Family Group Sheet
Family Group Sheet
NameRobert Alvar West
Birth23 Feb 1945, Jackson, Jackson Co., MI, USA Age: 79
Marriage30 Dec 1966, Haven U.M. Church, Jackson, Jackson Co., MI, USA
SpouseMary Louise Paige
Birth18 Feb 1945, Saginaw, Saginaw Co., MI, USA Age: 79
FatherHoward Oswald Paige (1909-1994)
MotherJennie Louise Barnes (1908-2003)
Children
1 F(Private)
Spouse(Private)
Spouse(Private)
Spouse(Private)
2 F(Private)
Notes for Robert Alvar West
As of May, 2003-
Rob was elected president of Jackson High School's senior class for the school year 1962/63.
Rob is in advertising and marketing and, over the years, has worked at a number of different companies in three different states, e.g. Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota, and occasionally has taught marketing classes at university level.
Rob is also a highly skilled carpenter and furniture maker, and relaxes by playing the piano and building, and at various times boating.
Rob, as a vice president with Gilmore Advertising in Kalamazoo, Michigan, opened a branch office in Rockford, Illinois in March 1976. He had moved his family to Rockford in latter February.
In early 1979, Rob, Colin Gentry, Rod MacDonald, Dave Sundstedt, and Walt Liddle purchased Gilmoreís Rockford branch, initially naming it West & Gentry Advertising. On February 1, 1982 West & Gentry acquired Morris, Bailey & Associates, after which the company became known as West, Gentry & Morris.
W, G & M moved from downtown Rockford to a quaint, Swedish neighborhood in January 1983. In the fall of the next year, W, G & M opened a branch office in Minneapolis, Minnesota, initially managed by one of the W, G & M stockholders.
---------------------------
Statement in the front of a brochure published by"
WEST GENTRY & MORRIS Inc.
"The three most important responsibilities
that we have are to be honest,
straightforward, and objective.
That builds trust. And trust is
the foundation for any productive
agency/client relationship."
The following is a revealing article about Rob, written by Gregory A. Patterson, that appeared in the Business section's Monday profile for the Rockford, Illinois paper "The Register Star" June 4, 1984. (The business discussed in the article was later sold, and Wests moved to the Minneapolis area.)
SUN NEVER SETS ON ADMAN WEST
When the Rockford office of Gilmore Advertising wasn't moving fast enough for its manager, Robert West, West bought it. In the five years that followed, West increased the advertising agency's $960,000 in billings tenfold. But West's appetite demands more growth.
West is president of West Gentry & Morris, a fast-growing advertising firm sporting several local big-name clients. While West's path to success has not been a straight shot, it gives an accurate picture of the man. He has gone from premed student, to banker, to advertising executive in his 39 years.
At base, West is Midwestern. He was born the son of an industrial-arts teacher in Jackson, Mich. In high school his favorite pastimes were football and track. During his last year in college at Western Michigan University, West married a woman who was a former high school friend. He was too busy with sports and matters of consequence to do much dating in high school. West and his wife, Mary, now are parents to two teen-age girls.
"By nature I'm a very competitive person ñ and that's both the good and bad news," West said. West remembers always playing harder as a child and always wanting to win. West's hopes of attending medical school were dashed when he received a "C" in organic chemistry. "You can't curl (get a C in) organic and expect to get into med school," West said matter-of-factly. But in keeping with his competitive nature, West saw it as a new beginning and not the end. The hopes he had harbored since junior high school of becoming a doctor were gone, but West looked for other challenges.
He changed his major to business and took a job with a Kalamazoo bank as a senior. After graduation he pushed for more training. In graduate school he held down several jobs while studying for a master's of business administration degree from Western Michigan. West managed a self-service laundry, played piano in a bar, served as a disc jockey and organized a spring break tour to Fort Lauderdale, Fla, to raise money to fund his studies.
All those things he did during the fast-paced '60s, "when Vietnam was hot and so were the Beatles," West said. But West kept pushing in the '70s. An 18-month stint in the Army Reserve broke up his graduate-school training. With his master's degree in hand he continued working at the Kalamazoo bank and continued to get promotions. He went from the loan desk to marketing and research and landed the job of first vice president of advertising and marketing.
