By Cliff Peale
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Paul Flory still carries some of the old habits from his days at Procter & Gamble Co.

Now chairman of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters tennis tournament, Flory still finds it hard to shake the one-page memo, the cover note and other results of his 39 years at P&G.

"There is a certain discipline that you get there," Flory said. "There's no question that what you did at P&G made a great impact on you."

He retired in 1987, becoming one of dozens of P&G alumni to make their mark on Greater Cincinnati.

His brethren include the Baptist Ministers Conference president, the Rev. Calvin Harper; Hamilton County Commissioner John Dowlin; former Cincinnati Board of Education member Lynwood Battle; and National Underground Railroad Freedom Center President Ed Rigaud.

Of course, there is the raft of small businesses formed by former "Proctoids," including On Target Media and TechSoft Systems.

This weekend, almost 400 alumni are gathering downtown for the biggest reunion of P&G alumni ever. Friday afternoon, big names such as former AOL Time Warner chairman Steve Case and former Microsoft Corp. executive Bob Herbold roamed the halls at P&G.

The group was at Cincinnati Museum Center on Friday night and will attend a series of seminars today. Tonight, they will present a series of awards for community service and other topics.

There were dozens of alums who have left imprints large and small in Cincinnati.

"The general view way back was that people would wind up their careers at P&G and would always leave, lured back to Boston or New York or wherever," said Jack Wyant, who left P&G in 1975 and now heads Blue Chip Venture Co.

Wyant and his wife, Peg, head of the local venture firm Isabella Capital, are two who have stayed. Another is Dale Tesmond, who left in 1987 and now is managing director of marketing firm Benchmark.

"One of the interesting parts of being with P&G is you're around really smart people," Tesmond said. "Some people fit the mold here and stay, and other people are just entrepreneurs and had to blast out."

Other local alumni include:

• Jim Orr and Dave Dougherty, top executives at Convergys Corp.

• Ed Jackson, president of Fierro Technologies.

• Clifford Bailey, president and CEO of TechSoft Systems Inc.

• Ross Love, head of Blue Chip Broadcasting and co-chairman of Cincinnati CAN.

• Steve Kent, president of F&W Publications.

• Ginger Kent, veteran of Hasbro Toys.

• Pete Blackshaw, founder of Planet Feedback in Over-the-Rhine.

• Janet Reid, president of Global Lead management consultants.

• Dean Butler, founder of LensCrafters.

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com