By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A native of King City who found success running her own business in New York City has written a book in honor of her father, a book of advice for both business and life.
Susan Combs pays tribute to her father, Major General Roger Combs, who died in 2018 in the book called “Pancakes for Roger: A Mentorship Guide for Slaying Dragons.”
Combs says she initially entitled it as a mentorship guide for life.
“And then at 2am one morning, I popped up awake and I said, ‘No, Mentorship Guide for Slaying Dragons,’” Combs tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “When you think about it, we all have dragons to slay. We’ve all been on our own journeys, maybe it’s difficulties in personal relationships, maybe it’s difficulties with education or jobs or family. There are always obstacles that we have to overcome and so that’s kind of my thought about slaying dragons.”
Combs left King City to attend the University of Missouri. Upon graduation from MU, Combs went to New York City to start a new job and a new life.
It didn’t turn out as planned.
The job fell through. Combs regathered herself and, at the age of 26, founded Combs and Company, a full-service insurance brokerage firm based in New York City. The mantra of the business is “Do more, better.”
When Combs began writing the book, she didn’t intend to focus on her father.
“When I started, I really thought my father was just going to be one chapter,” Combs says, adding she intended the book to flesh out advice given by her mentors, but when she began writing, her father permeated the entire book.
“I do have several mentors that are featured throughout the book, but my Dad is in every single chapter,” Combs says. “So that’s why the title ’Pancakes for Roger: A Mentorship Guide for Slaying Dragons,’ just seemed like it was going to be appropriate to honor him in that way.”
Roger Combs reached the rank of a two-star general. He also served as a civilian judge in Gentry County. He died of Agent Orange related throat cancer, according to his daughter.
Combs says she had to keep busy to deal with the grief of losing her father, but understands everyone copes with grief in their own way.
“Everybody processes things differently and so you have to find out what works for you,” Combs says. “Sometimes people just need to internalize things. Sometimes people need to connect with a bereavement group that’s going to give them help. It just depends on what’s going to be the best thing. You have to choose your own adventure in your life.”
The title arises out of an emotional moment with her father during the last stages of his life. One morning, she got ready for work only to find her father setting the breakfast table for pancakes, pancakes he couldn’t eat, because he had a feeding tube.
That led to her and her husband donating to the University of Missouri School of Law Veterans Clinic for everyone who sent them a photo in February of them dining on pancakes.
“It’s just the little things in life that end up becoming the big things,” Combs says. “So, when I got back to New York after my father passed, I took one day off work. My husband said to me, he said, ‘Let’s go have some pancakes for your Dad.’ So, we took the first picture. I put it on social media and told people, if you’re so inclined, go have some pancakes for Roger today.”
The book came out on Roger’s birthday, February 22nd. Combs held a book launch at the Rusty Coffee Pot in her hometown of King City earlier this month. A portion of the proceeds goes to the University of Missouri School of Law Veterans Clinic, which Combs says provides veterans with legal services to help veterans and their families secure disability benefits by navigating what can be a labyrinth, otherwise known as the Veterans Administration.
“Sometimes, it’s just the doctor that’s administering the care and writing up the report. Sometimes, it’s just the little nuances that you just don’t know,” Combs says. “And I’ll tell you it’s complex. It is complex.”
Combs says the average wait for such cases is seven years with one out of 14 veterans dying before their case is settled.
The article has been edited since first published.