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Title: Willard Wall The Fresno Bee Opinion
Date: 1996-09-30
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| Title | Willard Wall The Fresno Bee Opinion |
| Date | 1996-09-30 |
| Description | ou? IG The Fresno Bee Founded 1922 F. Willard Wall El The Porterville entrepreneur leaves a solid | He was a man who stayed at home and man- leaacy of knowina what’s i rtant in life, aged the family business, while his brother, rae g = nee ce the adventurer Kermit, sailed around the | | world on a yacht. Mr. Wall was more likely to . get a kick out of serving as grand marshal of A yp. ctore his death on Saturday, F. Willard — the Tulare County Fair. That’s not to say he 2 Dp. Wall would have been a perfect cus- was not an active man. He just preferred to _ tomer for Madison Avenue: the largest -. padqd] h id, rather than sail animal-health products distributor in the ahi, Be GAO, Ate SR EG, ROE eee a world, al sales of his Walco International © exceeding $330 million. ” ee Mr. Wall; 73 when he died, | didn’t tnok at Oh, what those frisky public-relations kids things the way most big-time business folks do. Nepotism, for example, to him was a good at Chiat-Day could have done with him. Colts thing. He and his wife, Pegge, have seven chil- and calves in slow-motion videos, nuzzling =~ dren and 20 grandchildren, Three of the chil- children in gingham sun dresses, scampering dren work for the company. He used to laugh across verdigris pastures as the camera pans a ¢ é white Victorian farm house with a lattice ga- eine , That's why we call it a family busi- -zebo and lace curtains. The life he could have lived with the real-life The value he placed on home, family and likenesses of J.R. Ewing. He admitted that it employees is what set him apart from most would have been smart to move to Texas, multimillionaire businessmen in America. He | Kan Neb h _ was the kind of man who sets an example for — eee oe pene ae - bust the leadership we like to see coming from the ness was. | _ But there was ; just one , place i in la heart— -~ tase nEEe ORE, aay eae Porterville. For him, walking through town | greeting one’s second-grade buddies is some- © __ Lhe Valleyisa beaintifial alaas? he told a thing that added depth to character. _° Bee staff writer last year, When you live in _ As his business grew, that character later - the backwater you have pune? eer on val- was reflected in his philosophy for managing US OF what life is all about." | _ 700 workers: Take care of your employees. _ Friends will gather for a memorial service | Retain capital to grow. Don’t be highly lever- __ Friday at 11 a.m. at the First Church of the aged. Never owe the bank too much. Take ~ Nazarene in Porterville to reflect on the gift of risks, but never risk everything. Provide for - knowing and loving the modest, Mr. ‘Wall... . the long haul. Stay with the core business.” © That’s what life’s all about. mf |