WPI Daily Herd: Winter social for Worcester chapter of Association for Women in Science

AWIS Holiday Social
Posted Dec. 7, 2015 in "Events"

Worcester chapter of Association for Women in Science to hold holiday social today

Networking in any profession is crucial – not only to connect peers within the same industries and with the same interests, but to spread knowledge and awareness about the newest achievements, advancements, and career opportunities in their respective disciplines.

I, personally, really underestimated the power of networking,” says Natalie Farny, an assistant teaching professor in biology and technology at WPI. One of the most critical aspects of the process, she says, is “meeting people who you didn’t even know whose help you needed. It will really come back to you later.”

To that end, last winter, WPI launched a Worcester affiliate group of the national Association for Women in Science (AWIS). Farny serves as chair for the group, which has since amassed a mailing list of 120 local female professionals, and has also hosted various events on different topics over the last 12 months.

The chapter will celebrate its anniversary with a holiday social from 4 to 6 p.m. today at Higgins House. The goal is to introduce the group, talk about its successes and goals, and solicit help from the larger community.

So far, “response has been great,” says Farny. “Attendance at events has been really strong.”

The organization has a state-affiliated chapter in Boston, but female WPI faculty, under the direction of Peterson Family Dean of Arts and Sciences Karen Kashmanian Oates, launched in the hopes of having more local representation.

So far, the group has held career workshops based around work-life balance and leveraging STEM skills to manage personal issues, and has also offered webinars on topics such as gender bias in the STEM industries.

The group’s next event, “New Year, New Plan,” will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. On Jan. 20 in the Hagglund Room of the Rubin Campus Center. Farny will offer an informal presentation with Patricia Stapleton, director of WPI’s Society, Technology, and Policy Program and assistant teaching professor in social science and policy studies, on the importance of developing a five-year career plan.

Although so far many of the participants have been professional women from WPI and UMass, overall, Farny explains, “the target is not just academia, but professional women in science and engineering at all career stages. We’re hoping to include as many people as we can from the area.”

Looking ahead, one goal is to offer more scientifically focused events, such as a seminar series, symposiums, and data clubs—in addition to continuing with career development programming. Another goal is to ascend to the status of a full-fledged chapter, which would incorporate a charter, dues collection, and a more formal overall organization structure.

“For that we need a lot of help,” says Farny, stressing the importance of volunteers to take up leadership roles within the group. “There’s a lot of interest in it, but we just really need people to make it happen.”

To learn more, contact Farny at nfarny@wpi.edu. Visit the national AWIS website at awis.site-ym.com.

– BY TARYN PLUMB

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WPI Daily Herd: The Barefoot Spirit

Foisie Series

Nov. 11, 2015 in “Events”

Entrepreneurship speakers to share lessons learned in Foisie Business School series

It all began in the cramped space of a laundry room in a rented California farmhouse.

Like many entrepreneurs, Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey started out with just a little bit of money and a dream.

Thirty years later, their kernel of an idea – tweaked, tinkered with, and fostered over the days and decades – has blossomed into one of the country’s most successful wine labels, Barefoot.

The industrious couple came into the wine market with barely any prior industry experience – so for them, entrepreneurship has been about evolving, giving back, and constantly learning from (often constant) mistakes.

Today, since selling their brand to California-headquartered E&J Gallo Winery, they share their compelling story through speaking engagements, training, and consulting.

This week, they will talk about their entrepreneurial successes and failures at WPI as part of the Robert A. Foisie School of Business’ Entrepreneurship Speaker series.

The events are made possible through an ongoing grant from the Coleman Foundation catering to faculty member entrepreneurship fellows.

The goal is to “just trigger ideas for these faculty members who are not in business, but who recognize that their students are going to go on to become entrepreneurs or innovators,” said Frank Hoy, Paul Beswick professor of entrepreneurship and director of the Collaborative for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. “Innovation and entrepreneurship is one of President Laurie Leshin’s initiatives. This is all part of WPI’s mission.”

Houlihan and Harvey will offer three programs spanning Thursday and Friday that will focus on branding, marketing and innovation, management, and taking a brand global.

According to Hoy, the Coleman Foundation Faculty Entrepreneurship Fellows Program is aimed at faculty members whose main disciplines are outside the business school. Currently there are 14 fellows, he said, whose areas of expertise range from arts and humanities, to chemical engineering, to robotics.

Although the event is prioritized for fellows, the public is welcome to attend, Hoy said.

