The piece is "pultruded" rather than extruded -- pushed through the mold -- which is where the company name comes from.
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Jim Lewis goes into the Army, and my work in WWII After WWII, I venture into fiberglass, Marrying Mike, and my heart problem Getting Dick Newpher to join me at Glastic
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After selling out of Glastic , I joined an investment group of guys who were seeking out promising new startup businesses. I invested in a few of these. One of them, Lauren Manufacturing, was a stumbling new business with a unique process for making car door and window sealing strips. I was asked to be on the Board of Directors and I accepted. Then I was elected Board Chairman. The president, Dale Foland, was clearly a brilliant and creative guy but it was soon evident that his business was full of confusion.
After watching this for awhile I asked Foland if he would care to have a bit of friendly advice. He knew his company was not doing well in spite of its attributes. I asked him if he would consider some personal advice and he quickly agreed. I was able to point out that he was trying to do too many different things at once. He nodded and he seemed to enjoy discussing his problems with me. Lauren Manufacturing was first located in a Kent, Ohio ex-textile mill. Then, when it began to grow successfully, Foland moved it to a new modern factory site in New Philadelphia a small town Ohio. It was at Lauren that I met Bonnie. She, like me, had just been through a divorce. (It was after both our divorces when we first became acquainted.)
Wayne Koury, a high school friend of Toby's and somewhat younger than him, often joined us on our family vacation junkets. Wayne's father ran a small restaurant in downtown Cleveland and Wayne always had critical remarks about food and service at restaurant meals wherever we went. When he graduated from high school he started a restaurant of his own. He had very limited funds and it almost collapsed. His mother suggested that he ask me for advice. He did, and I helped him look carefully at his finances, and his plans. Together we determined what he was doing and what he could afford, and then how to stay within those his financial limitations. He accepted my advice for a while. But not long after that he wanted to start another restaurant. For this new restaraunt he needed money and asked again for my help, which he promised he would repay soon. I loaned him some money. He started yet another restaurant, and soon again he needed more money. I helped again. Periodically he would pay me back a little and promise more. But, "Please, I need more" always came before the promised repayments. Also, Wayne got married and built an expensive home in suburban Gates Mills. He paid me back a little now and then. But even now, fifty years later, he still owes me a bundle.
(Wayne was Toby's friend. He met him at Shaker Hts High, I think. Wayne's family was of Lebanese descent, and Wayne's nickname is high school was "CJ" for Camel Jockey. He and Toby were close friends and an excellent pair of comics in high school days. Wayne was also friendly with the rest of the family. Another close friend of Toby's was Joe "Moose" Ditman, who moved to Washington state the last I heard.)
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Roger working on a technical problem at Pultrusions. The machine in between
the two men pulls the finished product out of the mold. On the other end
of the mold, glass fiber is unwound off of reels and dipped in resin before
it enters the mold.
The piece is "pultruded" rather than extruded -- pushed through the mold -- which is where the company name comes from. |
Another person I got involved with on a business enterprise was Dave Pearson. He was working for a fiberglass plastic friendly competitor in small north eastern Ohio town which was using a process which I developed during my Glastic Corp. days. Dave wanted to start a business of his own and he came to me for advice. This fellow sounded to me like a man who could make a success of a new fiberglass business. I helped him get started with a new company in first in Kent, then in Solon, Ohio. We named it Pultrusions Corp. Dave Pearson was named President, and he started as a 49% shareholder. I was his Board Chairman. He later purchased from me another 2%. For years the business was not doing well and I gave all my stock equally to my two sons. Then, much to my surprise, Dave found a buyer. They offered $2,000,000. He sold, and agreed to stay on for two years. He then left as scheduled. I was stunned that this very skillful manager did not work again for the rest of his life. I was quite concerned that this sale made each of my sons suddenly very rich.
Tom, the older, left the administration of this windfall up to his wife and she promptly bought a large old house for her family, and she started up two or three pizza restaurants. Very soon little of the cash remained in the bank and before long the restaurants she acquired were poorly attended and unable to survive. I was saddened to see this money misused so badly. Toby did much better. He and his wife bought a nice house in Florida and he started an at-home "telephone computer resale business". This involved finding companies which were about to upgrade their corporate computer equipment and didn't know what to do with the old hardware. Without ever having to lay his hands on this equipment Toby would make a telephone search for a buyer. When he found an interested party he would quote them a price considerably higher than his source's selling price, so he would earn a handsome profit without ever having to handle the merchandise. He did this for many years. raised two children, moved to Lansing, Michigan and spent five years of night school law education. In 1998 he passed the bar exam and started to practice law.
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Jim Lewis goes into the Army, and my work in WWII After WWII, I venture into fiberglass, Marrying Mike, and my heart problem Getting Dick Newpher to join me at Glastic
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