That was where he got his first taste of advertising. That is also where he decided the banking industry didn't move fast enough for him. After eight years in banking with a promising future, West got off the train and went to work for Gilmore Advertising in Kalamazoo. In the early '70s the banking industry was still heavily regulated. "The hottest thing we had on the market was a charge card," West said.
In contrast, "what makes this business exciting is that people are exposed to 1,852 ads per day, starting from the cereal box in the morning to the last commercial on the late nite show at night," West said. Advertising is always moving, exciting, and the job is never done. West said "Sam Darby can look at American Bank and say, hey I made that. But in this business you never get that because there's always another project going on. It's like having 50 balls in the air at the same time."
West soon impressed company executives at Gilmore. The company won an account to represent a Rockford bank group in 1975, and West moved to Rockford in 1976 as manager of a new branch. "I saw this town was ripe for growth (in advertising)" West said. Three years later, in 1979, West and four partners bought the branch with the intention of expanding the company and changed the name to West & Gentry Advertising.
Expansion appeared to be second nature to West & Gentry. In 1982 the firm acquired the Rockford advertising agency Morris, Bailey Associates. In the acquisition the firm's name changed to West Gentry & Morris. The acquisition boosted the firm's billings from about $3.5 million to well over $4 million. West attributes the success to getting good people to work for the firm.
West's determination helped also. He said he doesn't know exactly why he pushes so hard but two factors have a great deal to do with it. First, the Midwestern work ethic that binds us all. "All my life I have been a malcontent," West said. "I am always looking to do things quicker, better, faster." Secondly, he's short and he likes outdoing taller people, West said. "When you're short, you go at it harder. It's harder (in basketball) to score two points on a person who's 6-feet-2 ñ but it's more satisfying," he added.
"Most everyone who's gone to business school and been taught from the owner's point of view yearns to call the shots," West says. "We all want to sit in the CEO's (chief executive officer) chair. So all of a sudden you wake up and you're sitting in the CEO's chair, and it's frightening. There are so many variables and human factors that are always changing. And the worst decision is indecision."
Listening to West, one learns that it's just as important to know where to go as how to go. He is a community leader also. West's firm handles all publicity for the local United Way annual fund drive for $1 per year. "I have a commitment to this town, and I like this town," West said. He said he has always been willing to help Rockford revitalize itself. Public relations and Rockford are two of West's favorite topics. "I don't believe Rockford has an image problem. Rockford doesn't have an image," West said. "This town is not any different from Wichita, Kan.; Omaha, Neb.; or Spartanburg, S.C." The only difference is that those cities have a positive image in business circles. Rockford will become more attractive to businesses in the future as city leaders work out a marketing campaign for Rockford, and some of the glitter of the Sun Belt dulls, West said.
West's vision for the future includes establishing other agencies throughout the Midwest. He said that some time in the near future West Gentry will start up a granch office in a Midwestern town. "I don't have any intention of becoming another J. Walter Thompson," West said. But the Thompson people better look out, because West is moving fast.
---------------------------
W, G & M acquired the firm of Davis-Muender Advertising in early 1985. That year, W, G & M was acclaimed as the "largest full-service agency in northern Illinois." In August, Rob moved his family to Plymouth, Minnesota, and took over management of the W, G & M branch.
Not long after moving to Minnesota Rob went to work for Harris Advertising in Bloomington. In 1987 the following announcement appeared in the agency's bulletin "Ampersand" as part of a multi-part brochure:
"HARRIS & WEST CELEBRATES NEW NAME, NEW GROWTH
"On February 1, 1987, Harris Advertising became Harris & West, as Ralph Harris and Rob West joined in a new partnership to better serve the needs of our clients. According to Rob, the name change represented many other changes in the agency over the past year. 'We've recently hired six additional staff members, increased our office space to 6,500 square feet, acquired desktop publishing, and started a public relations division,' said Rob.
"Ralph added, 'This agency has grown steadily and been profitable since it opened its doors in 1975. We started with three people, five accounts, and $400,000 in billings. Today, we're 26 people, 33 full-service accounts, 10 project accounts, and approaching $14 million in billings.'
"'We've made a commitment to building the best agency in Minnesota, and we're confident in our ability to do that,' concluded Rob."...
