Chauncey Turman - Career Biography part 1 of 2

I am the son, and only child of Willie Dean (Edwards) Turman, and Eugene Coker; both of Selma, AL. I’ve only met my biological father a handful of times, but my mother married Henry Turman in 1976, he adopted me, and he raised me and loved me throughout the rest of his life. We lived in Detroit for a few years after that, but left east Detroit as the city began to rapidly deteriorate. The Detroit of my youth was a grand and beautiful place; I miss it. It was at the end of summer in 1978 that we made our way to the small, quiet farming community of Litchfield, Michigan, and that is when this city boy began to learn how to do many things working our small produce and pig farm. In preparing to write this bio about the various careers I’ve had, I instinctively fast forwarded to all the things I’ve done since graduating from Western Michigan University, but life has a way of sometimes leading you back across paths you’ve already walked, and I must admit, many of the skills I learned on that farm have come in handy throughout ALL of my jobs working for several Fortune 500 companies. The most important skill of all has been adaptation; making what you have work to your benefit.
My dad Henry, was a bit of a “Jack of All Trades”, which was actually pretty common for most Americans prior to the 1980s. We didn’t have a lot of money, but I watched that man fix all sorts of things using only the tools he carried in his 5 gallon plastic bucket (His big toolbox was stolen out of our truck when we were selling at the Detroit eastern market one day). We fixed our trucks, our tractors, pig pens, plumbing, electrical, all types of carpentry, we even drilled our own water well…twice. On top of all of this, I learned to till the soil, plant, cultivate, harvest, hunt, fish, cut and process meat…and at school I ended up being a pretty good trumpet player and a long jump State Champion. 
 I had multiple athletic scholarship offers, but I really enjoyed playing my trumpet (I made All-State Band two years in a row, and even got to go to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan on an Asian Tour. I got out of a whole month’s worth of farm work, and I was oh so happy). So, I packed my trumpet and headed off to college. It was very intense; there were many players who were way better than I was.
1. My first major career decision was to take an honest assessment of my development and change course. I was very good in the sciences way back in high school, so I decided to switch my major to Biomedical Science (Pre-med) with a chemistry minor. I was already in my sophomore year, so this meant I had to really buckle down and go to school year around in order to graduate in a reasonable 5 years, instead of 6 or 7 years.
2. My second major career decision was the conscious decision to take control of my situation. I went to school year around because I had student loans that would be coming due at the end of 5 years. They weren’t really doing loan deferrences or forebearances like they do now. I did NOT want to be stuck in school and having to pay back loans at the same time. Still, the money ran out my senior year & because I was going to school and wasn’t working any summer jobs, I was really, really, really broke. I returned pop bottles to buy ramen noodles, I sold my car to buy books, I started hanging out with graduate students because they would invite me to guest speaker programs where some professor from another college was usually talking about something I had no clue about, BUT there was always pizza & beverages at the end, so I figured out how to coordinate these so I always had something to eat.
The low point was my very last semester of college. I was living on the enclosed porch of an abandoned building that my friend had just purchased. I will never forget breaking down in tears when my Auntie Annette sent me $20 dollars just out of the blue. That little bit of money felt like a fortune in my moment of need and I’m forever grateful she was thinking about me. During my last semester, I approached the head of the Biological Sciences department and asked him if I could work in his lab. I enjoyed his physiology course and I really respected his knowledge. He agreed and I was introduced to working in the lab, and I really liked it. I liked it so much that I decided this was my path, not becoming a physician. I did graduate that December, and I was gainfully employed 7 days after graduation as a Quality Control Chemist.

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