for one
another. She recalled: "I could ride my
bike and deposit my allowance at the
bank and go for lunch at Billy's on
Livernois."
Dolly, Glaser's mother, was a "tradi-
tional homemaker." Father Bernie,
owner of Olympic Development Co.,

Below:
"When Money Isn't Enough"
is the latest book by former
Detroiter Connie Glaser.

was involved in real estate and land
development and property manage-
ment. He remains CEO of Jet
Wheelblast Corp., an industrial manu-
facturer in Adrian. Her siblings are
Richard Brown of West Bloomfield
and Barbara Berlin of Bloomfield
Hills.
Hampton Elementary was "almost
exclusively Jewish" when Glaser was a
student in the '50s. She remains
friendly with her classmates Levi
Smith, Ben Rosenthal, Bobby
Deutsch, Patty (Rogers) Kukes and
Marcia Stamell. Then, because her
parents wanted to give her "the private

You!, the first book she
wrote with Barbara
Smalley, has been
translated into eight
languages, including
Bulgarian and Hebrew
more time for raising
Glaser lives in Atlanta
her kids.
today with her hus-
"Instead of teaching
band Tom, president
`Composition 101' to
ll(l WOMEI AR(
of
the American-Israel
college freshmen, I was
1111 SOR Ili MICCESS
Chamber of
teaching executives how
Commerce Southeast
to write a business letter
CMNIE (iL1S11:
Region, and their sons
or put together a market- .1N1) 11.111RAII
,N1,11 LEY
Russell (Rusty), 17,
ing proposal. Instead of
and Max, 15.
teaching public speaking,
While conducting
I was teaching how to
research for the book, Glaser and
make an effective presentation," she
Smalley met with women from all
says.
walks of life. Many of them posed
Today, Glaser's clients include
questions about how best to main-
heavy hitters such as Xerox, AT&T
tain the delicate balance between c'
and the U.S. Navy. More Power to

.

Aluttsaws OS Isol*ar widri ihr nalictriatta

school experience," Glaser commuted
with a half dozen of her friends to
Grosse Pointe University School (now
University-Liggett) for high school.
Being there had quite an impact in
terms of exposing the Jewish students
to a different culture and a different
sense of humor," she said; by and
large, Glaser found her gentile class-
mates to be "very accepting."
At the University of Michigan,
Glaser recalled living in the Mosher-
Jordan dorm as a freshman and spend-
ing her junior year in London. After
earning a B.A. in English, she stayed
on to earn a master's degree.
Next stop was four years as a high
school teacher in Melrose, Mass.,
near Boston. Here she reconnected
and fell in love with a U-M friend,
Tom Glaser, of Grand Rapids. Rabbi
Irwin Groner of Congregation
Shaarey Zedek married them at her
parents' home, which was by now in

"

Franklin. Glaser said she was conse-
crated at Shaarey Zedek, and both
sides of her family have been mem-
bers of the shul for generations,
including her late grandparents
Jenny and David Brown and Ethel
and Max Dunitz.
Traveling south, the Glasers lived in
Athens and Savannah, Ga. (where
their sons were born) and she taught
business communications at the uni-
versity level and to corporate execu-
tives. And Savannah is where Connie
Glaser first teamed up with Barbara
Smalley, who she had met at a
Sisterhood meeting in Athens, to write'
their best-selling book More Power to
You!
Now living with her family in
Atlanta and promoting the latest
book, Glaser's life illustrates how work
life and family life can be combined
successfully. She's realized the potential
of her early days in Detroit.

K

7/2
1999

102 Detroit Jewish News