The COVID lockdown has given many of us an opportunity to declutter, edit our personal belongings, and revisit accumulated detritus of our lives. I began by “watching” Marla go through household items, deciding what to keep or donate. I thought “two can play this game” and started going through my 100,000 + digital images and photographs. My Marie Kondo-esque project took a major detour as I revisited my old Wesco Fabrics’ files. One would think we should be blissful retirees after selling our business in 2017. Well, we usually are, but reading past correspondence and board meeting notes dredged up many memories of an often stressful, and at times, dysfunctional family business. Our story could be a novel or a TV movie like a micro version of the TV show “Succession.”

This cautionary tale of a closely held family business really began with the kindness of my father-in-law, Harry Weiss, who founded Wesco Fabrics with his wife, Joline in 1946. See my post “Reminiscing On Our Life In The Decorative Fabric Business…Part 1“. Harry was without doubt one of the most principled persons I have met, always acting with honesty and with fairness. He liked to have relatives, son-in-laws and three daughters working for the company. As in many family businesses some people came to the party with strong talents while many did not. It was a hotbed of nepotism and one year there were over 9 family members working at the company.

I wish Harry had received more visionary advice about the gifting of company stock over the years to relatives. Some were active employees and some did not work for the company. This was exacerbated by a sense of entitlement, jealousies, and fights for…power. I wish I had learned the intricacies of managing family members as president of the company!

I developed shingles from the stress. When Harry passed away in 1986 and Joline opted to sell her stock in a company buyback the same year, suddenly I became head of operations, receivables, payables, sales and marketing, and buying while unable to hire the help I needed with so much money going to buyouts. We had 22 sales reps and 23 showrooms carrying our line. It was trial by fire and I was feeling the heat!

Marla’s entry into Wesco Fabrics was needed in 1989. She was president of a number of non-profit organizations, ran 2 of her own businesses and had strong analytical and administrative skill sets. She researched areas of loss to determine the profit of each of our satellite warehouses and showrooms in Dallas, Irvine, and Columbus, Ohio with many resultant changes. We opened the Denver Design Center showroom. She also worked on something revolutionary in our company, actually asking family employees, “What job would you REALLY want to have in the company to make a difference.”

Marla followed Harry’s hiring of many immigrants through the years to help them adjust to the U.S. and to help us. This was a great program, but we had wars between legal and illegal immigrants from Mexico. (We were not allowed to check their status if they had identification at that time.) Bosnians and Serbs brought their war to work. A recently paroled employee threatened me with words concerning his prison experiences as I escorted him out the door. Marla hid a young seamstress under her desk and after calling the police, confronted the girl’s boyfriend outside as he arrived knife in hand to “kill the girl”.

And then the family. Somehow we weathered the storms of a hostile company takeover attempt led by extended family members, a suicide, a forced buyout, a buyout of a shareholder not supporting Wesco’s future…and an ex-employee family member who committed murder then suicide! Someone should write the book! Looking back it was a small miracle we could keep marching! Without Marla’s dedication, 24/7 work ethic, and competency we wouldn’t have made it!

In 2016 we received a buyout feeler from a competitor, RM Coco. Marla and I had thought about possibly selling a few times over the years but now had to make some serious decisions. We hired an experienced business broker to manage the process. After almost a year of on again, off again, back on again negotiations we sold the business in 2017, keeping the real estate to sell later. The day we closed was one of the happiest and also one of the saddest days ever! Hours before the closing Marla didn’t want to do it, but then decided it was for the best for all. We had managed the business alone for the previous ten years, none of the next generation wanted to step in, and the industry was changing as we were aging. The non-active family stockholders were very happy for their payout! The image above is a celebratory closing dinner hosted by our daughter Lisa who was a board member.

With our Denver warehouse on the market we had the herculean one year task of getting the building cleaned out and sold. This was a time consuming task of taking down thousand of shelves, cleaning out offices, disposing of everything left behind by the new owners of Wesco when they moved it to Missouri, and making it showable to prospective buyers. Finding good people to help?? A theft and cashing of checks from Marla’s office provided a year of police investigation and never enough to solve it. How about the crew that fell through the ceiling in an attempt to break into the vault? Yes, that is Marla attempting to stain an area of the floor.

Getting crews to dismantle thousands of steel nut and bolt shelving was the hardest part of our warehouse cleanout!

So many memories of our life at Wesco Fabrics.

The entry way where thousands of customers and business associates came into the building over many years. Our 19th century Burmese Buddha pavilion will be displayed in the new Asian art galleries of the remodeled Denver Art Museum this summer.

This was my office a few months before the building sold. My assistants’ office was next door. To be honest, it was never this neat!

Our last bittersweet day in the warehouse. We have a large storage unit with company records until 2024. “Sigh!” Thank you Marla for all your hard work! 74,000 + square feet of empty warehouse.

Well, I have taken you on a tangent haven’t I? I can now happily leave the drama of the past to focus on the clean-out and organization of my stuff at home. The image above is like some of my stress dreams of the task of decluttering!

I really should rent a tree shredder to get rid of stuff to be thrown out!

The decluttering continues at my somewhat snail’s pace. It is so easy to get lost in memory as I pull up an archived photo of the past. Yes, we definitely had challenges and stress during our days at Wesco Fabrics, but on balance it was truly a great adventure! I’ll borrow a phrase from the Grateful Dead, “Oh what a long strange trip it’s been!”

Photos: Dick Gentry. Not to be used without permission.