As Beverly was entering her senior year in college in 1972, I was moving to Greensboro as Region Sales Manager. Beverly decided to stay with my Mom in Edgewood for her last year. It was amazing how well they got along and how happy my Mom was that she was staying there. Mom really loved Beverly and would do absolutely anything for her.
Blain had a fit when he found we were moving. He had all his friends at G. L. H. Johnson School and wanted no part of North Carolina. After moving, however, he loved it. He immediately got into Little League ball and discovered an entire new group of friends. The first time I took him to play ball, the umpire did not show and I was asked to call the game from behind the pitcher’s mound since there was no mask available. I reluctantly agreed and for the first time in my life, called a ball game. After calling one little leaguer out on strikes, he was very disappointed and as he passed me on the way to the outfield, he said, “It is obvious that you are not a professional umpire.” My response was, “It is just as obvious that you are not a professional ball player.” Perhaps I was a little harsh with him, but felt at the time, he deserved it.
We found a lovely home in Forest Oaks Estates near the Golf Club. As luck would have it our next-door neighbor, Raymond Oskey was also from Danville and we became the best of friends. Raymond was in the printing business in Greensboro. Raymond passed away in March 2005 at his retirement home in Gladys, Virginia. He was a fine person and will be missed by his family and friends alike.
I had the responsibility for sales in all the Greensboro, Winston Salem, High Point, Burlington and Danville Coca-Cola franchised areas. It was a real responsibility and I had only one person to assist me. It was not too difficult since I only had responsibility for industrial food service accounts. This was different from my responsibilities in Virginia since I had both sales and operations. It seemed like a good thing since I would be able to concentrate on only one major factor and sales had always been my forte.
Soon after arrival in Greensboro, I was summoned to a meeting in Charley Bagley’s office. Charlie was Bob’s boss and seemed concerned about the Venezuela trip sponsored by Vendo. His concern was not that there was anything wrong with it, but whether or not I took it when maybe some one else was entitled to it. He felt that since Harwell Stovall was the Coca-Cola Manager in Danville and Coca-Cola Danville had an agreement regarding purchases of Vending machines for Fieldcrest Mills, then perhaps Harwell should have been the one to get the trip. I simply told him to ask Roger Wilkes who happened to be their largest Coca-Cola customer and let him decide if Harwell should have made the trip. If they had asked Roger, I am certain they would not have liked his answer.
With this meeting in mind and remembering the announcement at the Holiday Inn and the way it was done, I began seeking other options after my arrival in Greensboro. I visited Hickory, North Carolina and was interviewed by George Murphy, district general manager for the Hickory Servomation operation, which was one of the largest operations in North Carolina. George arranged a flight to Atlanta for a meeting with John S. L. Brown, Vice President for the Southern Region for Servomation. This area did more that $100,000,000 in annual sales and I was most excited about the opportunities I would have with a company this size. After the interview, which I concluded went well, I returned to Greensboro and continued my duties.
During this period of time, Beverly graduated from college and accepted a teaching assignment on the Eastern Shore. I rented a trailer and Barbara and I followed her down to help her get settled in her rental mobile home. She seemed quite happy to finally be out on her own. I really hated to leave her down there, but realized she had to be on her own someday and this was apparently the day. Beverly taught there for one year and then went to Stuart, Virginia, to teach at Patrick County High School.
While there, she wrote a book that was described as “a book for very special people” and it was. The title was From the Heart Through the Lens. She co-authored it with Ann Fulcher, a Patrick County resident, and it was filled with beautiful poetry and scenic pictures.
Following is a news release regarding Beverly and Ann’s book.
After several years of teaching at Patrick County, she bought six acres of land on the back-side of Bull Mountain and built a beautiful mountain chalet.
Figure 46 - Beverly's home on Bull Mountain in Patrick Springs, VA
Over the next few years, she obtained her Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University at Richmond. I am so proud of all she has accomplished and she did it all on her own.
After moving to Greensboro, I was really impressed with the facilities provided by Southeast Vendors. We had a good set-up on the 2nd floor of the Coca-Cola plant. This included a suite of four offices, one for me, one for John and one for Bob with the other for our shared secretary. They never worked on Saturdays in Greensboro, which was a wonderful change from Danville. The pay was also much better and they seemed to appreciate good performance.
In October 1972, the National Vending Convention was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and was attended by Bob Kochli, John Czerwinski and me. As we arrived we ran in to Ernest Merrell, Vice President of Carolina Coin Caterers, Inc. This was the Vending Company of the Charlotte, North Carolina Coca-Cola Company and was a huge operation. They did about four times the volume of Greensboro and Danville combined. Ernest requested that we have a meeting that evening since he wanted to share some news with us. Bob and John immediately began speculating as to what he had to tell us. They were fairly new with the company and naturally had some concerns about their future.
They were both very upset when they found that Charlotte had just made a deal to purchase all our operations. I really had no concerns regarding this since I have always had faith in what I was capable of doing and if you do your best you will be successful and should not have all those worries. In any case, I was not concerned because I was expecting to hear from Servomation at anytime and for me, it could not come too soon.
One of the first things Charlotte Coca-Cola did was to name me a vice president. This seemed to have upset John since he remarked that having so many vice presidents minimized the value to the title. My response was that it was better to be one of many than none of a few.
Around the middle of June 1973, I received a memo from Jimmy Johnson, president of 4-Cs, instructing me to attend a meeting in his office on June 30 at 10:30 a.m. The meeting was to last about 15 minutes and I could then return to Greensboro. It so happened that as I finished reading it, Bob walked by on the way to his office. I asked him to stop in, showed him the memo and asked if he knew anything about it. He said, “No, but notice that it is at the end of the pay period; maybe they’re trying to tell you something.” I replied that he may be right, but who cared. Bob went on to his office and moments later asked me to come in there. I did and he said, “Look, I got one also, but my meeting is at 10:00 instead of 10:30.” My response to that was, “Bob, remember that is the end of the pay period, maybe they’re trying to tell you something.” The purpose of the meeting was to fire Bob at 10:00 and tell the rest of us at 10:30. After the meeting on June 30, Bob was fired and left before John and I could see him. When we returned to Greensboro, we went by his house and never before had I witnessed such animosity as he showed against Jimmy Johnson. This was really nothing strange to Jimmy for he was accustomed to making tough decisions and taking the heat for it. It was difficult to blame Bob and his wife Dottie for their ill feelings towards Jimmy since they had made a major move to North Carolina with a lot of promises that they now realized would fall by the wayside.
Shields Harvey was named the replacement for Bob Kochli’s job and John Czerwinski was furious. He and Bob had a special relationship and he didn’t want anything to mess that up. He felt he could handle Bob and do as he pleased. Shields Harvey was a good friend of mine who was from the Raleigh/Durham area and had been with Durham Coca-Cola for many years prior to joining the Raleigh Coca-Cola group.
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