Occupation: I'm owner and president of Juran Institute in Southbury, a training and consultant company that helps other companies become more effective in their businesses.
Occupation: Iâm owner and president of Juran Institute in Southbury, a training and consultant company that helps other companies become more effective in their businesses.
Family: Monica is my wife of 29 years. We have three sons. Christopher is 28, and just got married a year ago to Laura. Our son Mark is 25, and Joe is 23 years old. All of them are NHS graduates.
Pets: We have Rocky, our chocolate Lab. He is about 6 years old and my wifeâs best friend. We have two Himalayan cats now, Cecil and Mitzy, and one other cat, Bumbelina, who is 15 years old. At one time we had 11 cats, eight of them outdoor cats. My wife is the animal lover.
How long have you lived in Newtown? We have been in Newtown since 1981, a long time.
What do you like to do in your free time? Because our boys have been in college programs the past eight years, we spent a lot of time traveling to see them, and I travel a lot for work. Now we have a little more time. We like to eat out, and just hang out in our yard. We have a place in Vermont where we like to ski in the winter, and we go to Florida for a couple of weeks every winter. My wife and I golf once a week in the summer, and we do watch movies at home. But we are huge rock and roll concert buffs. I love music. Iâve taken my kids to see all of the great rock bands.
Do you have a favorite band? Neil Young is my favorite rocker. He does acoustic stuff and hard rock stuff. He still puts out an album a year, and keeps moving ahead.
What is the best concert you have seen? The Eagles, just last year. It amazed me how good they were.
Do you have a favorite movie? I love comedies. Iâm an Adam Sandler fan, but my two favorite movies are Tropic Thunder and You Donât Mess With The Zohan.
Do you have a favorite travel destination? We did the Outer Banks a couple of years ago, and we had to drive about ten miles on the beach to get to our house. That was pretty amazing. My wife is from Germany, so we travel to Germany every year or two, but the number one spot is Florence, Italy.
What is the best thing about Newtown? The education system. We spend a lot of money on education, but I think we get a lot. It pays for itself.
What is the biggest change you have seen in Newtown? The people. Maybe it is because our kids arenât in school anymore, but it seems like we donât know anyone. Itâs not good or bad; people just move on. If youâre here long enough, you see the change. But Newtown has kept a lot of the charm and beauty.
Do you have a hero? My wife. She was a homemaker the whole time we raised the kids and she raised good kids. She is a good person who never complains, and she deals with me.
Do you have a personal philosophy? My thread of career is that I was a high school teacher, a college teacher, a technical instructor, and an executive trainer. I believe in lifelong learning. You have to work hard and be a lifelong learner. You have to constantly reinvent yourself.
What is the craziest or most difficult thing you have ever done? The toughest thing I have done is when I was a professional clown, Pagliacci, on stage at Yale one summer in college. I was a mime. It was harder than you would think it would be.