Also part of the brochure was the following brief description of Rob West, President:
"Rob has the business in his blood. You can draw on his energies for market research, strategic planning, setting fire to your sales force, and a rousing session of brainstorming. Rob oversees the day-to-day operations of the agency and the management group. His job is to ensure that its resources are properly employed for all clients. You may also run into Rob lecturing on advertising and marketing at colleges and service clubs, or teaching a sales training course. Rob's a member of the board of directors, Minneapolis Community College Development Foundation. He earned a BA from Western Michigan University in business administration and an MBA with an emphasis in strategic planning and research."
---------------------------
In 1998 Rob founded and became CEO of the Westerlund Product Corporation, which manufactured, marketed and distributed the HomeScape shelving system, several aspects of which Rob invented. During his tenure Rob held nine patents and the products were carried by many of the nation's largest home-improvement retailers, including Home Depot, Menards, Villager's Hardware and Target. He sold the company in 2002 and started a consulting business called Stategic Insights, which required extensive travel. He made another important career move in 2003, which resulted in his centralizing his business interests in Duluth. He still carried out consulting work which, at minimum, required occasional trips to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
["Westerlund" commemorates the original Swedish family name before it was truncated to "West."]
Excerpts from an e-mail that Rob sent to brother-in-law Chuck Paige 31 Oct 2002:
"I remember one time in 1975 when your dad came up to Kalamazoo with my dad. We were building a new house, the A-frame, and I did my own wiring. Between your dad, my dad, Bobby Garrett and I, we wired the whole house in one day. It was a lot of fun. And, the place never burned down. I enjoy doing this kind of stuff. Will work for beer and chili. I did my own cabin completely over two years ago...
"What's going on with your new house? Saw some picture recently and it's pretty darn nice. Hope you're enjoying it a bunch! Buy me a plane ticket and I'll help you wire, build, drywall, shingle, replace windows, plaster, formica, put in plumbing, set a toilet stool, hang rain gutters, put in insulation, dig footing, build decks, hang doors. But I will not paint!!! (unless it's for beer and chili!)"
Excerpt from an e-mail that Rob sent to the same brother-in-law 17 Jan 2003
"On Monday, January 21, I will have a new e-mail address. I have taken an assignment at H.T. Klatzky & Associates in Duluth, MN as a Senior Account Director. I will also be teaching on Monday evenings at the University of Minnesota's Duluth campus. In addition, I will be in Minneapolis on a regular basis serving my clients in this area and back and forth on weekends."
----------------------
http://editor.duluth.com/index.php?sect_rank=1&story_id=169033
Duluth resident will lead APEX
Pat Faherty
Editor at MMI
Last updated: Friday, April 30th, 2004 07:13:15 AM
DULUTH -- Rob West has been named chief executive officer of the Area Partnership for Economic Expansion.
He is a Duluth resident with a background in business and advertising. West teaches marketing courses at the University of Minnesota Duluth School of Business and Economics and most recently worked with H.T. Klatzky & Associates in Duluth.
Known as APEX, the year old organization is a Duluth-based regional economic development initiative. It superseded Team Duluth with broad private sector leadership and a more regional focus.
As West takes over, APEX is operating with a $400,000 annual budget. Its 27-member board of directors represents 43 industries.
An airplane built by Cirrus Design, the region's biggest economic success story, was the backdrop for the announcement of the appointment by Peter Person, CEO of St. Mary's/Duluth Clinic Health System and vice chair of the APEX Board.
"We did a national search, we had over a 100 different applicants for the position," said Person. "Rob is one of these individuals who brings a lot of talent and Rob is also one of these individuals we're very fortunate to have in our own community."
Person cited West's extensive experience with Fortune 500 companies, and as an entrepreneur and described him as "high energy."
"This is a team effort," said West, who listed the elements of economic development as capital, credit, commitment and collaboration. "We don't need to reinvent the wheel, we only need to make the wheel spin faster -- and perhaps we offer some guidance for where the wheel ought to go."
West plans o spend his first 100 days getting to know the economic development community.
Duluth Mayor Herb Bergson hailed the event as "a new dawn of cooperation" in the region.
"What's really exciting about this, is that for the first in the history of the Twin Ports, we are going to look at regional economic development," said Bergson. He praised APEX for selecting someone from the private sector to lead the economic development effort.
West elaborated on major goals of APEX, including expanding the area's tax base and increasing the regional wage base, and the organization's immediate task.
