Mom gets the credit for his strong work ethic

Chuck Ganze is the division chair for Computer Technology at Lee College.

“I got my first job when I was 4 years old. I delivered eggs for a penny a dozen. While growing up, I had a newspaper route. I was a caddy for two summers. I worked at a big department store. I worked at a sewage plant. I was a welder at age 14 at the Ford plant in Cleveland, Ohio. After joining the Air Force, I was a disc jockey at WVMI in Biloxi, Mississippi. When we went to Spain for three years, I built a radio station in my spare time. We beamed American music to the housing area about 25 miles away. The strong work ethic my mother instilled in me when I was young has kept me busy throughout my life.

“I have a 1919 Model T that I take to car shows. So I’m pretty active on the weekends. My wife says, ‘You should slow down.’ I say, ‘No.’ People ask me, ‘When are you going to retire?’ I say, ‘I’m not.’ What happens to a shark when it quits swimming? He just rolls over and dies. I’m not going to roll over and die. I’ve known too many guys who retired and became stagnant. All they do is sit in their chairs, watch TV and smoke cigarettes. They waste away and die.

“Now I did have a heart attack kind of sneak up and kick me in the butt in February. I’ve kind of slacked off here lately until I fully recover. But I’m not planning to stop any time soon.”