Previous speakers in the series have included Miroslav Pivoda, innovation consultant from the Czech Republic; Benyamin Lichtenstein of UMass Boston; and German economist Alexander Koeberle-Schmid. Future planned speakers will include Candida Brush, vice provost of Global Entrepreneurial Leadership at Babson College, and Nitin Sanghavi, a professor of retail marketing and strategy at Manchester Business School in England.

This week’s event with Houlihan and Harvey, meanwhile, came about when Hoy met the couple and heard them speak at the annual conference of the United States Association for Small business and Entrepreneurship.

“I was fascinated by their story, I was fascinated by them personally,” Hoy said, describing them as having “great personalities,” and being “really open, wanting to share, wanting to help other people.”

“Their venture from the beginning was designed not just to be a moneymaker, but to have a social impact,” he said.

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey will offer three events this week

–“Branding, Marketing and Innovation,” 6 to 7 p.m., Thursday, Salisbury Laboratories room 411.

–“Going Global,” 10 to 11 a.m., Friday, Salisbury Laboratories room 011.

–“Management: The 3 Core Competencies,” Noon to 1 p.m., Friday, Washburn Shops and Stoddard Laboratories room 229.

Visit their website at http://thebarefootspirit.com.

According to their bio, the couple started the Barefoot label in 1986, nearly going bankrupt in their first few years of business. But by learning to adapt and employ various innovative methods, they worked through obstacles and established new markets for their brand. Along the way, they also emphasized performance-based compensation and what they call “worthy cause marketing,” or supporting nonprofits that represent equal rights and environmental causes.

Since selling their brand to E&J Gallo in 2005, they have spoken across the country, received numerous entrepreneurship awards, and authored the bestselling books, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand, and The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways to Engage and Empower Your People.

“They got into a business and industry that they didn’t know,” said Hoy. “They made every mistake that an entrepreneur could make. But they didn’t make the same mistake twice. They went on, recovered, and persevered.”

Ultimately, he stressed, their story offers numerous examples of how entrepreneurs in all areas can mess up along the way, but in the end “still survive, still succeed, still accomplish goals.”

– BY TARYN PLUMB

November/December Artscope: Naoe Suzuki at UMass Lowell

Water, Water, Everywhere?

Nov/Dec 2015

Naoe Suzuki’s Thirst For Awareness

by Taryn Plumb

Especially in first-world countries, water is a resource that’s very often taken for granted – it comes out of the tap, streams out of the shower, is poured into plastic bottles and driven in by the pallet-full on the back of diesel- belching trucks.

In her latest body of work, Tokyo-born artist Naoe Suzuki strives for viewers to reassess and deeply contemplate their relationship with water – in all its forms. Her works – rendered on equally fragile paper – incorporate tracings of various water bodies alongside symbolic cutouts and whimsical collage.

“Most of us never think about it, because water is always here,” said the Waltham-based artist, who came to the states more than 30 years ago as an exchange student. Quoting the Emily Dickinson poem, “Water, is Taught by Thirst,” she stressed that there is no such thing as “always,” and that water is not free or in the condition that some of us assume it to be. “We only think of things after they’re gone,” she said.

Suzuki’s ruminations on the status of water will be displayed in the exhibit, “In Solidarity” through November 25 at UMass Lowell’s University Gallery. The show features 17 pieces, both paper works and installations, focusing on the themes of water supply and scarcity, contamination and pollution.

To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Click here to find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.

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November/December Artscope: Carol Gove at Regis College

Carol Gove at Regis

Nov/Dec 2015

A Continued Dialogue with Paint

by Taryn Plumb

For Carol Gove, it’s all about the dynamism, the fluidity and the lively play between texture, lines and shapes.

“It’s the back and forth between collage and paint, of push and pull, as you’re working,” explained the Peterborough, N.H.-based collage artist, originally trained as a graphic designer. “It’s kind of a continued dialogue, a discussion with the painting as you’re creating it.”

Her charismatic, thought-provoking work will be on display in “Continuum” from November 9 through January 22 at the Carney Gallery at Regis College in Weston. The one-woman show will highlight close to two dozen pieces of mixed- media collage on panel, as well as traditional paper collage, spanning the last four years. Gove, whose artist’s reception will be held on December 6 from noon to 3 p.m., said she particularly sought to emphasize the evolution of her craft over a period of time.

“It will feature different bodies of work, with the unifying theme of mixed- media collage and abstract expression,” she explained. “Viewers will be able to see how the work has changed and grown.”

To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue!Click here to find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.

