When General Wesley Clark decided to run for the Democratic nomination in 2003 he was the Chairman and CEO of WaveCrest, a developer of hydrogen engines and electric bicycles. His supporters sometimes regret having pushed him out of a job he loved into primary hell, but as is shown by the book excerpts below, he did it for his country.

From Wesley K. Clark: A Biography by Antonia Felix:

Setting and some of the participants participants: Allen Andersson-MIT math; Boris Maslov-Moscow Institute, PH. D. electronics engineering; Joe Perry-Duquesne U, physicist; Wes Clark. lab at WaveCrest.

Subject: electromagnetic cores, battery chemistries, algorithms, power-to-energy ratios, and electric drivelines

The first meeting of the minds between Clark and WaveCrest was informal but intense. “I remember that day very clearly,” said Perry. “Our company was very small, we had this dream, and Wes said, ‘I’d like to just come out and the engineers and have you guys explain what you’re doing.’ So people sat around on the floor and we had pizza and a couple of beers and did equations on the whiteboard. And Wes was at home. He immediately connected with the science and the engineers.”

Allen Andersson, the principal investor and cofounder of WaveCrest, was astonished at the mathematical prowess and quick grasp of the new technology that Clark exhibited during that first meeting. “When it came to explaining what our company was doing, he understood it a lot better than I did,” Andersson said. “He thought that I was just being modest; but no, he understood it and I didn’t . I felt embarrassed because he went to West Point and learned how to march while I went to MIT and learned mathematics. He’s a guy that does all the practical things, he knows how to move vehicles from one place to another and make sure they have good drivers and fuel and the right number of rest stops; but he’s also right there on the theoretical science end of it.”

...Perry remarked that Clark had a down-to-earth relationship with everyone at the company. “He would walk around building and talk to the janitor and people running the switchboard; everybody was equally important to him. He has that genuine connection that only a few people could make.” ...According to Perry and other officers of the company, Clark had the ability to rally everyone and make morale soar. “Wes was really, in many respects, an inspirational leader,” said Perry.

...”Towards the end he was becoming really distracted,” said Joe Perry. “It was one thing to read in the papers about the rumors of him entering the race, but it was another thing to sit in the next office to him see what was going on. You could just see that it was tearing him up; he just thought that what we were doing was bad for the country.” To his coworkers, Clark’s ambition was not about politics but about problem solving. In their day-to-day talks with him about the war on terrorism and the bush administration’s environmental policies, they witnessed a genuine concern that was personal. “You read that he’s just another politician,” said Perry. “He’s kind of everything but.”

(excerpts from: Wesley K. Clark: A Biography, A. Felix, 177-88)