"Job one is to define who we are and where we want to go, so we can position ourselves to be competitive," he said.
West believes that attracting more companies in pulp and paper, high technology and medical technology, will push the wage base up, create new job opportunities and in turn bring in more tax dollars.
Rob was elected president of Jackson High School's senior class for the school year 1962/63.
Rob is in advertising and marketing and, over the years, has worked at a number of different companies in three different states, e.g. Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota, and occasionally has taught marketing classes at university level.
Rob is also a highly skilled carpenter and furniture maker, and relaxes by playing the piano and building, and at various times boating.
Rob, as a vice president with Gilmore Advertising in Kalamazoo, Michigan, opened a branch office in Rockford, Illinois in March 1976. He had moved his family to Rockford in latter February.
In early 1979, Rob, Colin Gentry, Rod MacDonald, Dave Sundstedt, and Walt Liddle purchased Gilmoreís Rockford branch, initially naming it West & Gentry Advertising. On February 1, 1982 West & Gentry acquired Morris, Bailey & Associates, after which the company became known as West, Gentry & Morris.
W, G & M moved from downtown Rockford to a quaint, Swedish neighborhood in January 1983. In the fall of the next year, W, G & M opened a branch office in Minneapolis, Minnesota, initially managed by one of the W, G & M stockholders.
---------------------------
Statement in the front of a brochure published by"
WEST GENTRY & MORRIS Inc.
"The three most important responsibilities
that we have are to be honest,
straightforward, and objective.
That builds trust. And trust is
the foundation for any productive
agency/client relationship."
The following is a revealing article about Rob, written by Gregory A. Patterson, that appeared in the Business section's Monday profile for the Rockford, Illinois paper "The Register Star" June 4, 1984. (The business discussed in the article was later sold, and Wests moved to the Minneapolis area.)
SUN NEVER SETS ON ADMAN WEST
When the Rockford office of Gilmore Advertising wasn't moving fast enough for its manager, Robert West, West bought it. In the five years that followed, West increased the advertising agency's $960,000 in billings tenfold. But West's appetite demands more growth.
West is president of West Gentry & Morris, a fast-growing advertising firm sporting several local big-name clients. While West's path to success has not been a straight shot, it gives an accurate picture of the man. He has gone from premed student, to banker, to advertising executive in his 39 years.
At base, West is Midwestern. He was born the son of an industrial-arts teacher in Jackson, Mich. In high school his favorite pastimes were football and track. During his last year in college at Western Michigan University, West married a woman who was a former high school friend. He was too busy with sports and matters of consequence to do much dating in high school. West and his wife, Mary, now are parents to two teen-age girls.
"By nature I'm a very competitive person ñ and that's both the good and bad news," West said. West remembers always playing harder as a child and always wanting to win. West's hopes of attending medical school were dashed when he received a "C" in organic chemistry. "You can't curl (get a C in) organic and expect to get into med school," West said matter-of-factly. But in keeping with his competitive nature, West saw it as a new beginning and not the end. The hopes he had harbored since junior high school of becoming a doctor were gone, but West looked for other challenges.
He changed his major to business and took a job with a Kalamazoo bank as a senior. After graduation he pushed for more training. In graduate school he held down several jobs while studying for a master's of business administration degree from Western Michigan. West managed a self-service laundry, played piano in a bar, served as a disc jockey and organized a spring break tour to Fort Lauderdale, Fla, to raise money to fund his studies.
All those things he did during the fast-paced '60s, "when Vietnam was hot and so were the Beatles," West said. But West kept pushing in the '70s. An 18-month stint in the Army Reserve broke up his graduate-school training. With his master's degree in hand he continued working at the Kalamazoo bank and continued to get promotions. He went from the loan desk to marketing and research and landed the job of first vice president of advertising and marketing.
That was where he got his first taste of advertising. That is also where he decided the banking industry didn't move fast enough for him. After eight years in banking with a promising future, West got off the train and went to work for Gilmore Advertising in Kalamazoo. In the early '70s the banking industry was still heavily regulated. "The hottest thing we had on the market was a charge card," West said.