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From the Archives: Annual Houdini Seance (2011)

In Holyoke, a Halloween seance to rouse Houdini

By Taryn Plumb GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

NOVEMBER 03, 2011

HOLYOKE - The council of 12 clasped hands, closed their eyes, breathed deeply, and waited.

The room became tomb-silent. The air began to chill. And then, the dead spoke.

Note to you skeptics out there: Please suspend your disbelief.)

Ropes, locks, webs of chains, straitjackets: Harry Houdini defied just about every worldly restraint he could while in the air, underwater, upside-down, crammed into milk cans, or tied to pillars.

And, as evidenced by a ritual seance held every Halloween night for more than three-quarters of a century, some believe the escape artist has the ability to spurn his otherworldly confines as well.

Since he died at 52 on Oct. 31, 1926, Houdini’s family, friends, and fans have ceaselessly tried to rouse the legendary showman and magician from the dead. This Halloween, the 85th year, they once again attempted the feat at the Wistariahurst Museum, welcoming, among other guests, the mute magician Teller, and local female escape artist Alexanderia the Great.

“We all want to think anything is possible,’’ said Roger Dreyer, a New York City-based magician who was part of this year’s paranormal tradition on the cold, crescent-mooned Halloween night.

Every year, they gather for the invitation-only, private event - magicians, historians, enthusiasts, and the curious. Officiated by members of what is known as “the inner circle,’’ the Official Houdini Seance (they’re so serious about it they’ve trademarked it) - carries on a tradition begun by Houdini’s widow, Bess. Over the years, it’s been held in cities large and small - Salem, Hollywood, New York, Las Vegas, Toronto, London - each with some sort of connection to Houdini.

Holyoke was the setting for the supernatural ceremony this year in honor of Sidney Radner, who lived in town and earned the nickname “Mr. Houdini’’ thanks to his lifelong dedication to the mystifier. (Houdini actually performed in Holyoke in the 1890s, before he became the man of legend.) A mentor of Houdini’s brother Hardeen - also a sleight-of-hand showman - Radner died in June at 91.

“Houdini brought us all together; that’s part of his magic,’’ said Fred Pittella, a Houdini historian from New York City.

As for encounters with the maestro of metamorphosis? Some who’ve been attending the seances for years described unexplained drafts and shoulders being brushed.

Filmmaker Gene Gamache, who came to Holyoke from Burbank, Calif., recalled how one year his watch stopped.

“It was an antique watch,’’ he said, with a laugh.

Gamache has been to more than a dozen seances, and is so dedicated to Houdini that he directed a mid-1990s documentary in his name.

Dreyer, meanwhile, described hearing “unusual sounds, unusual currents.’’ Still, the co-owner of Fantasma Magic toy shop in New York said with a shrug: “It could be coincidence. Who knows? No one can ever say.’’

And no one’s going to stop trying.

“I’m always going to keep an open mind,’’ said Pittella, who’s been coming to the seances for 15 years and collects handcuffs and memorabilia from both Houdini and his competitors and imitators. “We’re just waiting for it to happen.’’

And this year, something may have - if you believe in this sort of thing.

Late Monday night, after a dangerous underwater cell escape by Alexanderia the Great - an homage that took about 30 seconds - the 12 members of the inner circle gathered at a round table in a marble-columned, Italian Renaissance-style room.

The lights were dimmed. Set in front of the participants were candles, two sets of Houdini’s handcuffs, a bust, and a miniature model of his water torture cell. Silent spectators sat all around.

Medium Kandisa Calhoun led the flirtation with the unknown. Between deep breaths, she asked that the circle members join hands and that the onlookers close their eyes and think “complete, pure thoughts.’’

“I’m calling you Ehrich Weiss [Houdini’s real name],’’ she intoned in the silent room, quietly and tentatively at first, then louder and fiercer. “In the name of everything pure and real, in the name of the angels, I call you.’’

After a few seconds of heavy breathing, opening and closing her eyes, and subtle head movements, Calhoun looked around, seemingly bewildered, allegedly channeling Houdini himself. She went around the table, asking everyone to say a few words about what they wanted with Houdini and why they were there.

“I know some of your souls,’’ she said. “I don’t know you by your faces.’’

Later, when the lights were undimmed and the lines between the dead and the living were no longer blurred, some spectators mused about a subtle flickering of lights during the ceremony, and a spooky feedback noise from hearing aids.

“He wanted to believe,’’ Dreyer said of Houdini. “We all want to believe.’’

For more on the seance and Houdini, visit www.theofficialhoudiniseance.com.

