Trial by Fire: Lessons in IT Leadership

Adam Luck is an IT Director in Columbus, Ohio. He found himself thinking about his Grandpa Don during the COVID-19 quarantine.

Grandpa Don joined the U.S. Navy in 1942 and became a commissioned officer on the destroyer USS Welles. Between August 1944 and August 1945, the Welles provided support in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Grandpa Don was in the opening assault at Leyte Gulf, considered to be the largest naval battle of World War II in the Pacific.

Grandpa Don practiced law before shifting to a career in the retail industry. He was the owner and president of Werner-Hilton, a men’s clothing chain founded in St. Louis in 1919 by his father-in-law, Julius Werner. The last of the chain of five stores closed in 1984.

He truly reinvented himself in retirement. Grandpa Don painted, sketched, wrote poetry, and even self-published a few poetry books. You won’t find these poems at any bookstore because each edition was created by hand. He wrote, designed, printed, and trimmed each page in the spare bedroom of his condo. He never intended to make a dime. He just loved to create.

Inspired by his creativity, Adam Luck wrote a few blog posts about things he learned while working in the technology industry. He tried to tie each story back to a specific individual as a way of thanking them for their support and the lessons he learned along the way.

He eventually wrote enough of these blogs that he decided to self-publish a book. This book is a collection of stories he captured over his 10 years as an IT leader. His hope is that you can turn to any chapter for a quick, yet comprehensive leadership lesson. He recently received his first copy and placed it alongside one of his grandpa’s handcrafted poetry books.