You just never know who you are sitting next to at Monday Night Dinners at The Club.

The men’s social club began in the building next door to the present location in 1978.

I used to work a lot of Friday nights in those days when The Times was in its infancy. The Club was directly over our office and their dance floor was directly above our production room. Whenever they would have a party, I could literally see the ceiling moving with the beat of the music.

I was particularly happy when they broke ground in 1985 for a new building next door. Five years later, I became a member. I figured I’d save time eating at the Monday night dinners, where members prepare the meals, rather than go home, eat dinner, then drive back to the office.

But now I’ll get back to the main subject of this column. I’d like to tell you about Howard Chamberlain. I usually sit at the same table as Howard at our Monday Night Dinners. Whenever someone new is sitting at our table, it’s Howard who starts up a conversation with “’Where are you from?’ and ‘What did you do?’ as the usual ice breakers. I’m always amazed at the number of individuals, he shares a common knowledge of during those conversations. If they were from the Midwest, chances are one of his companies has done business with them.

I’ve heard it happen on many occasions. I often wondered how many companies Howard was involved with.

The way I found out was

not under the best of circumstances. Howard asked if he could get an appointment with me, he had something to talk about.

When he came into my office, he flashed that big smile and shook my hand, firmly.

In the ensuing conversation I was shocked to learn that he had been told last February that he had Stage IV metastatic cancer.

He had been told he had

at most, 15 months to live.

I also learned of his extensive and successful business career.

Howard was the founder and former CEO of Christensen & Associates, a leading global capital markets advisory firm with more than 200 major clients worldwide, and Strategic Growth Partners, an international professional executive consulting firm.

He is a former senior financial and planning executive of American Natural Resource Company (NYSE/LSE) and St. Joseph Light & Power Company (NYSE), and Audit and Systems Manager for a major global accounting and executive consulting firm.

He has held leadership positions in multiple professional, civic, community and non-profit organizations, including the Blue Shield of Kansas City, President Elect of St. Joseph Missouri Chamber of Commerce, United Way, Rotary Club, and served on several private and publicly traded company boards of directors.

He told me about his frustration in finding there was virtually no coordinated services or support for the terminal individual who is still active and not yet eligible for hospice services.

After talking with a number of local business and spiritual leaders, he has decided to use his successful business background to start an assistance organization called Cancer Comfort Centers.

You can read about the new organization on the rest of this page, and I’m sure if anyone can pull this off, it’s Howard.