In contrast, "what makes this business exciting is that people are exposed to 1,852 ads per day, starting from the cereal box in the morning to the last commercial on the late nite show at night," West said. Advertising is always moving, exciting, and the job is never done. West said "Sam Darby can look at American Bank and say, hey I made that. But in this business you never get that because there's always another project going on. It's like having 50 balls in the air at the same time."
West soon impressed company executives at Gilmore. The company won an account to represent a Rockford bank group in 1975, and West moved to Rockford in 1976 as manager of a new branch. "I saw this town was ripe for growth (in advertising)" West said. Three years later, in 1979, West and four partners bought the branch with the intention of expanding the company and changed the name to West & Gentry Advertising.
Expansion appeared to be second nature to West & Gentry. In 1982 the firm acquired the Rockford advertising agency Morris, Bailey Associates. In the acquisition the firm's name changed to West Gentry & Morris. The acquisition boosted the firm's billings from about $3.5 million to well over $4 million. West attributes the success to getting good people to work for the firm.
West's determination helped also. He said he doesn't know exactly why he pushes so hard but two factors have a great deal to do with it. First, the Midwestern work ethic that binds us all. "All my life I have been a malcontent," West said. "I am always looking to do things quicker, better, faster." Secondly, he's short and he likes outdoing taller people, West said. "When you're short, you go at it harder. It's harder (in basketball) to score two points on a person who's 6-feet-2 ñ but it's more satisfying," he added.
"Most everyone who's gone to business school and been taught from the owner's point of view yearns to call the shots," West says. "We all want to sit in the CEO's (chief executive officer) chair. So all of a sudden you wake up and you're sitting in the CEO's chair, and it's frightening. There are so many variables and human factors that are always changing. And the worst decision is indecision."
Listening to West, one learns that it's just as important to know where to go as how to go. He is a community leader also. West's firm handles all publicity for the local United Way annual fund drive for $1 per year. "I have a commitment to this town, and I like this town," West said. He said he has always been willing to help Rockford revitalize itself. Public relations and Rockford are two of West's favorite topics. "I don't believe Rockford has an image problem. Rockford doesn't have an image," West said. "This town is not any different from Wichita, Kan.; Omaha, Neb.; or Spartanburg, S.C." The only difference is that those cities have a positive image in business circles. Rockford will become more attractive to businesses in the future as city leaders work out a marketing campaign for Rockford, and some of the glitter of the Sun Belt dulls, West said.
West's vision for the future includes establishing other agencies throughout the Midwest. He said that some time in the near future West Gentry will start up a granch office in a Midwestern town. "I don't have any intention of becoming another J. Walter Thompson," West said. But the Thompson people better look out, because West is moving fast.
---------------------------
W, G & M acquired the firm of Davis-Muender Advertising in early 1985. That year, W, G & M was acclaimed as the "largest full-service agency in northern Illinois." In August, Rob moved his family to Plymouth, Minnesota, and took over management of the W, G & M branch.
Not long after moving to Minnesota Rob went to work for Harris Advertising in Bloomington. In 1987 the following announcement appeared in the agency's bulletin "Ampersand" as part of a multi-part brochure:
"HARRIS & WEST CELEBRATES NEW NAME, NEW GROWTH
"On February 1, 1987, Harris Advertising became Harris & West, as Ralph Harris and Rob West joined in a new partnership to better serve the needs of our clients. According to Rob, the name change represented many other changes in the agency over the past year. 'We've recently hired six additional staff members, increased our office space to 6,500 square feet, acquired desktop publishing, and started a public relations division,' said Rob.
"Ralph added, 'This agency has grown steadily and been profitable since it opened its doors in 1975. We started with three people, five accounts, and $400,000 in billings. Today, we're 26 people, 33 full-service accounts, 10 project accounts, and approaching $14 million in billings.'
"'We've made a commitment to building the best agency in Minnesota, and we're confident in our ability to do that,' concluded Rob."...
Also part of the brochure was the following brief description of Rob West, President:
"Rob has the business in his blood. You can draw on his energies for market research, strategic planning, setting fire to your sales force, and a rousing session of brainstorming. Rob oversees the day-to-day operations of the agency and the management group. His job is to ensure that its resources are properly employed for all clients. You may also run into Rob lecturing on advertising and marketing at colleges and service clubs, or teaching a sales training course. Rob's a member of the board of directors, Minneapolis Community College Development Foundation. He earned a BA from Western Michigan University in business administration and an MBA with an emphasis in strategic planning and research."
