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Letter to the editor

These executives play hard, too

By Christina Rexrode, Times Staff Writer
Published June 18, 2007

Rod Casto poses for a portrait in his 2002 Porsche 911. Casto, who is associate vice-president for research and the executive director of USF Research Foundation, Inc., races his car as a hobby. "You have a porsche for a reason. It's all about fantasy, turning your fantasy into reality."
	[Times photo: Chris Zuppa]

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Carrie Pratt] Sheri McWhorter, an attorney in Labor and Employment law and partner with the law firm Foley and Lardner, recently dove with the sharks off the coast of South Africa with friends. She travels on a big trip once a year and always trys to find exotic places to go. [Times photo: Zach Boyden-Holmes] Frank Crum and his wife, Brenda, raise alpacas on their land, breeding them and selling their fleece.

Everyone needs a way to unwind, and high-powered execs - whether at universities, corporations or law firms - often have the means to do it in unusual or interesting ways. From soft and fluffy to fast and furious, here's how three local businesspeople get away from business.

Rod Casto   |   Associate vice president, research, USF

Rod Casto got into racing about eight years ago, after he bought a new Porsche and was invited to a reception at the dealership. That was where he learned about the Porsche Club of America, which sponsors races for nonprofessionals. Casto thought that sounded like fun. "I had a lot of apprehension about racing a brand new car," he recalled, "but eventually the excitement outweighed the concern. Either excitement or stupidity - I'm not sure which." His current car, a 2002 Porsche 911, is also his only car, so when he's not racing it on weekends, he's driving it to work. It has roll bars and special seat belts for the track, where he pushes it to speeds higher than 150 mph. And so far, the 911 has nary a dent. "It's like a gentleman's race" said Casto, 54. "It's not like NASCAR, where we bang doors and try to wreck other people."

Sheri McWhorter   |   Partner, Foley & Lardner

Lots of people scuba dive, but they have nothing on Sheri McWhorter. She jumps into waters brimming with the animals that made Jaws a hit. Last year, she swam with bull sharks in Belize. The year before, it was hammerheads and reef sharks in the Galapagos. This year, on Easter Sunday, she went diving with great whites off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. (Retired NFL running back Tiki Barber took the same trip a few weeks later as a correspondent for NBC's Today show.) There, McWhorter's guide used a severed tuna head to lure the great whites toward her underwater cage. McWhorter, 50, says she wasn't afraid, just awestruck. The sharks are shy, she says, and easily scared by human actions. "They're extremely graceful," she said. "You can look at them and tell how strong they are by the muscles rippling underneath their skin. No matter how many we saw, we were wishing for more."

Frank Crum Jr.   |   President, FrankCrum  professional employer group

Frank Crum says he'd like to be a farmer, except he wouldn't want to kill any of his animals. So he was thrilled to learn about alpacas, the smaller South American cousins of the llama, because they're raised for their fleece. "They're like little angels," enthused Crum, who is 57 and a self-professed environmental nut. He and his wife, Brenda, now have 17 of the animals at their farm in Odessa: Annabelle, Vanilla Latte, Katie, Fancy Nancy - he rattles off the names. He thinks he'll eventually turn a profit by selling some of the offspring; a single alpaca can fetch $20,000. But for now, Crum is happy to feed the animals, clip their toenails, and marvel at each one's unique personality. (Alpacas are very cliquish, he says.) "I play tennis and stuff, too," Crum said, "but everybody does that."

[Last modified June 17, 2007, 18:26:35]