Who:
Brad Hobbs:
William Bradford Hobbs – Born in Gainsville GA, lived in Clarkesville then Moultrie… Now Atlanta – Lilburn specifically. Married to Cary, formerly Cary Randolph Boyd from Columbia SC. Will and Boyd are sons. Lana is the daughter in law. I work at Southern Company where I am in charge of Strategic Finance, which was almost named Financial Physics…
NERD PHASE: I had a successful career as a science nerd at Moultrie Senior High. I built a supersonic wind tunnel, Schlieren optical imaging system in four colors, did still and motion photography of shock waves, (back when all we had was film) and applied ultrasonic sound waves to the leading edge of a wing focused through a hyperbolic metal cone which reduced or in somce cases appeared to eliminate the shock wave generated by the wing… That won me awards – at state and national science fairs, the Kodak (I did use their film) award, the US Army award – a trip to White Sands Missile Range… International Symposium for the Arts and Sciences where I presented a paper on mitigating sonic booms from the the expected fleet of supersonic aircraft.
COLLEGE: Went to UGA planning to become a MD. I remember visiting with a local doctor in Moultrie and deciding that patching up broken people was a worthwhile occupation. …Later hired his daughter as a financial analyst, proving that it’s a small world… Thought about becoming a shrink. Ha!
BECOMMING A QUANT: I found organic chemistry to be incompatible with my personality. Fortunately my Org Professor (Dr. Kenneth Whitson) sent me to visit his wife (Dr. Betty J. Whitson) in the business school… Thus, I became a Quant Nerd… Quantitative Business Analysis major… I was among the first of our kind, this was a new and untried major. Two of us graduated with the QBA degree, in 1977 the first to finish.
I roomed with a great group of Christian guys – generally all from Moultrie, or at least Georgia, with a notable exception of a Biology PhD Canuck Bostonian with a taste for lobster, fast cars, and snow skiing. I hear he finished his PhD, went through med school, then moved to Switzerland to ski and do medical research on the side (to pay for skiing).
NAVIGATORS: Ministry – OK we had a Campus Crusade leader in our midst (a roommate) as well as guys involved in NAVs. CC seemed nice – lots of Khaki pants and starched shirts. NAV guys were a bit more disciplined. That was the direction to go, we got up way before the sun came up, went to breakfast with each other, did manly stuff, hiked places, played racket ball, broke boards with our fists, memorized tons of bible verses, hung out with former military guys, etc…
JOB: I decided to stay at UGA and get a Masters degree. Somewhere along the line, I helped start a group/club – students interested in Quant stuff, the UGA chapter of The Institute of Management Science. Managed to be president of that as well as the UGA College of Business Student Government Association – this got me the ability to invite business people to visit the school and recruit students – including me – I invited some guys from Southern – it would be a good place to work – they offered me a job… Still there.
WIFE: This is where I met someone who just knocked me off my feet. Almost literally. At Prince Avenue Baptist Church, where all the NAV people hung out, I met this Brown Eyed Girl that I absolutely thought was the coolest person on the entire planet. Cary Boyd was her name. Saw her joining the church. That was a point in time where the whole world changed for me. I could take you to the place where I was standing when I first saw her. As weird as it may seem, I wrote about that point in time… Called her “The One”, and she was.
What:
I enjoy hanging out with Cary. – and any family/set of friends who happen to be in town.
Going to “the lake”, where we spend a lot of time. The lake house seems to require constant improvement.
Hunting quail, pheasant, chukka.
Shooting shotguns – skeet, sporting clays. Pistols and revolvers – .22 up to .44Mag.
Boating – Cary and I grew up on water. We spend time on it still.
Wakesurfing – this is our latest water sport. Cary surfed, so it’s easy for her. We did slalom, tube, ski on boards, plywood disks, etc. When wakeboarding came along, we did that. Now its surfing behind a boat with about 1200 to 2000 pounds of water in the back of the boat…
SCUBA is also something that we enjoy, we are NITROX certified and have our advanced Certificates. We have done some springs in FL, but the Caribbean is the best. Bonaire is great.