Michael Crosby '74

I grew up in Ventura, California, 90 miles away from the California State University Long Beach campus. I was recruited to play Division I baseball. Plus, I had a very high Military draft number, so I was a very lucky guy. I met and ultimately married my best friend, Lenore Rozner, received a degree in Sociology, and was elected team captain of the 1972 baseball squad. I have always been proud to say that I successfully attended Long Beach. When I graduated, I went to the Seattle, WA. area to live with high school friends and play semi-professional slow-pitch softball. After a summer of that fun time, I moved back to my hometown and began working with the largest employer in that town. My degree helped me progress quickly through the organization and provided me with opportunities to be in management positions. I traveled for work overseas and generally led a successful life. Just after our two children were born, it became apparent that our live-in domestic worker was being asked to do too much. The kids needed rides to various activities, and school was becoming more demanding.  At that point in time, I became one of the very first stay-at-home dads in our generation. While I had a less-than-obvious skill set for this assignment, somehow the children grew up happy and healthy, graduated from Ivy League schools, and have become pretty good folks to be around. Lenore and I just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary, have become world-class travelers, and seem to have done a very good job of planning for the future. Much of that can be attributed to her work ethic after coming out of the UCLA Business School with her MBA, with an emphasis in Finance. Long Beach pointed me in a very good direction.