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Don Bender: Partner in Community Revitalization
88 pages, Paperback
Published July 30, 2025
About the author
Don Bender
6 books1 followerDon Bender has an intriguing background and experience, and he brings the breadth and depth from his varied careers and personal life learnings to his writing. One of Don's best friends describes him as "the quintessential autodidactic polymath."
After graduating high school from Vassar, Michigan in 1979, Don attended Michigan State University. While at MSU, he joined the MSU Spartan Marching Band percussion section, and played the tenor drums for three seasons before getting married to his high school sweetheart, Julie. In the spring of 1984 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology.
Over the next ten years, Don worked as a field geophysicist in the oil industry, as an extraction and standards chemist with an environmental lab, and began his career in the quality field at a small foundry in his home town. While there, hHe became a Certified Qualtiy Engineer, and was involved in coaching employee involvement teams where he won the company-wide Facilitator of the Year award. Don was eventually promoted to quality manager, during which time he was graduated from GMI Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering University) in Flint, Michigan with a Master of Science degree in Manufacturing Management. He and Julie also had two more children while he was employed at the foundry, one girl and one boy.
After two more brief job moves, Don took a job with what is now Delphi Automotive in Saginaw, Michigan in November of 1994. He was soon asked to begin working as a diagnostician, a job that required him to solve the toughest manufacturing and quality problems in the plant. He learned a specific set of problem solving tools and strategies developed by Dorian Shainin (see www.shainin.com for more information).
Since that time, Don has been certified by Shainin Consultants as a Red X Master Problem Solver, and was one of the first people ever to be certified as a Green Y Master (Green Y is Shainin's product and process development methodology). He coaches and leads problem solving teams around the world to rapidly find the root cause of a problem, and develops other Apprentices, Journeymen and Masters.
One of the threads that ties Don's careers together is his fierce desire to learn new things. His favorite books run the gamut from hard sciences to philosophy to Steven King to the Holy Bible. Don has been a musician for over 40 years, playing drums in local pit orchestras and concert bands. Don is the "Voice of the Vassar Vulcan Marching Band" for pre-game and halftime shows, and periodically announces home football games for both the high school and youth football programs.
Don has also developed a love for the field of personal development, which began with his purchase of Tony Robbins' "Unlimited Power" tape program many years ago. Don had the pleasure of meeting Tony Robbins at a seminar in Chicago, and was fortunate enough to have done a fire walk there as well. Over the years, he's tried to instill Jim Rohn's philosophy of, "work harder on yourself than on your job." As a result, he's read and listened to just about every great mind in the field of personal development.
Don also loves words and puns, and is an avid puzzler. He spends his free time reading and writing, playing music, thinking and puttering around with computers. Don and Julie regularly attend MSU football games to watch a pretty darn good football team, but more importantly to revel in watching the best marching band in the Big Ten!
Don is the author of several Kindle eBooks. Visit his Amazon Author Central Page: http://amazon.com/author/donbender
After graduating high school from Vassar, Michigan in 1979, Don attended Michigan State University. While at MSU, he joined the MSU Spartan Marching Band percussion section, and played the tenor drums for three seasons before getting married to his high school sweetheart, Julie. In the spring of 1984 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology.
Over the next ten years, Don worked as a field geophysicist in the oil industry, as an extraction and standards chemist with an environmental lab, and began his career in the quality field at a small foundry in his home town. While there, hHe became a Certified Qualtiy Engineer, and was involved in coaching employee involvement teams where he won the company-wide Facilitator of the Year award. Don was eventually promoted to quality manager, during which time he was graduated from GMI Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering University) in Flint, Michigan with a Master of Science degree in Manufacturing Management. He and Julie also had two more children while he was employed at the foundry, one girl and one boy.
After two more brief job moves, Don took a job with what is now Delphi Automotive in Saginaw, Michigan in November of 1994. He was soon asked to begin working as a diagnostician, a job that required him to solve the toughest manufacturing and quality problems in the plant. He learned a specific set of problem solving tools and strategies developed by Dorian Shainin (see www.shainin.com for more information).
Since that time, Don has been certified by Shainin Consultants as a Red X Master Problem Solver, and was one of the first people ever to be certified as a Green Y Master (Green Y is Shainin's product and process development methodology). He coaches and leads problem solving teams around the world to rapidly find the root cause of a problem, and develops other Apprentices, Journeymen and Masters.
One of the threads that ties Don's careers together is his fierce desire to learn new things. His favorite books run the gamut from hard sciences to philosophy to Steven King to the Holy Bible. Don has been a musician for over 40 years, playing drums in local pit orchestras and concert bands. Don is the "Voice of the Vassar Vulcan Marching Band" for pre-game and halftime shows, and periodically announces home football games for both the high school and youth football programs.
Don has also developed a love for the field of personal development, which began with his purchase of Tony Robbins' "Unlimited Power" tape program many years ago. Don had the pleasure of meeting Tony Robbins at a seminar in Chicago, and was fortunate enough to have done a fire walk there as well. Over the years, he's tried to instill Jim Rohn's philosophy of, "work harder on yourself than on your job." As a result, he's read and listened to just about every great mind in the field of personal development.
Don also loves words and puns, and is an avid puzzler. He spends his free time reading and writing, playing music, thinking and puttering around with computers. Don and Julie regularly attend MSU football games to watch a pretty darn good football team, but more importantly to revel in watching the best marching band in the Big Ten!
Don is the author of several Kindle eBooks. Visit his Amazon Author Central Page: http://amazon.com/author/donbender
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