When Poole College professor Don Warsing proposed to his wife, Mary, she said “yes” — but gave him one condition: “You have to promise we’ll have cats.”

More than 30 years later, he’s still keeping up his end of the bargain. “We dote on our cats, Marla and Lili,” says Warsing, who grew up mostly without pets. “My wife converted me to being a cat person.”

That wasn’t Warsing’s only transformation that has brought rewards. 

As a Poole master’s student in management soon after he married, he worked full time at Research Triangle Park for IBM, where he was, among other roles, manufacturing manager, quality engineer and materials planner.   

Eventually he had an epiphany. “I really enjoyed graduate school a lot more than I was enjoying my work. School was intellectually stimulating and gave me an opportunity to step back and look at things big-picture,” Warsing says.

“Although IBM was very good to me while I was there, my job was often running from one crisis to the next crisis,” he notes. “I’ve never woken up and said, ‘I wish I were still in industry.’ I do often wake up and say, ‘I get to go back to school every day.’” 

Since 2003, the school he’s gone back to each day has been NC State, where Warsing teaches operations and supply chain management.

“I’ve been very pleased with the career change I made,” he says.

The newest transition in his career was in 2023, when he became the Jenkins MBA program faculty director. 

His duties teaching and with the MBA program are satisfying in different ways.

With the MBA program, “Ironically, one thing I enjoy is that it has more of the pacing of what I used to do at IBM. There’s a lot of activity every day to keep you on your toes,” he says. 

“I’ve never woken up and said, ‘I wish I were still in industry.’ I do often wake up and say, ‘I get to go back to school every day.’” 

He also likes working with the MBA staff members. “There are Poole staff teams that do tremendous work,” he says. “There are a lot of unsung heroes in Poole.”

With teaching and research, he appreciates occasional slower days and the opportunity to think long-term. But the best parts of teaching are leading discussions with students and seeing them interact with peers and with challenging course content. 

“It’s great to see students have very thoughtful questions,” Warsing says. “To see them wrestle with the issues is fulfilling.”

Dad Band Jam

One of the most fulfilling aspects of his life since childhood has been music.  

Growing up near Cleveland, he played the French horn and piano. Later he taught himself the trombone when his son, Joel, took up the instrument at school. 

“Music was really important to me as a kid,” he says. It still is — along with his church activities. 

The overlapping of music and church in Warsing’s life was impacted by another significant change.

He was raised Catholic but eventually joined his wife’s United Methodist church, where they’ve sung together for 30 years in the choir. Warsing also plays keyboards and sings in the church band at weekly services.         

“Those rehearsals are one of the highlights of my week,” he says of the band practices. “Whatever stressful things are going on at work, it’s great to stand at the keyboard, sing, disconnect and be lost in the music.”

He also jams monthly in a “Dad band,” mostly with people from his church. Although the combo now has two women, Warsing describes the band as originally “a bunch of old guys getting together to play old music” — in their case, from the 1960s through the ’90s. Think Eagles, Pink Floyd, Bonnie Raitt, Billy Joel, The Wallflowers, and Hootie & the Blowfish.

“It truly is a blessing to us that every month we have the ability to share that music,” Warsing says, as is the opportunity “to eat some pizza, drink some beers and have fun.”

But as much as he loves music, there’s something he loves even better.

“The greatest job is being a dad. It’s very satisfying to see your child grow up and become his own person,” Warsing says.

His son, a 2024 Appalachian State University graduate, lives and works in Asheville. That’s been an adjustment for Warsing and his wife.

“It’s different now that we’ve transitioned to the empty-nest phase in our lives,” he says. “I’m trying to figure out what my next act is going to be.”

That act might not surprise anyone. Warsing is considering volunteering at an elementary school — in some role that involves music.

This post was originally published in Poole College of Management News.