Excellence and Compassion as Our Guide

This interview with the son of a serviceman and fellow contractor is both inspirational and moving, highlighting how excellence and compassion can guide us. Roger shares the journey of his father, who learned his craft in the military and went on to start his own business, embodying these values through it all. 

As we prepare to celebrate our nation, connect with the touching story of a man who served both his country and his trade with unmatched dedication and heart. Click through to hear this story of resilience and passion. 

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Transcript

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welcome back to the profit Builder unscripted I'm excited about my guest Roger blue who is talking today about his dad who is a contractor in Stafford Kansas and he talks a little bit about uh his dad and his philosophy about running his business and really kind of his philosophy about how he ran his life I love this story and I'm excited to be able to share it with you today so let's go ahead and jump in I am so grateful to have my guest here today Roger blue and um Roger and I met um about a year ago under some rather unfortunate circumstances I actually met Roger at um his dad's funeral and I knew Roger's dad just a little bit um because he lived in the same assisted living facility that my in-laws live in and um I asked Roger to be a guest here today because Roger was the one who delivered the eulogy for his uh dad and not only did he do an extraordinary job just delivering it but his message um really touched me it touched me as a daughter um and it also touched me as somebody who works with um people in the Contracting industry that um Roger's dad was a contractor and um I just so Roger thank you thank you for being here and thank you guest and thanks for sharing the story I know this isn't you know necessarily easy I'm asking you to reread your dad's eulogy um and especially that I know it's just we're just up up on a one year anniversary for that so thank you I really appreciate that I appreciate your your generous heart for being willing to you know to do this today so um so I'm going to let you uh uh maybe just take a minute and talk a little bit about you know how you decided to write what you wrote about your dad and and came to you know I don't know just structure if you will the eulogy that you like what was it how did how were you inspired and then I would like you to read it I like I said I think it's a Beautiful Eulogy and I think you did just an amazing job well I guess um in terms of the structure of it um my two brothers and I sat down and and we kind of listed out some things that we thought were important um things that were memorable things that um might connect with with the community and the family and and friends um and uh and then I I uh I was tasked with with delivering the eulogy so the night before the funeral I sat down and and began to to put the the pieces of it together and and um the the metaphor of a carpenter just seemed to fit and um uh and and I was it the pieces just seem to fit well into that metaphor um and U so that's that's kind of how it came together um I hope that gets it the answer to your question yeah totally and your dad and your dad built you you're from a small community so Stafford Kansas and um but your dad did remodeling work for many years yeah yeah he was um he was uh a carpenter and worked for several other contractors um for for years and then um uh kind of Midway through his career he he started his own small company here in in a small town and and doing construction work in a small town means you're going to do a variety of things yeah and uh so he he he did build houses most of the work was remodels um kitchens bathrooms additions basements um you know the whole gamut of things um so um he was he was um uh he was tasked to do many many things in the community um and uh uh as a Carpenter as a as a contractor and uh so so the so the experience is really quite varied um working in a small town and it's it's it's perhaps different from from a from a bigger Community uh where the the a lot of the work is is um you know building large developments um and it's nothing like that um so it's you know a lot of the people I deal with and I talk with and I work with are exactly that they're remodelers they work people's homes and um and you do end up having to be a you know my words jack of all trades especially in small communities where you have to be able to do electrical and plumbing and you know yes yes yes all of that as well as carpentry so yes yeah and um the um community that you guys lived in and grew up in when your dad came back to that Community I know that um you know my in-laws had them do some work at their house and then you know talking to a bunch of other people in that community that um he touched a lot of lives in the process and um and and that would I think that's also what made um you know when when you read your eulogy it's like you have your perspective about like you working with your dad and for your dad and and um you know and what you saw in him doing but was also really neat in talking to other people afterwards was how much respect your dad had in the community for the work that he did and the people that he served and who he supported and I think it's just a good example that sometimes we don't always know um the the difference we make in people's lives we don't always know how we touch people and how we make a difference and um yeah so anyway I'm going to let you I'm gonna let you take it from here and okay read the eulogy and then we'll probably chat about it a few minutes all right here we go straight level Plum Square that's the Carpenters Mantra it starts with straight and level in the South alley at the lumber yard there's a straight level line drawn on a wall very early in Dad's career he bought his first highquality level at the lumber yard in Stafford but before he left the