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Apprentices in Demand

SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

Labor demographics highlight need for apprenticeship programs

TARYN PLUMB

SPECIAL TO THE WORCESTER BUSINESS JOURNAL

Existing in some form or another for thousands of years, apprenticeships are about as old as the concept of work itself; they are the method by which novices have mastered the literal building blocks of society.

And even still, when college degrees are touted as one of the 21st century's steadiest paths to gainful employment, apprenticeships – learning on the job – remain relevant.

With the combination of a consistent pipeline of infrastructure and building projects and an aging workforce, skilled trades continue to demand and actively court apprentices.

According to a 2013 report by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, there will be a shortfall of 5 million workers with post-secondary education and training by the year 2020.

"In the next five to 10 years, there's going to be a mass exodus – we're going to be losing people with 20, 30 years of experience," said David Minasian, organizer with the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. The average age of a carpenter, he noted, is 45. "We need to train the next generation now so that when that exodus happens, we have a skilled workforce that is competitive and can meet the demands of an ever-changing industry," Minasian said.

That begins, simply, with awareness.

Minasian and others stressed the various benefits of skilled trades, which encompass a wide swath including carpentry, bricklaying, plumbing, electrical, IT and – more recently as it regains a foothold in the United States – manufacturing.

Speaking of his industry in particular, training director Mark Kuenzel of Local 7 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Springfield emphasized a "good retirement, better pay, better education, local representation, a safer workplace."

Electricians in training start at about $15 an hour, moving up to $26-plus while apprenticing, Kuenzel said, before ascending to a journeyman's wage of $38 per hour.

Minasian agreed about the potential of carpentry apprenticeship programs, saying, "In four years, you can have a middle-class career."

Programs originated in 1930s

According to the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning public policy research and advocacy organization, a formal, registered system of apprenticeships was created by the National Apprenticeship Act in 1937. Apprenticeships last between one and six years, depending on the industry, and include 2,000 hours of on-the-job-learning and at least 144 hours of classroom-based instruction. A certificate of completion – serving as a portable, nationally recognized credential – is issued after all thresholds have been crossed.

The New England Regional Council of Carpenters has about 60 apprentices in Worcester County, according to Minasian. Over a four-year-long process, they work on-site, and also receive training at the New England Carpenters Training Center in Millbury.

Prospective electricians, meanwhile, spend five years working 40-hour weeks and participating in 1,000 hours of education, according to Kuenzel.

Recruitment, he said, includes holding regular informational sessions, and constantly networking with vocational schools, colleges, community groups and employers.

Preparing for the future is also about consistent investment, Minasian noted. For example, he said, the Millbury training center has 14 new welding shops under construction, and apprentices are constantly apprised of the newest energy efficiency and green building tactics.

Proactivity is also key

"We're definitely bumping up to replace the numbers that are leaving," Kuenzel said, stressing, "We always tell our young apprentices: 'Learn all you can from the old-timers.' "

Over the past few years, an IBEW apprenticeship training committee has been systematically taking in larger apprenticeship classes – between 18 and 25, Kuenzel said, compared with 12 to 18 in the past. Every year, the committee holds five informational sessions that attract 400 to 500 prospects. And ultimately, he noted an overall increased interest in trades.

"The quality of candidates we're getting is very good," he said.

Better training, better trainees

Stressing a higher caliber of students due to both stellar vocational school programs and early- or mid-career changers, Minasian agreed that "we are getting a record amount of applicants."

But going forward, much more can be done, said Susan Mailman, board member of the Massachusetts Apprenticeship Advisory Council, and fourth-generation owner and president of Coghlin Electrical Contractors and Coghlin Network Services, both in Worcester.

Community colleges and manufacturers can concurrently build curriculum, and industries can begin reaching out to students at a younger age through such efforts as pre-apprenticeship programs, she said. Also, the city, contractors and skilled workers can forge partnerships that can help all parties – for example, establishing requirements that certain projects have a minimum apprenticeship ratio.

"We talk a lot about economic development, pushing the city forward," said Mailman. "We can do it in conjunction with workforce development."

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September/October Artscope: Shared Sensibilities

Shared Sensibilities

Sept/Oct 2015

THE POWER OF MUSIC ROLLS ON

by Taryn Plumb

Black ink dances up and down, left and right, intertwining in loops, ridges, curlicues, arcs, waves and pirouettes. Dark solitary streaks bob frenetically or lackadaisically and flatten out. Clusters of lines bunch tight together and then release in varied contours.