---------------------------
In 1998 Rob founded and became CEO of the Westerlund Product Corporation, which manufactured, marketed and distributed the HomeScape shelving system, several aspects of which Rob invented. During his tenure Rob held nine patents and the products were carried by many of the nation's largest home-improvement retailers, including Home Depot, Menards, Villager's Hardware and Target. He sold the company in 2002 and started a consulting business called Stategic Insights, which required extensive travel. He made another important career move in 2003, which resulted in his centralizing his business interests in Duluth. He still carried out consulting work which, at minimum, required occasional trips to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
["Westerlund" commemorates the original Swedish family name before it was truncated to "West."]
Excerpts from an e-mail that Rob sent to brother-in-law Chuck Paige 31 Oct 2002:
"I remember one time in 1975 when your dad came up to Kalamazoo with my dad. We were building a new house, the A-frame, and I did my own wiring. Between your dad, my dad, Bobby Garrett and I, we wired the whole house in one day. It was a lot of fun. And, the place never burned down. I enjoy doing this kind of stuff. Will work for beer and chili. I did my own cabin completely over two years ago...
"What's going on with your new house? Saw some picture recently and it's pretty darn nice. Hope you're enjoying it a bunch! Buy me a plane ticket and I'll help you wire, build, drywall, shingle, replace windows, plaster, formica, put in plumbing, set a toilet stool, hang rain gutters, put in insulation, dig footing, build decks, hang doors. But I will not paint!!! (unless it's for beer and chili!)"
Excerpt from an e-mail that Rob sent to the same brother-in-law 17 Jan 2003
"On Monday, January 21, I will have a new e-mail address. I have taken an assignment at H.T. Klatzky & Associates in Duluth, MN as a Senior Account Director. I will also be teaching on Monday evenings at the University of Minnesota's Duluth campus. In addition, I will be in Minneapolis on a regular basis serving my clients in this area and back and forth on weekends."
----------------------
http://editor.duluth.com/index.php?sect_rank=1&story_id=169033
Duluth resident will lead APEX
Pat Faherty
Editor at MMI
Last updated: Friday, April 30th, 2004 07:13:15 AM
DULUTH -- Rob West has been named chief executive officer of the Area Partnership for Economic Expansion.
He is a Duluth resident with a background in business and advertising. West teaches marketing courses at the University of Minnesota Duluth School of Business and Economics and most recently worked with H.T. Klatzky & Associates in Duluth.
Known as APEX, the year old organization is a Duluth-based regional economic development initiative. It superseded Team Duluth with broad private sector leadership and a more regional focus.
As West takes over, APEX is operating with a $400,000 annual budget. Its 27-member board of directors represents 43 industries.
An airplane built by Cirrus Design, the region's biggest economic success story, was the backdrop for the announcement of the appointment by Peter Person, CEO of St. Mary's/Duluth Clinic Health System and vice chair of the APEX Board.
"We did a national search, we had over a 100 different applicants for the position," said Person. "Rob is one of these individuals who brings a lot of talent and Rob is also one of these individuals we're very fortunate to have in our own community."
Person cited West's extensive experience with Fortune 500 companies, and as an entrepreneur and described him as "high energy."
"This is a team effort," said West, who listed the elements of economic development as capital, credit, commitment and collaboration. "We don't need to reinvent the wheel, we only need to make the wheel spin faster -- and perhaps we offer some guidance for where the wheel ought to go."
West plans o spend his first 100 days getting to know the economic development community.
Duluth Mayor Herb Bergson hailed the event as "a new dawn of cooperation" in the region.
"What's really exciting about this, is that for the first in the history of the Twin Ports, we are going to look at regional economic development," said Bergson. He praised APEX for selecting someone from the private sector to lead the economic development effort.
West elaborated on major goals of APEX, including expanding the area's tax base and increasing the regional wage base, and the organization's immediate task.
"Job one is to define who we are and where we want to go, so we can position ourselves to be competitive," he said.
West believes that attracting more companies in pulp and paper, high technology and medical technology, will push the wage base up, create new job opportunities and in turn bring in more tax dollars.