lumber yard that day he laid to that level against that wall and traced that straight level line in the decades that followed every new level he bought was checked against that line when he started his own company he allowed only his levels to be used on his job sites the Precision of every job he did can be traced to that one straight level line that straight level line perhaps also represents the greater measure of his life with his family his friends and his community to his family friends and Community he gave a lifetime of service dad served in the Marine Corps from 1951 through 1953 during the Korean War mom and dad had been married only a few weeks when got his induction notice after basic training he was sent to CB construction school he finished seventh out of a class of 1,200 that earned him a plum assignment opening opening a new carpenter shop at Marine Corps Air Station Tustin in Santa Ana California dad sometimes joked that he fought the Battle of Southern California he was asked to select four other Marines from his CB class to fill out the crew for the new shop he told me that selecting those four men was among the most difficult things he'd ever done because he knew that the men he selected would remain safely in Southern California and anyone not selected would be promptly sent to Korea the weight of this decision followed him for much of his life he served as a baseball coach both here in Stafford and in Atta soon after moving to Atta he was asked to fill in as a little league coach for one game the coach dropped off the um the gear bag with bats balls and helmets dad coached the team that night but what he did not know was that the coach had actually moved out of town and dad was now the full-time coach he often shared a story that sounds like it came right out of the Bad News Bears during a game the pitcher called a timeout and the catcher trotted to the mound the catcher then called in all of the players to the mound a spectator asked Dad if if he should go out to the mound too Dad replied that he trusted the boys and he would go out to the mound only if they called for him soon enough the boys broke the Huddle and the game continued he learned later that the pitcher's nerves got the best of him his teammates formed a screen around the bound while the pitcher vomited then the boys kicked dirt over the mess and went back to their positions not a soul in the ballpark knew any of that had happened he was very proud of those boys and he spoke of them often Through The Years dad was also active as a volunteer with Cub Scouts and boy scouts especially when Mom was a den mother not surprisingly we Cub Scouts did a lot of craft projects involving woodworking and Dad endured more than his share of really bad boy scout camp cooking during one memorable outing when I was a Tenderfoot my platoon leader a first class Scout did all the cooking the camp out was in the spring and we woke to a cool morning I was starving the platoon leader cooked what he called big eggs basically beat the eggs dumped them in a skillet that was far too hot and leave them alone until the curd fully set of course they were scorched and the first bite nearly made me puke but I was so hungry I grabbed the ketchup bottle and poured it on Dad saw me wolfing down those eggs and figured he better get over and get some too he nearly lost it with the first bite but did not show it big eggs became a long running joke in our family but I also experienced dad cooking a camp breakfast on his ancient Coleman stove for about a dozen weelo Scouts and their dad dads I remember as a 10-year-old boy watching dad prepare that meal and I felt so incredibly proud of him and proud to be his son dad also served as a volunteer firefighter my brothers and I remember the sound of his old 1960 F100 straight 6 three on the tree winding up for each gear screaming away towards the fire station that must have been quite a rough ride over Union streets rough bricks along with his devotion and service to his family friends and Community Willie engaged in a lifetime of silliness one summer day a few years ago dad's grandsons were visiting pardon me Dad's great-grandsons were visiting they were out in the yard having a water fight great grandpa Willie surprised everyone when he stepped outside brandishing a fully loaded Super Soaker water gun he used his Superior Firepower to quickly subdue the boys we have no idea why or how in his late 80s dad obtained a Super Soaker dad gave his grandchildren their first Driving Experience while visiting Grandma and Grandpa blue in Stafford this became an important write a passage for them just it has been had been for my brothers and me as with his own children grandchildren and great-grandchildren any baby who made eye contact with Willie received his signature quack in return usually evoking a smile and a giggle dad enjoyed engaging curious children who might wander onto a job site Dennis and Linda seys reminded me just last evening of Dad giving their then 5-year-old son John pile of scrap Lumber to build whatever he wanted and just a few days ago I received a message from Dale L remembering dad when he was part of the crew building an addition to the L home in 1960 Dale wrote I'd have been a nearly seven or eighty old um I was fascinated by the whole process probably had a thousand questions I remember his kindness and his patience we also remember the Devotion to his friends particularly his longtime crime Partners in crime Don Allison and J Jones for a lot of years dad Don and John fished together at Stafford Lake and had weekend fishing trips to Lake Wilson or lake kopoulos Don and John were great role models for my brothers and me watching the three of them together showed us the importance of developing and maintaining close friendships even as we grew into adults fighting the Battle of Southern California in the 1950s meant there were beach parties mom and dad met with their Marine Corps friends in Huntington Beach many Sunday afternoons dad spoke fondly