Interspersed between them, following their own systematic patterns, are punched-out holes, rectangular voids of space: short… short… short… pause… long… long… pause. Snippets of verse also accompany at random, beginning, ending and drifting off in mid-thought.

“…had our share, we’ve known the meaning of sorrow, blossoms of…”

“…reason, Jeannine, I dream of lilac time, your eyes the beam…”

Billowing out more than 20 feet, the roughly foot-wide scroll, “Dream in Lilac Time” by Lewiston artist Gail Skudera, is a physical manifestation of lyric and melody. On display at the Bates Mills complex in Lewiston through October 30, it is one of more than two dozen works that interpret, manipulate and alter vintage rolls from self-playing pianos.

As part of “The Piano Roll Project: Shared Sensibilities,” 30 artists painted, drew, wove, sewed, wrote, cut, tore and incorporated collage and repetition as a means to meld abstract and geometric patterns, pastoral scenes and contemporary themes with the enduring power of music. Crafted of continuous rolls of perforated paper, a few measuring as long as 40 feet, they are spread throughout the second floor of the 19th century Bates Mill Complex. Some entwine multiple supportive posts in the rehabbed industrial space; others span their full length along walls and beams; a few drape and dangle from the rustic ceiling.

To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Click here to find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.

Artscope Magazine: History, in juxtapositions

Boughton's American Home
July/August 2015

Opening the Door to the Unexpected

By Taryn Plumb

                                            Wingtips, 2014, pigment inkjet print, 15” x 15”.

Imagine you’re relaxing in your cozy, mid-century modern home. You’ve got a book, a drink, a comfy chaise lounge. And then you look out your living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows.

Where there might normally be a manicured lawn, kids at play or beatific waving neighbors — this is the unblemished post-war 1950s, after all — instead, here is the bottom of the ocean with driftwood, sea ferns nudged by the current, and fish swimming listlessly.

And then suddenly — Damsels in distress! Adventure! Danger! Right outside your windows, two voluptuous, bikini-clad women in peril suddenly appear (one entangled in the undulating arms of a menacing octopus) and three heroic men wielding spears and knives are to the rescue.

To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Click here to find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.

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Artscope Magazine: Visual poet Robert Saunders

Robert Saunders
July/August 2015

Playing By His Own Rules

By Taryn Plumb

                                                        Bake King, No Winner, 2015, antique baking pan, nuts and bolts, glass and wood.

Robert Saunders has never found amusement in other people’s games.

As a kid, for example, he would sit down to Chinese checkers with his grandmother, and although he recalls “hating it,” he would keep playing, just following his own private imaginary strategy. Similarly, in lieu of baseball – the traditional pastime of many boys – he concocted a way to run the bases, score and strike out simply by rolling four dice.

That flouting of conformity and adherence to his own rules translates into his large body of abstract artwork, composed of installations and drawings that the Gardiner, Maine artist refers to as “visual poetry.”

His pieces are composites of intersecting clean lines, crisp shapes, stray numbers and letters, as well as assemblages of various found items. The effect – once the eyes adjust to the mélange – is a unique sort of symmetry, a mode of communication and a game all of his own making.

To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Click here to find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.

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Artscope Magazine: The enduring appeal of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys

It's a Mystery
July/August 2015

The Brush Uncovers Teenage Supersleuths

By Taryn Plumb

                                                                       James Mathewuse, Very Deadly Yours, 1986, pastel on velour paper.

It’s the 1930s. Three stately women in chic slim-fit dresses, heels and finger wave bobs stand clustered at the edge of a lake, inspecting a piece of jewelry.

Flash-forward roughly 30 years, and the same three women are depicted as decidedly younger, more confident and casual, even tomboy-ish — they walk barefoot in the water, button-down shirts tucked into rolled-up jeans.

In the intervening decades, the trio, featured on the cover of the classic Nancy Drew mystery, “The Clue of the Broken Locket,” goes through at least two other transformations that reflect changes in society, values and fashion.

When many of us pick up a book, the cover art is somewhat of an afterthought (even if it’s what initially drew our eye); it’s the goodies inside that we’re after.

But in the upcoming exhibit, “Book Illustration: Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys,” at The Brush Art Gallery and Studios in Lowell, cover art takes its rightful place at the forefront. On display from August 8 to
September 12, the show will feature more than 40 images that have served as the first glimpses into the adventures of the world’s most beloved youth detectives.

To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Click here to find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.

