1. Congratulations on your retirement Professor Neckes. If you could describe marketing to your youngest grandchild, in it's simplest way -- how would you describe marketing?

When my children were young, they would ask my wife, "What does daddy do for work?"

My wife would then say, "He goes to work to earn money so mommy can buy bananas!"

So if I now had to describe marketing, I would say to my children, "What kind of bananas do you like?"

My children would say, "The yellow bananas with the lady with the funny hat on it!"

Well, that is Chiquita bananas. I would then say, "When you go into the market with mommy do you help her shop for bananas, which one do you pick up?"

They would then answer, "The ones with the lady on them!"

I then would say, "I helped design the lady on the banana that you like. That's what daddy does, he helps people decide what to buy, by having people look for the stuff that they like."

2. What's the best advice you've received?

The best advice I received was to not put off things that need to be done. Do them now and get them out of the way. Also, if you don't know the answer, do not be afraid to ask for help. If you are wrong, admit it.

3. If you can thank someone that helped get you to where you are now, who would you thank and what would you say?

In my almost 60 years of work, I have more than one person to thank.

First, the best professor I ever had, Dr. Norman Rosenblatt, Professor of History and later Dean of the School of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University. I modelled my teaching style after his.

I'd like to thank Paul McGrail, my first boss at Jordan Marsh Retail Department store, Boston Massachusetts. He taught me how to merchandise, customer service and an understanding of fashion and textiles.

I'm thankful for Mr. Ben Franklin, Vice President of Personal Sportswear, who taught me the need to be accurate and make quick and wise decisions.

There's also two individuals; Dr. Richard Kosh, Executive Vice President of Johnson and Wales University, who hired me as well as later recommended that I transfer to the Florida Campus. And, Dr. Irving Schneider, Dean and later President of the Providence campus who promoted me to Department Chairman as well as selected me to teach abroad and develop a marketing summer abroad program.

I'd like to thank Dr. Jack Yenna, President of Johnson and Wales who allowed me to be creative in my development of curriculum and programs.

Thanks to my students, who made each day in the classroom interesting and exciting.

Finally and most important, I want to thank my wife who stood by me in all my job changes. When I became marketing department chairman, I asked her for help in developing a management plan. She was and IS the best business manager I have known and without her help, I would not have been successful in merging three departments into one.

To all those individuals, I would say thank you to each of them for giving me the skills necessary to learn, grow and become successful in all my endeavours.

*Mark Neckes is currently happily retired and lives with his wife in sunny Florida, USA where he continues to geek out with every advertising/marketing campaign he sees, including stickers on bananas.*