Husky Tracks
Rising to a New Challenge
If anyone had ever told Helene Satz, a successful psychologist
with two graduate degrees, that she'd one day own a bakery, she would have
thought they were "screwball," she says. Yet in 1994 she launched
a second career, opening a Big Sky Bread Company franchise in Newton Centre,
Massachusetts.
Sometimes the bakery business was so busy she slept on the floor in
her cramped office. Or in her car. "These are things a fifty-year-old
person doesn't typically do," she says with a wry laugh. But, she
adds, "I credit myself with being a person with lots of energy-thank
God."
The route to baking was roundabout. At Northeastern, Satz (née
Fink) earned two degrees-a 1971 bachelor's in hospital administration through
University College and a 1977 master's in educational counseling. She's
still grateful to N.U. for honoring undergraduate course work she did at
another college, and for its "supportive and flexible" environment,
she says. She went on to get a doctorate in clinical psychology and then
to begin work as a therapist.
Despite her subsequent success as a psychologist, Satz opened the bakery
because of a strong need to do something different, she says. The move
was prompted in part by a dream she had that a friend published a coffee
table book titled Still Life and the Refusal of Containment. After pondering
it, Satz decided the dream meant that psychology was limiting her.
She tried out various activities for a while. She ran in a local election
and lost. She applied for a teaching job but didn't get it. Still casting
around, she wandered into a Big Sky bakery in Cincinnati-the company's
home base-and fell in love with its organic whole wheat breads, which are
made without refined sugar, oils, cholesterol, or preservatives.
For Satz, who'd been told by her doctor to eat only whole wheat and
no sugar, she and Big Sky seemed like a match. The reality of running a
bakery, however, was a bit different from the dream, she admits. "I
had no idea what I was getting into," she says. "If I had known
in advance what this was all about, I probably wouldn't have done it."
Four years into commercial baking, Satz no longer works all night. While
the first year was a "nightmare," the business has subsequently
gotten easier. Her shop, in a prime location in the middle of upscale Newton,
gets a steady stream of customers for its breads, muffins, cookies, and
rolls, and for its sunny and inviting ambiance. One unforeseen benefit
of opening the bakery has been working with her family; her husband and
two children have pitched in. She even finds enough time to retain a toehold
in the psychology field, leading group therapy sessions twice a week.
For now, despite the long hours, Satz is sticking with bread dough.
"Would I do it again? Probably," she says. "Will I keep
doing it? Probably. But," she adds, in complete seriousness, "I
can't predict the future."
-Karen Feldscher