Pletz, John S. 1944–

(John Stephen Pletz)

PERSONAL: Born March 5, 1944, in St. Louis, MO; son of John F. (a social worker) and Helen L. (Fouts) Pletz; married December 26, 1975; wife's name Karen L. (a university president); children: Brittany E., Casey L. Education: Attended Washington University (St. Louis, MO), 1962–64; University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 1966; University of Missouri, Columbia, J.D., 1975. Religion: Presbyterian.

ADDRESSES: Office—Pletz & Reed, P.O. Box 1048, Jefferson City, MO 65102.

CAREER: Attorney and writer. U.S. Peace Corps, volunteer rural community development, coordinator of vocational agricultural education in Colombia, 1966–69; called to the Bar of the State of Missouri; Missouri Elections Commission, Jefferson City, counsel and executive director, 1976–78; Office of the Secretary of State of Missouri, Jefferson City, deputy secretary, 1978–81; Bartlett, Venters, Pletz & Toppins, Jefferson City, attorney, 1981–87; Pletz & Reed, Jefferson City, attorney, 1987–. Memorial Community Hospital, vice president, 1986–88; Family Mental Health Center, president, 1998; Capital Region Medical Foundation, chair, 1998; United Way of Central Missouri, chair, 2003; Mid-Missouri Medical Foundation, chair, 2004–05. Military service: U.S. Air Force, 1969–73; became staff sergeant; received Meritorious Service Medal and Air Force Commendation Medal.

MEMBER: American Bar Association, Cole County Bar Association (president, 1982), Rotary Club of Jefferson City (president, 1992–93).

AWARDS, HONORS: Order of the Coif; fellow of American Bar Foundation.

WRITINGS:

Being Ethical, Kroshka Books (Commack, NY), 1997.

First, Do No Unjust Harm: Recognizing and Confronting Evil, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 2003.

Contributor to law journals.

SIDELIGHTS: John S. Pletz told CA: "I write first in order to understand. I find that the repeated focus that must be given during the writing process produces a learning experience that can lead to greatly increased comprehension of the subject.

"One part of this learning process occurs as we read earlier writers. Each of us begins midstream in the intellectual consideration of any topic. Whether we can add meaningfully to our collective understandings depends in large part upon the degree to which we have absorbed and appreciated the progress—and the mistakes—that have previously been made.

"Another part of the learning process occurs as we write. When I am considering a particular subject matter and then attempt to develop and organize my own thoughts about it, some ideas seem to occur simultaneously with the act of putting them into words on paper. I may think new thoughts about a subject, and thus learn more about it, because I am engaging in the writing process.

"I also write in order to communicate. Writers essentially deliver monologues, but collectively these become sequential community dialogues. If what we have written might be useful to at least some other people as they consider the same subject matter, then an obligation exists to attempt to share it to see whether it may help extend one of these dialogue chains.

"For me writing is a quasi-organic process. I begin with several seeds of thoughts that, when cultivated, grow—through innumerable outlines, drafts, edits, redrafts, and re-edits (until these are no longer productive)—into a fully matured work. But for one of my manuscripts to reach its final form takes constant tending and pruning, as written thoughts have to be carefully shaped and reshaped in order to become a meaningful collection of preserved words.

"I have focused much of my writing on ethics because I believe that it both underlies and grounds all of the most important decisions that we must make in life.

We need to try to understand the things that we should do (and why) and the things that we should not do (and why not) before we can make the most appropriate choices. Because I believe that ethical matters are neither as difficult nor as relative as some have suggested, I have attempted in my books to describe, in specific and practical terms, not only how we can distinguish between the ethical and the unethical, but also how we can resolve our important ethical dilemmas."