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Family Business Awards: Fuller's of Auburn

FOCUS: FAMILY BUSINESS AWARDS

Fuller Automotive, Auburn: Cars have changed; the name hasn't

BY TARYN PLUMB
SPECIAL TO THE WORCESTER BUSINESS JOURNAL

Fuller Automotive of Auburn knows cars. Now in its fourth generation, the company has been around for nearly as long as gas-powered vehicles have been.

Family patriarch Willis Fuller started out in the early 20th century doing general repairs on horse-driven buggies. But once the inexpensive and easy-to-drive Model T began to gain in popularity around the time of World War I, he saw a great opportunity.

The business, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2014, has since flourished, and Willis' traits of ingenuity and forethought have been passed down through the generations.

"Success relies on responsibility to each other, whether it's today, 20 years ago, 60 years ago," said Chris Fuller, who runs Fuller Automotive. "Our great-grandfather was a great guy, our grandfather was a great guy, our father is a great guy. We've all been very supportive of the community and the people around us."

Fuller's is split into several entities spread across four buildings on one "campus," as the family likes to call it: Fuller Automotive, run by Chris, encompassing its automotive and tire center and SpeeDee Oil change; Fuller Auto Body and Collision Center, overseen by his brother Josh; and Fuller Auto Sales, handled by a longtime family friend, Dana Stoico. The company also provides towing and rapid auto rental services.

Chris and Josh's sister, Kerri Cunningham, is involved with the family business as well, handling administrative and marketing duties.

And, as Josh explained, their father, Richard Fuller, who ran the business for nearly 30 years, still keeps an eye on things. "He's not active in the day-to-day," he said. "It's more for moral support, guidance and wisdom."

Willis Fuller started out in 1914 — the year when Model T sales passed 250,000, according to the Ford Motor Co. — doing automotive ignition wiring in Worcester before he moved his shop to the family farm on Pakachoag Hill in Auburn. It has since moved to several locations and gone through expansions, finally settling on a 3-acre site at 505 Washington St. in Auburn (Route 20), and employing roughly 50 full and part-time workers.

Chris, a graduate of Assumption College, came to the business in 1996, followed in 2003 by Josh, a Bentley University grad who initially started out working in finance and accounting in Boston.

"I realized that working in the family business was a great opportunity," Josh recalled. "I saw it as more of a challenge, trying to do greater and better things than the contributions before us."

Chris, meanwhile, said he was drawn to the business by a sense of pride, and a fear of working in a cliched workplace.

"The idea of sitting in a cubicle scared me," he said. "I saw (the family business) as my best opportunity to make the life that I wanted for myself."

Offering the spectrum of automotive needs — from repairs to tune-ups to sales to rentals — the company credits its success to its ability to be flexible and down-to-earth with its customers, and to offer personalized service.

"There's no automated step of how things must be handled," said Chris, who loans out his personal truck a few times a week for customers who are in a bind. It's "operating on a level of one human being to another human being. That's how we've earned trust."

Fuller's has experienced some of its most rapid growth in just the last few years; in 2012, the auto body unit finished construction on an 11,000-square-foot expansion, and the following year, the automotive mechanical repair branch added 2,000 square feet. The collision center is also in growth mode, currently adding 7,000 square feet, according to Josh.

"This is a rapidly changing industry that needs to blend customer satisfaction with the needs of the insurance companies, all while working with a shrinking talent pool," said longtime Fuller partner Rick Hutchinson, of Auto Body Supplies and Paint in East Hartford, Conn. "Fuller has been able to excel in all areas, putting them where they are today."

How do they succeed?

"We focus on simplicity: Work hard, be good to people, generate slow, stable growth," Josh said.

As for other plans? In keeping with his grandfather's open-minded mentality, Chris summed it up: "Always be ready for an opportunity."

Knowing their jobs

Keeping family members productive, happy and — most importantly — sane comes down to having clearly defined roles and goals, the brothers agreed.

"It comes down to who we are as people," Chris said. "We both love and respect each other. It's a credit to everybody — there's no shortsightedness, jealousy, anger."

They're a close family; between the four Fuller siblings, there are eight grandkids, so the brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, sons and daughters "all like to hang out together, like to be together," Chris said.

Maintaining a strong local bond has also been tantamount to success. Over the years, Fuller's has donated time and money to numerous sports teams, groups and clubs, including $10,000 for a new scoreboard at Auburn High School, and $10,000 to Pappas recreation complex in Auburn. Customers also have the ability to register for periodic, on-location wellness clinics.

As Chris noted, "There has to be an honest and earned respect and relationship between a business and its community."

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