Remember that curious boy in high school whose shirt pockets were always stuffed with sharpened #2 pencils, who actually enjoyed algebra and physics, and who tore down his mother’s car piece-by-piece just to see how it ran? If you went to Mankato’s Loyola High School in the late ’50s, that kid was Jerry Dotson.

Up until he opted for early retirement in mid-May of this year, Jerry was Director of Technical Education for Seattle-based AT&T Wireless Services. And while he was with AT&T Wireless Services he helped lay the groundwork that could make Mankato the international mecca for wireless education.

CONNECT: What personal traits do you have that helped you grow Carlson Craft?

CARLSON: Being optimistic, which I think is related closely to having a Christian faith. I see the positive things of life. I have patience too, which is also related to my faith in God. I was blessed with good health, and again, I give credit for that to a Higher Power. I know of many friends who haven’t been blessed with good health and they had to retire very young.

While looking out his office window for a memory that isn’t that far distant, Jerry Johnson, founder and chairman of Mankato-based Clear With Computers (CWC), seems to feel a great deal of pride in helping move CWC from a $99-computer beginning to an industry giant. “We started with no money in the bank,” he says.