Born on Easter Sunday behind a wood-burning stove in a home with no kitchen and raised on a farm in upstate New York in the 1930s and '40s, Darryl E. Robidoux's independent nature and aching hunger for adventure beyond the confines of apple orchards and farm fields made him the black sheep of the family - so much so that in later years when the farm was portioned and doled out to his siblings, Robidoux was completely left out.
No longer able to tolerate the oppression of farm life and the pain of being an outsider in his own family, Robidoux quit school and left home for good at age 16. After working numerous odd jobs, he joined the army, got his GED and became a member of the Army Airborne Paratroopers. It was during military service that Robidoux married Millie, who was pregnant with another man's child. After the Military, he attended prep school and entered a professional engineering school.
Doomed from the start, his marriage to Millie ended during his college years, and while still in school and working full time in a bowling establishment, he met and married Helen, the "most attractive, blue-eyed blonde he had ever seen."
However, the lack of validation and affection in his childhood prevented him from having an enduring, loving relationship with any woman, and as his career blossomed, his charisma, self-confidence and powerful personality made him sexually appealing to women. Always yearning to live life to its absolute fullest, he couldn't resist the temptations laid before him, and his life became a "female smorgasbord."
Robidoux's marriage to Helen ended in 1972, but his maverick spirit and tenacity for achievement earned him wealth and success in the corporate arena. Fast-tracking to the top of the corporate ladder, Robidoux held prestigious positions at the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), in Las Vegas, IBM and NASA before settling at Xerox, which sponsored his education at UCLA and other esteemed forums. At the pinnacle of his lucrative career, he amassed enough assets to retire from Xerox at only 40 years old. But, the sweet taste of success had a bitter aftertaste as he realized it didn't mean as much to him as his marriage did - his failed marriage to his third wife, Gail, that is. She was the "Italian beauty" he had an affair with while married to Helen and whom he married in July of 1972.
Now Robidoux, who is currently undergoing treatment for bone cancer, shares the intimate details of his dichotomous life - rich in business acumen and corporate accomplishment, yet bankrupt in affairs of the heart - in hopes that his story helps others realize their dreams without sacrificing what's truly important in life as he did.
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