Full Circle: John Rollwagen

I interviewed John Rollwagen, former chairman and CEO of Cray Research, for a Minnesota business magazine article titled “Full Circle.” John’s story is a perfect illustration of the value of connections, synchronicities and how we often find ourselves in someone else’s orbit.
 

INTRODUCTION

Androcles, the Roman slave who removed a thorn from a lion’s paw, was later spared from death when the lion recognized him in front of a bloodthirsty crowd in the Coliseum. If Androcles had been a Twin Cities business leader, a seemingly isolated incident early in his career would undoubtedly have led to his company capturing the lion’s share of the market years later.

These three stories from Twin Cities businesspeople illustrate the inscrutable relationship between connection and coincidence. Call it karma, reaping what you sow or what goes around comes around; inexorably, like a circle completing itself, scales are balanced and debts repaid.
 

JOHN ROLLWAGEN’S STORY

John Rollwagen

When I was 12 years old, George Hanson was my scoutmaster at Cleveland Avenue Methodist Church in St. Paul. In the summer of 1959, when I came back from my first year of engineering school at MIT, I was looking for a summer job and my dad said, “Why don’t you call George Hanson?” I said, “George Hanson, my old scoutmaster?” He said, “Yeah, I read in the paper that some new company is starting up. It’s Control something. George is involved and maybe they’d have a spot for you.”

The company turned out to be Control Data and I

Full Circle: Ed Klemz

I interviewed Ed Klemz, founder and CEO of Central Coast Solutions for a Minnesota business magazine article titled “Full Circle.” Ed’s story is as profound as it is beautiful.
 

INTRODUCTION

Androcles, the Roman slave who removed a thorn from a lion’s paw, was later spared from death when the lion recognized him in front of a bloodthirsty crowd in the Coliseum. If Androcles had been a Twin Cities business leader, a seemingly isolated incident early in his career would undoubtedly have led to his company capturing the lion’s share of the market years later.

These three stories from Twin Cities businesspeople illustrate the inscrutable relationship between connection and coincidence. Call it karma, reaping what you sow or what goes around comes around; inexorably, like a circle completing itself, scales are balanced and debts repaid.
 

ED KLEMZ’S STORY

Ed Klemz

My mom, Marge, worked at Sperry Rand in New Brighton for more than 15 years. During that time, a security guard named Charlie was always at his desk, which was elevated so he could look down at the employees when they entered. Charlie was one of those great guys who greeted everyone by their first name and asked how their kids were. There were hundreds and hundreds of employees there and Charlie knew every single one of them.

One day, my mom walked into the guard shack, which she had to walk through to get into the building she worked in. Charlie wasn’t at his desk to buzz her in, so she used her card, entered the building and went up to her office. But something didn’t sit right with her. Not only was Charlie not at his post, there was nobody there, which was even stranger. So instead of sitting down and getting to work, my mom decided to go see what was going on. She walked back downstairs, stood on a pipe, looked over the top of the security counter and saw Charlie lying on the