Roberts & Ryan is pleased to announce that John Register, U.S. Army veteran, has joined the firm’s Advisory Board. Register will assist Roberts & Ryan in expanding the firm’s offerings and engagements to corporations and institutional investors committed to enhancing opportunities and economic independence to veterans, disabled veterans and their families.
Register swam, played baseball and football in his youth, and later discovered track and field, becoming a four-time All-American on scholarship at the University of Arkansas. He served six years in the U.S. Army — including in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and in active-duty with the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program — winning nine gold medals in the Armed Services Competition and two World Military Championships. While on active duty with the U.S. Army, Register participated in two U.S. Olympic trials in two hurdles distances and hoped to make the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team. On May 17, 1994, John embraced a “new normal” in becoming an amputee following a misstep over a hurdle during training. Register hyperextended his knee and severed the popliteal artery. Surgical reconstruction proved futile as gangrene set in, resulting in amputation of his left leg. Following a long road to recovery, Register started swimming. He made the U.S. Paralympic Team in 1996, swimming the anchor leg in the 4×400 Medley Relay. Eventually, he was fitted with a prosthetic leg and returned to track and field as a member of the U.S. Paralympic Team in Sydney, winning a silver medal in the long jump — as he set an American record — and sprinted to fifth in the 100 meters and 200 meters.
John discovered how to “amputate his fear of disability” and founded the U.S. Olympic Committee Military Sport Program in the early 2000s. He has launched a book titled “10 Stories to Impact Any Leader: Journal Your Way to Leadership Success” as business leaders return to work with their staff amid stressful circumstances surrounding its current and historical systemic racial biases.
