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Donald Walczyk '69
Vice President and Treasurer, Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc.
Success Beneath the Surface
Favorite professors:
"Steven Klass, who had a photographic memory and could recite Beowulf, in dialect, from memory; and Donald Wolf, who held Friday 'wine and poetry reading' classes."
Value of an English degree:
"Throughout my career I have been able to write and give presentations, as well as understand the psychology of my colleagues and clients. My education at Adelphi truly prepared me for that."
Lesson learned as an English major:
"In terms of ethics and values, as an English major, there is an understanding gained through literature that the worst thing you can do is plagiarize. I feel you are held to higher standards as an English major."
Advice for English majors:
"Be confident. You have a good base set of skills that will serve you well throughout your life."
Donald Walczyk understood the value of an English degree the moment he was handed his diploma and began his job search. He went to work at MetLife, starting out in the company’s management training program. "The company wanted liberal arts majors because people with this background are well-educated and could be trained in any way they needed to be," he recalls. Mr. Walczyk found the ability to expand his knowledge base valuable throughout the course of his career.
After pursuing his M.B.A., specializing in corporate investment finance, he and his wife moved to New Hampshire. In 1977, he was hired at Northern Telecom, a multinational telecommunications equipment manufacturer, where he remained for one year before he began working at Borden, Inc. Even after his M.B.A., he credits much of his professional success to his English degree. "My English major served me well," he says. "A lot of people trained solely in business couldn’t communicate or write comprehensively."
Following his time at Borden, Mr. Walczyk decided to embark on a new career venture, and became a certified public accountant. Again, his ability to move into this field hinged on his English preparation at Adelphi. "English is a versatile degree that you can build on," he says. "With an English degree, I was inclined to learn another skill."
In order to become a CPA, you must pass all four parts of the uniform CPA examination. "I was the oldest person in my exam review courses," he recalls, "but I found myself surrounded by people who lacked the skills to think and analyze." While the accounting material was new for Mr. Walczyk, he benefited from good study habits he had established during his undergraduate education, and while his classmates found the parts of the exam that required critical thinking to be troublesome, these sections came easily to him.
With his CPA in hand, a variety of doors opened. Mr. Walczyk went on to own a structural steel company in order to gain entrepreneurial experience. He also held several other senior management and chief financial officer positions before joining Geophysical Survey Systems Inc. (GSSI) as controller in 2000.
Today he is Vice President and Treasurer of GSSI, the world leader in the development of ground-penetrating radar, which is used to explore the subsurface of the earth and to nondestructively inspect infrastructure systems around the world.
"Ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction equipment covers numerous applications, from locating targets within concrete structures prior to drilling, cutting or coring, to examining soil conditions and the natural structures found beneath the surface of the earth," he says, "from evaluating roads for pavement preservation, planning and rehabilitation, to determining the condition of aging bridge decks, parking structures, balconies and other reinforced concrete structures."
You may be familiar with this equipment; GSSI ground-penetrating radar has been utilized on a National Geographic expedition in the discovery of an unknown village near Machu Picchu, as a life locator in China after earthquakes, and has been featured in an episode of the hit television series, Crime Scene Investigation.
Today Mr. Walczyk and his wife live in New Hampshire; they have two sons. In his free time, he enjoys working out, being outdoors, and vacationing in his summer home in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas.
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