Climbing The Mountain With George Tobler

George Tobler is the Director of Manufacturing at VisionCorps, and resides in the Lancaster Ann B. Barshinger Visionary Center. He is in charge of non food-related manufacturing opportunities, and employment programs. A few of his job duties include handling pricing, internal costing efforts, and assisting in public policy on federal, state and local levels.

What is your favorite part of your job here at VisionCorps?

Contributing to a greater good and helping other individuals, knowing that what we’re doing here is bigger than just us. We have the ability to contribute to the Rehabilitation department through the Enterprise Group, a small part of helping us further along our mission. It’s not just sitting at a desk pushing paper.

How did you find out about VisionCorps?

I was introduced to VisionCorps in the 1980’s due to my own vision loss. But I really got involved with VisionCorps through a friend inside the company, CFO, Jodie Reinhart, who courted me to eventually become a board member with the organization. Years later I joined the organization for employment.

What do you wish other people knew about VisionCorps?

I wish that people knew that we didn’t just employ blind people, or help blind people. It’s a collaborative effort of individuals contributing to that greater good of helping people who are vision impaired attain any level of independence that suits their needs. Contributing to that in any small way is not only a wonderful thing but it’s our obligation within the community.

What is your personal philosophy?

My personal philosophy is that to achieve success you need to be selfless. Any business is a true collaboration, and a Herculean effort to accomplish goals and objectives. Once we accomplish one thing, we need to realize that we are moving on to something else. We never truly reach the top of the mountain, we are instead always going to be raising the bar, or creating a larger mountain for us to climb.

If you could have one Superpower what would it be and why?

It would be telekinesis because you can totally mess with people around you, by moving stuff a foot away from them!

Favorite movie?

Cadyshack. Love Cadyshack.

If you could do another job for one day what would it be?

I would be a radio disc jockey. I did that voluntarily in college. I had a radio show and I really enjoyed doing it. Over the years people have told me I have a good radio voice, and I also love music. I’d love to have a radio show where I’m playing music that might mean something to me. I also think music is a benchmark for our lives. There are certain songs that I attach to certain memories of certain things, and I think there are few things that are that powerful enough in art and culture to do that. Right now I’m listening to Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. If you give me anything with a blues sound, an upbeat tempo, and a horn section, I’m done. I’ll just listen to that.

Quick: you throw a spontaneous dinner party with 5 of your friends – what do you make?

So, I call for pizza. I get a bag of chips, bag a pretzels, bag of baby carrots and some beer and we’ll watch playoff sports. Baby carrots? Gotta have something healthy. Always gotta have the baby carrots. Always a big party pleaser. I’m not a dinner party type of guy so when I’ve had a bunch of people over to my house spontaneously, that’s what we have done. That’s what my friends have come to expect.

What is your most treasured possession?

My house key. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get home.

Do you prefer long road trips or flying in an airplane?

A long road trip. It’s not always about the destination, it is sometimes about the journey and what you might discover along the way. You always discover something about yourself.