Three Quick Steps

Biographies & Memoirs

By Robert Emmett

Publisher : Robert Emmett

ABOUT Robert Emmett

Robert Emmett
~~I contracted polio at the age of nine in 1952…a few years before the vaccine. Since then I have been dealing with its after-affects and later with Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS). I went from a polio victim with about seventy-percent of my muscle architecture destroyed, as a result of the po More...

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Description

The best way to predict the future is to create the future.” Peter Drucker and Abraham Lincoln.

This is exactly what the author, Robert Emmett, accomplished. Robert Emmett contracted
paralytic polio in 1952—three years before the Salk vaccine and thus became a member of
one of the last group of polio victims.


He lost about seventy percent of his muscle architecture at the age of nine years. He
brought himself via a titanic struggle to be a unique and charismatic person. A person who
achieved almost transcendent physical and intellectual goals. He was recognized as a leader
in his professional and personal life. He developed a talent for reading people; it allowed him to
utilize the best attributes of his support group in his quest to create his own persona.


In his journey you will see the poignant and quixotic missteps he took (why would he learn to
throw a football 50 yards if he could not run). Yet he persevered. You will feel the absolute magic of his triumphs. You will plainly see why we need to create our own futures.

I was so anxiety-ridden after I retired from my job as a research director of a chemicals/minerals company that I went to see a psychiatrist. The most helpful comment she made was in the form of a question—“Why do you think you would change because you are retired?” I have a PhD in Chemistry so I took course work in astrobiology and propulsion physics…both have nothing to do with my previous job…so what! My favorite guy is Winston Churchill so I also slogged my way through his account of WW II. The above did little to relieve my anxiety. My grandchildren are now eleven and thirteen. When I was at that age I knew very little about my grandparents. I came within a day of dying in 2009 due to a staph infection…thus the impetus to write the memoir. That plus a venture to get into the winemaking business sealed the deal. I chose to center the memoir on my having contracted polio in 1952 and now post-polio syndrome and their effect on my life. Still anxious but now I have a more positive outlook. The Devil is in the Details…right? So to fill in the rest buy my memoir!

~~It has been said that Americans have a very poor memory for history--even their own. But since history, if not actual events, seems to repeat, it is helpful to know what happened before in order to evaluate today.

Three Quick Steps is a piece of American history that has been forgotten by many--the scourge of the polio epidemic that effected thousands before the Salk vaccine became available. Robert Emmett's story is that of one little boy and his family coping with this crippling disease--how he survived and how his family and friends dealt with this life-changing event. It is a true story of suffering and courage and bravery and love.

Unlike Franklin Roosevelt, Robert was unable to hide his disability from the world, always trying to measure up and succeed in school, in work, and in love. Three Quick Steps is a triumph of medicine and personal determination, which continues even today. This is the story of one life, which illuminates a place and a time. Well worth the read.