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Micah Kimball hid in the kitchen.

Mark Woodward went to school.

And Evan Ice?

Well, the then-Kansas University senior simply apologized profusely to the engineer who’d been interviewing him for an entry-level job at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis — and ended up wearing a glass of orange juice that Ice had spilled on his lap.

“It’s not like I ate my dinner with my salad fork, or used the dessert fork on my steak,” Ice said, recalling the memory from 1985. “It was a real embarrassing thing.”

But the polite, professional Ice recovered nicely, perhaps drawing on the good manners and table etiquette that he’d learned during childhood from his grandmother.

A dose of good humor didn’t hurt, either.

“I think they felt sorry for me and ended up giving me a job offer,” said Ice, now an attorney in Lawrence.

Using good table manners, following business etiquette and respecting cultural standards — even in the face of such unexpected adversity — remain important in today’s business world, Ice and other local professionals agree.

Woodward, CEO of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, still relies on lessons learned more than five years ago during an etiquette course he took with fellow GCSAA board members.

Among the most useful tips: When eating while standing at a party, place the cocktail napkin from your drink under the plate in your left hand — and keep a corner of the napkin exposed, so that you can use it to wipe your fingers before you shake hands.

After each greeting, rotate the napkin so that a clean corner is exposed for the next time.

“It’s actually pretty smart, when you think of all these things,” he said.

Woodward employs his knowledge during the 40 or 50 dinner meetings, cocktail receptions and other social events he attends each year while leading an organization of more than 20,000 members in 72 countries.

Whether it’s dining with the executive committee of the PGA of America, the leadership of Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey or delegates at the Asia Pacific Golf Summit in Malaysia, Woodward wants to be sure his organization’s representatives are up to par.

“It’s important that we present ourselves as professionals in these situations,” Woodward said.

Kimball, a project architect and manager for Treanor Architects, read up on local customs during a business trip to Qatar, where the firm was designing a residential project in University City.

The trip came during Ramadan, and that meant the Americans would not be eating or drinking anything during daylight hours — at least not in the open. Their hosts had managed to stake them out a hidden spot in the kitchen, where they could grab a drink to stay hydrated.

“You want to be considerate and not offend anybody,” Kimball said. “You educate yourself on what the customs are, and abide by them. …

“It earned some respect, that we were able to respect their traditions and their culture.”

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