By Donna Brady, Fair Oaks Ranch
If not for golf, I would’ve never met my husband!
Back in 1983, I was the newest sales manager to be hired by Southern Pacific Railroad’s Los Angeles office. The company invited me to their national leadership conference at Silverado Country Club up the coast in Napa Valley. One of the keynote speakers was Ed Olmo, who at that time was the Executive Vice President of Logistics for Shell Oil Company.
Part of the conference included a scramble golf tournament. I wasn’t planning on playing in the tournament, even though I was a fairly decent player who excelled at putting. At the last minute, Olmo was called back to Houston for some emergency with Shell Oil.
It was a fortuitous development, as I was subbed in to replace Olmo in his group. That’s where I met Jim Brady, the railroad’s Regional Sales Manager from Stamford, Conn.
Well, our team won the tournament. Jim and the others on my team dubbed me “One-Putt Kennedy” for my maiden name and prowess on the greens. It was an amazing day. Jim was a perfect gentleman!
He proposed to me in July of 1984, and we were married a year later in San Francisco. Without that first golf outing, none of this ever would’ve happened. We still love golf, of course, and we play together every Sunday. We both have five hole-in-ones!
As much as I enjoy playing golf, the real rewards come from the people you meet playing the game. I have many, many friends both in California and Texas and around the country as a result of golf..
EDITOR’S NOTE: Donna Brady is a past Director of the Women’s Golf Association of Northern California. Once she moved to Texas, she joined the WTGA in 2007. She has served on the TGA Women’s Committee since 2015 and became a TGA Director this year. Brady is a two-time club champion (Fair Oaks Ranch, 2010; Half Moon Bay, 2000) and won the Gross Division in the Championship Flight of the 2018 Women’s Partnership with Meredith Tucker.
By John Rainey
While playing golf in 1979 at the old Glen Garden course in Fort Worth, I met a man named Dick Dedman. As we became friends, he introduced me to another friend of his who was looking for a Sales Rep for the Aerospace Industry.
I got the job and spent the next 35 years in that industry working my way up to Director of Marketing and Sales. Because of golf, I enjoyed a 35-year career and retired where I now play golf three times a week at Oakmont Country Club in Denton.
