{"id":1878,"date":"2010-11-05T16:13:06","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T21:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/magazines\/vanderbilt-business\/?p=1878"},"modified":"2015-07-07T20:18:59","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T20:18:59","slug":"crossing-paths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/crossing-paths\/","title":{"rendered":"Crossing Paths"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1642\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1642\" style=\"width: 375px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1642\" title=\"Margaret (second from left) and Jim (far right) with daughter, Elizabeth, and son-in-law, Thomas Bernstein, MBA\u201910\" src=\"https:\/\/magazine.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/legacy\/2010\/11\/brunstad.jpg\" alt=\"Margaret (second from left) and Jim (far right) with daughter, Elizabeth, and son-in-law, Thomas Bernstein, MBA\u201910\" width=\"375\" height=\"250\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1642\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">width=&#8221;375px;&#8221; Margaret (second from left) and Jim (far right) with daughter, Elizabeth, and son-in-law, Thomas Bernstein, MBA\u201910<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When Margaret and Jim Brunstad, both MBM\u201975, arrived at Owen in fall 1973, little did they know that their paths would soon merge, sending them in a direction that has been unpredictable at times but enjoyable all the same. \u201cWe met on the first day of orientation when I borrowed money for a soft drink,\u201d Margaret recalls. \u201cWe were very good classroom buddies for about the first day or so, then we were a couple.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Graduating from Owen during a recession, they had to look hard for job opportunities. Jim landed a post in banking \u201cby default,\u201d he says, and they moved to Winston-Salem, N.C. Margaret found a position there as the Assistant Budget Director for the city. \u201cIt was a time in our lives when we still thought we could do anything,\u201d Margaret says. \u201cMy advice to graduates in today\u2019s economy is to be creative and meet the challenge head-on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jim\u2019s career led them to Birmingham, Ala., with AmSouth (now Regions). Using what he learned at Owen, he then helped start First Commercial Bank, now part of Synovus Financial Corp. \u201cOwen talked a lot about entrepreneurism back when it wasn\u2019t fashionable. That stayed with me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile Margaret took time off to raise the couple\u2019s two daughters and then led Youth Leadership Birmingham, a community leadership program for high school students. Soon after, she became President of Portrait Brokers of America, now Portraits Inc., a national portrait-consulting firm.<\/p>\n<p>The Brunstads, both now retired, find that their path keeps leading back to Vanderbilt. Their sons-in-law recently graduated from the university: one from the School of Medicine in 2007, the other from Owen just this spring. And the Brunstads are now leading CityOwen efforts in Birmingham, putting them at the center of alumni activity in their city. Both express excitement about being involved with the school all these years later.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we were on campus this year, it was just so neat to feel all the energy at Owen,\u201d Margaret says. \u201cTo see it where it is today is very exciting and gratifying.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Margaret and Jim Brunstad, both MBM\u201975, arrived at Owen in fall 1973, little did they know that their paths would soon merge, sending them in a direction that has been unpredictable at times but enjoyable all the same. \u201cWe met on the first day of orientation when I borrowed money for a soft drink,\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,66],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-1878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-acts","category-departments","tag-fall2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8865,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions\/8865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}