of the friends he made in the in the service and attended numerous reunions with them around the Midwest in the 1980s and 1990s while in the Marine Corps dad skills as a carpenter prompted some radar O'Reilly moments as several officers approached him to build things like high chairs and ader de Furniture in the base in the base carpenter shop dad said he really liked the Adon chair plan one Captain brought in so he cut out enough material for two the second eventually made its way back to Sylvia Kansas it was was enjoyed for many years by our Grandpa Ed we remember one particular Halloween party when with the Cub Scouts when Dad truly went above and beyond mom made a little a mom made a Little Orphan Annie costume for him to wear red dress white bloomers curly wig with the lenses of his glasses covered with white paper and narrow slits to see through no one knew who Annie was he sidled he sidled up close to Walt Coots uh Walt and Lina lived across the street from us and were dear friends wal didn't recognize dad wanted no part of the oversized Annie and immediately stood up and hustled away Willie loved every second of being Little Orphan an dad was good at pulling pranks but he was equally able to enjoy being pranked one of his favorite stories begins with him trying to prank Margie Milton he put a fake parking ticket on her car not long after she first got her driver's license for Dad's next birthday Margie dropped by the house with a beautifully decorated birthday cake Al although the icing was real the cake was just a big block of Styrofoam oh how Dad loved to tell that story as young men dad offered my brothers and me opportunities to learn about the relationship between excellence and integrity from our boy scout days with Dad we remembered the last task when breaking Camp is to police the site we were to make sure we left nothing behind dad had an amazing ability to find whatever we had overlooked it was usually easy to make sure we picked up everything we brought but Dad insisted we' pick up anything left by previous campers this is a ritual we still follow when camping today one of the more poignant lessons for me on the relationship between excellence and integrity came the first summer I worked for Dad I was home from college and the main project for the summer was to build a hog farrowing house for Dennis and Linda sea keys I was sent to the roof to install four long ridge vents along the peak of the roof dad did not agree with the way I was going about it he insisted that all four events be precisely lined up each with the next and all with the building I protested by saying it's just a hog house that was the wrong thing to say Dad pointed to the far end of the field east of the job site and said sooner or later Dennis is going to be out there swathing or bailing hay and when he turns around at the far end of the field he will be lined up exactly with the roof line and he will see those vents are crooked and then he will see it every time he looks at that building that lesson of always doing it right whether hog house or Mansion is is one that was was hard to learn and much harder to live by but that was the Mantra straight level Plum Square carpentry does have its moments of perfection but for the carpenter Perfection is hidden among the expected dad did a small project on the church parsonage it had a flat roof over the back entrance that was prone to leaking dad's solution was to cover the flat roof with a sloping roof he sent the bill to the church board and they responded by saying they were not sure if they should pay him because they couldn't tell whether he'd actually done anything the sloping roof looked like it had always been there and was always meant to be there Perfection hidden among the expected there is so much that a carpenter does perfectly that is simply not seen and therefore not appreciated although there are so many wonderful things we can say about Willie we also acknowledge that there is likely so much more Perfection that we simply don't know about the Perfection hidden among the expected straight level Plum Square thank you I love that I loved it as much this time time I heard you say it so thank you thank you yeah that's awesome it's it's always just to to read that again um brings back a lot of memories and and a lot of feelings and um and it it means a lot to me to be able to share that um it's an honor to do that for Willie yeah thank you Roger I really I so appreciate it yeah I so appreciate it and um yeah so thank you um I'm a little bit emotional um so I'm a little bit I'm a little turned off right now but um I'll just say like um you know I I I listen to that and like I listen to it as a daughter um I listen to it as somebody in a community I listen to it as um you know again serving this this industry and this trade and and uh and I just you know I I love that you know it's uh it was really clear that your dad took a lot of Pride Willie took a lot of pride what it that he did and um he wasn't willing to compromise on that um and he was a very fun and Humane person in the process right yes yeah could be playful and um and uh yeah just very down to earth all at the same time so yeah yeah it's a good man and he raised an amazing three son and thank you oh gosh thank you um well Dad and and your father-in-law go a long way back um Dad and and Carol were Scout Masters together before I was born so they go back a long long ways yeah yeah yeah another um salt of the earth good human being who I yeah Carol was the best yeah yeah yeah good good man yeah well Roger thank you um I'm I so appreciate you you sharing this again again I know that you know we're on the oneyear anniversary and yeah um it takes courage and uh and a special heart to be willing to come and share this story so thank you and thanks again everybody for being here today and listening or watching if you're on YouTube and make sure to um join or subscribe below and we'll look forward to seeing you next time on the propit Builder unscripted