Featured Employee - Darrell Klander

Darrell Klander is our Featured Employee for this week. He came to work for G&H on March 31, 1993, in our Shipping & Receiving Department. He is currently the Supervisor of that department and the forklift training manager.

Darrell was born and raised in Houston, Texas. That makes him an original Houstonian! There are not a whole lot of us around you know. I'd be interested in seeing how many other G&H employees were born and raised in Houston (leave a comment).

Prior to coming to G&H, Darrell worked in the grocery distribution industry. Most of his work was in inventory control and loss prevention. After 22 years of working for two very large companies, Darrell made the decision to leave Corporate America and find another job. This is when he answered a G&H help wanted ad.

As it turns out, G&H had purchased our first laser machine not long before and brought Huffy Bicycle on board. We made the bicycle frame tubes for their new Bonnie Blair model. (Do any of you remember Bonnie Blair, the Olympic speed skater)? In our old pickup truck and pulling a trailer, Darrell and another employee drove our first shipment of Huffy Bicycle frame tubes straight through to Indianapolis. (As a side note, we built our Indianapolis operation a few years later to better service this Huffy account.)

I asked Darrell what he remembers about being hired at G&H. He told me that he interviewed with three people, one of whom was Ed. He said, "The interview with Ed lasted about five minutes and the thing that struck me the most is when he said he expected everyone to work hard and be ever willing to change and adapt to what G&H needed." He further said that the thing he likes best about working for G&H is being a part of what G&H has accomplished.

Darrell has been married to his wife, Betty, for 20 years. They have three children - a son, Brian (38), a daughter Christi (35) and a daughter Leti (21). They are also blessed with two grandsons - Alek (13) and Chase (10). Darrell said that he and Betty do everything together. Last year they even renewed their wedding vows! He and Betty took the pastor who originally married them and his wife to eat in Kemah and afterwards, dressed in cutoff jeans and t-shirts, they went down by the water and renewed their vows.

When I asked Darrell if there is anything people would be surprised to know about him, he said, "I read the Bible every day." (Hmmm, I really am not surprised to hear that!) Darrell's hobbies and outside interests include golf, yard work, reading and camping.

I hope you will join me in thanking Darrell Klander for his 15+ years of service and dedication to G&H!

Featured Employee - Gary Carter

Gary Carter came to work for G&H Houston on February 8, 1993. He is the Manufacturing Manager for our Indianapolis operation and is in charge of Engineering, Maintenance and just about anything else that needs troubleshooting!

Gary was born and raised in Beloit, Ohio, on a dairy farm. Not knowing my Ohio geography very well, I went on-line and found out that Beloit is in Mahoning County, which is 21 miles southwest of Youngstown and 54 miles southeast of Cleveland. As of the 2000 census, Beloit had 1,024 people – that is really small!

I asked Gary what he liked best about growing up on a dairy farm. I thought he would say “milking cows,” but instead said, “For farm work I would say running the tractors, plowing, planting and mowing the hay. For play it would be riding my dirt bike.”

My next question was what brought him to Houston? He said that his older sister already lived here and she talked him into coming down to look for a job. It was the month of January (in northeastern Ohio) when he was making this decision, so thoughts of a warmer climate helped him make up his mind! (That made me laugh because Ed and I love Indianapolis, and when we take a trip there in January, we remember why we don’t live there!)

So Gary moved to Houston, saw our ad for help and came to interview. He was offered a job and was excited when, shortly thereafter, he was asked to run a laser. He loved the newer technology and mastered it quickly. When we opened our new manufacturing facility in Indianapolis in 1996, Gary relocated there to head up the programming and engineering. I remember giving him an electric blanket as a going away gift!

Gary has a 21-year old daughter, Jessica, who recently graduated from the Army National Guard as a certified medic and will begin her junior year at college in the fall. He is married to an awesome lady, Tracy, and they have a border collie and two cats. Gary has been with Tracy for 11 years and they were married two years ago.

Gary’s outside interests and hobbies include woodworking, CNC hobby machine building and traveling to aviation air shows specializing in old war birds.

Ed told me that Gary is one of the best engineers he has ever worked with and that he has a lot of practical, common sense. Please join me in thanking Gary for his 15+ years of service at G&H!