WHO MIKE IS
Mike Salloum was born in Kabelias and raised between Lebanese and Armenian traditions. His early years were shaped by village work, church, school, and the responsibilities that came with belonging to a large family. He learned from his parents that contribution mattered more than comfort.
He arrived in the United States in 1972 and took the work available to him including construction restaurant shifts and airline operations. Those jobs eventually led to business ownership, management, and decades spent training people who were ready for greater responsibility but had not yet been given the chance.
Mike began writing for his sons, so they would know the relatives, places, losses, and decisions behind the family they inherited. He did not set out to present himself as the hero of every chapter. He wanted to leave an honest account of the people who carried him, the country that received him, and the obligations that came with both.
NOW AVAILABLE
1958
Mike
In Beirut, an American Marine knelt beside young Michel, called him “Mike,” and handed him a KitKat. The name stayed, along with his first personal impression of America.
1972
One Suitcase to Michigan
At twenty-one, Mike left Lebanon and arrived in the United States. Work, transportation, language, and even ordinary shopping had to be learned in a new setting.
1974
Nadine Entered the Picture
A night at a place called The Library led Mike to Nadine. Their relationship became the partnership behind the family and home they later built together.
2026
The Notes Became a Book
What began as memories written for his sons eventually grew into From Cedar Roots to Stars and Stripes. The book gave his family a record of the people and events behind the life they inherited.
AFTER YOU READ
BEFORE THE BOOK
ON THE COURT
Leadership & Teamwork
Volleyball was where Mike first learned to read people, settle disagreements, and help a group perform as one team. Leadership came before he ever had a business title.
ON THE CLOCK
Work & Enterprise
He worked construction, made pizzas, handled overnight airline duties, and accepted unfamiliar responsibilities. Each job taught him something he later carried into management and business ownership.
AT THE FAMILY TABLE
Family & Writing
The writing began with conversations Mike did not want his sons to lose. Becoming an author came later. First came the need to answer where their family began and who made their present possible.
ABOUT THE WRITING
Mike began writing down individual memories nearly ten years before the book was completed. There was no formal chapter plan at first. He recorded incidents as they returned to him, then gradually connected them into one continuous account.
No. He asked his brother Mitch and sister Doley to help confirm dates from Lebanon. Cousins supplied family history, photographs, and details he had never known, while his sons and trusted friends read sections and questioned anything that needed clarification.
For Mike, work was never separate from family. Orchard labor, truck routes, restaurant shifts, airline operations, management, and business ownership were how he provided for others and found his place in America. Removing the work would remove a large part of the man.
Mike does not present his achievements as something he created alone. Parents, grandparents, siblings, Nadine, Dana, his sons, friends, and colleagues each affected what happened next. Naming them is his way of giving them their proper place in the record.
