INTRODUCING EMERITA MEMBER NELL GRAHAM SALE
This new status occurred sometime after 2017 when I retired from the active practice of law in New Mexico. In January of that year, I moved to Santa Fe to live with my wonderful companion, and former tennis player, retired philosophy professor Dr. Spencer Wertz, and I announced to Spencer that what I wanted to do was to become ranked among women in their 70s as a singles player in the US. So by the end of 2018, I was ranked 9th in the US. I am still ranked, but not as high, since I now only play about 4 national tournaments a year. But I have joined the board of the National Women’s Tennis Organization, and am writing a column each month in its newsletter about charitable giving, since it is a nonprofit. In Santa Fe, I have been meddling with nonprofits to teach them how to raise more money through planned gifts. I play tennis with some fantastic women in Santa Fe almost every day of the week. And I make speeches when asked.
Unquestionably, being one of the founders of Pregenzer Baysinger Wideman & Sale in 2008. But even earlier, in 1997, I moved my practice from tax law to elder law. It had been brought to my attention how difficult daily life is for millions of people in the US. At that time, I decided that moving wealth from one generation to the next, while interesting, did not address the issues that are much much harder. I joined NAELA and later the SNA.
I want to travel each year to at least 4 national tennis tournaments. I want to see my grandchildren more and have them come visit us in Santa Fe. I want to move comfortably from GoGo status to GoSlow status with Spencer, and I want to deepen my relationships with people in Santa Fe.
I go way back. We were meeting in St Pete Beach in a motel with a courtyard that had trees in it and there were speakers in the trees that made bird noises, and while having supper on the beach Nancy Gibson and I laughed ourselves silly over the Speaker Birds. There are many more meaningful memories: leading the discussions to move from an LLC to trade association status; moving the SNA away from having exclusive market areas; getting the SNA to hire Jihane as Executive Director; being part of coalescing the pooled trust administrators at an SNA conference which led to the SSA backing down and allowing pooled trust trustees to retain any balance of a trust at the death of the beneficiary. I like those memories, and many more.
Attach yourself to a mentor. Do not be shy about getting to know the veterans at meetings. Go to every national meeting.
My favorite book is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg; Hillary Clinton; Billie Jean King; Althea Gibson; Dolores Huerta; Deb Haaland—because they are leaders, effective, generous visionaries, and they never give up.