Bill Havens, former Mr. Clean, motivational speaker

Back in 1985, when I first enrolled into DeVry Institute of Technology in Columbus, OH, one of the first things they provided to new students was an inspirational talk by a guy that for all intents and purposes I could remember only as being Mr. Clean for Procter & Gamble, and that his message was entitled "The Winner's Bounce." One thing that never stuck with me was his real name. He was known as Bill Havens, and this was his job. Thanks to a scan of one document dating from 1987 from North Canton, I finally found out his name.

He was based mainly in Central Ohio, but thank goodness he was hired to do a motivational speech in North Canton. Part of his talk involved 2 tennis balls, another point I remembered. He was good. I was motivated enough to finish my first term at DeVry with a 3.96. Various conditions contributed to my eventual failure in my 2nd term, and eventual withdrawal and a 2nd attempt at enrolling at another technical college in Columbus so I wouldn't have my student loans (meant for DeVry) come due right away. This wouldn't pan out as my room mates' plans also didn't come to fruition along with me, and since we ended up not being able to afford staying in Columbus (none of us had our own transportation), we moved home. I eventually enrolled in a local college and graduated with an Associate with Distinction (amazing difference of results due to a stable environment).

Thing is I never forgot his motivational speech. In fact, my experience with the world having been so limited at the time, I thought he was the only person doing motivational speeches. At any rate, time moved on from the mid 1980s. Mr. Havens went on to keep on doing his thing. Eventually in 2007 he even launched a website and a blog about his speeches. He posted a lot during 2007 and 2008, but oddly enough he doesn't have any posts after 2008. His main business website unfortunately is also gone, but still lingers in the Internet Archive. I wanted to find at least one video of this guy.

Unfortunately, I also found out he passed away October 12, 2014. I wonder what happened between then and his last blog post. Either 2014 or Oct 12 2008, the other date in time when October 12 was a Sunday, but info from a post on Facebook indicates 10/12/2014 was when he passed. He was only 79. You can find out about his other accomplishments, like being a football coach, but he did a great job as a motivational speaker. Well, at least his daughter continues his work.