My name is Gary R. Codding
and I want to thank you for visiting.
I was born in a
small town in Connecticut, called Plainfield, on July 25, 1958.
I have had an interesting life...at least to me. I worked for an attorney when I was 18 and tended bar across the street at the same time. I was a Notary Public and a Justice of the Peace, marrying more than 30 couples (I think I was the youngest Justice in the country but am not sure) attended a seminary for several years and joined a religious order but that was not to be....more on any of this if you want, just write to me.
After parting company with the religious order I received a letter from a friend in New York that I had attended the first seminary with who said that he had inherited a house in Brooklyn and if I wanted to come here I would have a place to stay. So I came to the Big Apple!!
I grew up in a very small town (as I may have mentioned) and coming to New York was a bit of a shock for me but also a wonderful experience that I treasure to this day.
For the first week I was here I did nothing but visit "touristy"
places, go to dinner and drink.
By the beginning of the second week, and being down to my last
$ 200.00 I decided employment was in order. As my biggest skill to this point was genuflecting, I started looking at jobs that required little or no prior knowledge.
1995
I ended up getting a job as a switchboard operator at what was
then a small temporary agency, Tiger Temps, Inc. now known as
Tiger Information Systems, Inc. "Tiger Information Systems", they grew into one of the larger independently owned agencies in New York and opened an office in Stamford, Connecticut and then were approached by a larger, nationwide organization that purchased the company. At this point I found a new apartment share in Flushing. It was a three bedroom apartment in a two family house with a small terrace. It was fairly affordable and the only real problems were the commute which was at least an hour in each direction as the 7 train was having it's track's repaired and the train ran local the whole way and the fact that the airplanes came by overhead and made such a racket. I lived in Flushing for a year. A friend of mine said that he was looking for a roommate and I moved to Manhattan.
I moved to 4580 Broadway Yahoo! Maps and Driving Directions and lived there for over ten years. First sharing an apartment with my friend and then getting my own place. This time even further uptown to 165 Seaman Avenue Yahoo! Maps and Driving Directions. As you can see if you followed the links to the maps I lived across from a park in both apartments. I really like the location of both apartments. I could walk or ride my bike in the parks and there was no noise from other apartment buildings.
I was spirited away from Tiger by
a head-hunter scouting for Custom Staffing "Custom Staffing". They wanted, and needed, to bring the
company's testing and registration department up to speed. I
purchased all new computers, installed a network (with the help
of an outside contractor) and either re-designed or hired someone
to re-design all the tests. After three years and some months I
told them that, as all the testing and deletion of old tests was
automated they could hire a regular receptionist to administer
the test. I was itching to leave and learn more, but they
insisted that was not necessary. Six months later after serving
on juror duty for a month I came back to find that they had changed their minds.
I was at one of the employee's
houses to install and configure dial-in software so that she
could reach the office during the off-hour shift that she worked.
I had neglected to bring the 800 number to reach the office so I
called our long-distance provider and our sales person told me
that I no longer had any authority to administer the account.
Immediately, I called the office, asked for one of the owner's
and politely asked her when they were going to inform me that I
had been fired? When she recovered I asker her for the 800 number
and finished the install and configuration. Upon, returning to
the office I had a brief meeting with the two owner's and was let
go that day as opposed to the Friday deadline they had originally
set.
A friend of mine referred my name
to Word Processing Professionals "Word Processing Professionals" and they called me and asked if I was
looking for work. I said that I was and she lined up a job for
the following Monday. I worked with Word Processing Professionals
for quite a while when, of all things, Custom called me back to
work. The receptionist was leaving and they couldn't find anyone
so they asked me to come back an help them until they could hire
a replacement they paid me more than I was making as a temp so why not? What was supposed to be a short-term assignment turned into a year at which point I said that they really needed to find
someone. I was stagnant, not learning and not really doing
anything different day-to-day.
About that time the person I
worked with at Word Processing Professionals called to say that
she was at a new company called Island Consulting Associates "Island Consulting Home Page" and would I like to register with her.
I did and almost instantly she had me on an assignment at
Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton "Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton" where I consulted for ten months and then they offered me a permanent position. I worked at Cleary for four and a half years.
Once again, upon contacting Island I was placed at an assignment immediately this time at Proskauer Rose,LLP
"Proskauer Rose LLP" another prestigious New York City law
firm. I consulted at Proskauer off and on for several months
until they finally offered me a job, but the salary that was
offered was less than what I was making when I left Cleary and I
decided not to go backward.
Once more a quick phone call to Island landed me employment. This
time the commute didn't even change and I was given a raise to boot. I had a consulting assignment at Robinson, Silverman, Pearce, Aronsohn & Berman Robinson Silverman Pearce Aronsohn &
Berman LLP at 1290
Avenue of the Americas. I started there on March 6, 1998 and was
offered and accepted a permanent assignment on July 8th, a record
even for me !! I left Robinson on September 29, 2000 as the result of a huge coincidence, see below.
This is me during a long-haired period. My hair is much shorter now, however, I can't decide what to do with my face so the beard/goatee/van dyke still come and go.
2000
One Tuesday morning I got a call from a head hunter on my personal line at work. (That is unusual because I don't give out my personal number except to my friends). She asked me if I was looking as "an old friend of mine" was now the Manager at a mid-town law firm and would I talk to him. I asked who it was and she told me and then I asked where and she hesitated. I told her that I was not interested in "stealing" the assignment from her but had already worked in several mid-town law firms so she told me Morrison & Foerster. I laughingly told her that if my friend wanted to talk to me he had to give me five minutes notice as the elevators were slow. She asked what I meant and I told her that my friend and I worked in the same building, and even used the same elevator bank each day. The real strange part was that we had not run into each other in the 8 months that we had worked in the same location. She laughed, I spoke to my friend and on October 2nd starting working at MOFO. I worked at MOFO for over a year and then left to take an assignment that didn't work out very well, left there worked at some other places and ended up back at MOFO.
Where did I leave off? My assignment at Morrison & Foerester ended in July 2002 and I was out of work and happily collecting unemployment.
But there were much bigger things in store for me. I had noticed for some time (we are talking years here) that there was an issue with my body. Finally, with the support of a good friend I visited a doctor and was told that I probably had cancer. She (the doctor) made an appointment at Beth Israel for me with an oncologist who took one look and ordered an ultra-sound and talked about surgery.
Unfortunately, I was collecting and made too much money to get help from Medicaid and certainly could not afford the estimate of $ 10,000 for the operation. Fortunately, another friend came through for me and drove here from Alabama and moved me and all my meager belongings down South. A friend of his was a doctor and offered to help me by performing the operation for free but the hospital with which he was affiliated was not a public hospital so he had to declare me an emergency to get me in and get me treated. On Friday July 18th 2003 I was operated on and later declared "cancer-free".
In September 2003 I moved back to New York but soon found that I was too weak to work or even function at a level that I found satisfactory. I moved back to Connecticut.
While in Connecticut I got a job at Plainfield Greyhound Park as a security guard. That lasted for 6 months. Shortly after I left the track actually closed but has since re-opened.
In March of 2005 I visited New York to help a friend of mine with his computer and the trip made me miss New York all the more.
In late August I moved back to the city. I was working as a consultant at Clifford Chance, but that assignment ended in August of 2007. I am now working for Williams Lea at Sidley Austin. It seems I can't get away from Rockefeller Center.
If you have any comments, questions, advice for my page or just want to chat
e-mail me at gcodding@yahoo.com. I also have AIM S/N GRCodding, MSN Messenger S/N gcodding, Yahoo Messenger S/N gcodding and ICQ (21168715).