Notes for Mary Louise Paige
As of May, 2003-
In 1962, while living on a farm ten miles away from Jackson, Michigan, yet maintaining a job and attending high school in town, Mary was inducted into the Jackson's chapter of the National Honor Society. The ceremony was conducted at Jackson High School's Withington Stadium. [Fourteen years before, her sister Charlene had been inducted in Saginaw, MI. Thirty-six years later, in 1998, her grandniece Kelli Garrett would be inducted in Caro, MI, followed by grandniece Mallory Garrett and grandnephew Jason Hill in AD 2000.]
Mary was elected Jackson High School student body vice president during her 1962/63 senior year. Her future husband Robert Alvar West was elected president of the senior class.
Mary is an avid reader, an inspired organizer, and also enjoys playing the piano. Additionally, Mary is custodian for the bulk of old Paige family photographs and 8mm home movies.
Mary worked in the new Gilmore Advertising branch, where Rob was a vice president, for some years after the family moved to Rockford, Illinois from Kalamazoo, Michigan. By the fall of 1982 she was working as a temporary employee through the Manpower temp. agency. After an eight-week assignment starting in March 1983, the SwedishAmerican Hospital in Rockford hired her full time in their Community Relations/Development Office. However, by 1985 she was occasionally working freelance for Robís agency.
Mary's most recent line of work has been printing and promotional products, working for PAR Consulting Inc. of Edina, Minnesota. Every year for the ten years she worked at PAR, she walked in the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Challenge Walk as a member of the PAR Plus Team, sometimes joined by her daughter Angie. When it came time for Mary to move on, the following appeared in PAR's newsletter PAR+TICULARS of June 2003:
"GOODBYE MARY WEST
"When you work with people you like, the days go fast (as well as the years). Mary West started working at PAR over 10 years ago. We have celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, births, deaths, successes, losses, walks, books, stories, family frustrations, and lots of fun on the job.
"Mary (and her husband Rob) are pulling up stakes and moving. They have sold their home in Minnetonka, and are moving to Duluth. Rob is working with H. T. Klatzky & Associates, Inc., a leading advertising agency in Duluth as Senior Account Executive. Though we tried to talk Mary into staying at PAR, she decided she needed to be with Rob near their "getaway cabin" north of Duluth.
"Mary has worked with clients and vendors like you, bringing a high level of care and concern for your projects. Even when the unforeseen occurs (errors, omissions, and stupid things), Mary always handles the details with common sense and a willing "can do" attitude.
"In addition to selling a home, moving into a new one, Mary and Rob's daughter, Angie, is getting married in May. Once the move, wedding, and settling is complete, Mary says she will look for a job in Duluth, hoping to find one as fun as working at PAR."
In 1962, while living on a farm ten miles away from Jackson, Michigan, yet maintaining a job and attending high school in town, Mary was inducted into the Jackson's chapter of the National Honor Society. The ceremony was conducted at Jackson High School's Withington Stadium. [Fourteen years before, her sister Charlene had been inducted in Saginaw, MI. Thirty-six years later, in 1998, her grandniece Kelli Garrett would be inducted in Caro, MI, followed by grandniece Mallory Garrett and grandnephew Jason Hill in AD 2000.]
Mary was elected Jackson High School student body vice president during her 1962/63 senior year. Her future husband Robert Alvar West was elected president of the senior class.
Mary is an avid reader, an inspired organizer, and also enjoys playing the piano. Additionally, Mary is custodian for the bulk of old Paige family photographs and 8mm home movies.
Mary worked in the new Gilmore Advertising branch, where Rob was a vice president, for some years after the family moved to Rockford, Illinois from Kalamazoo, Michigan. By the fall of 1982 she was working as a temporary employee through the Manpower temp. agency. After an eight-week assignment starting in March 1983, the SwedishAmerican Hospital in Rockford hired her full time in their Community Relations/Development Office. However, by 1985 she was occasionally working freelance for Robís agency.
Mary's most recent line of work has been printing and promotional products, working for PAR Consulting Inc. of Edina, Minnesota. Every year for the ten years she worked at PAR, she walked in the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Challenge Walk as a member of the PAR Plus Team, sometimes joined by her daughter Angie. When it came time for Mary to move on, the following appeared in PAR's newsletter PAR+TICULARS of June 2003:
"GOODBYE MARY WEST
"When you work with people you like, the days go fast (as well as the years). Mary West started working at PAR over 10 years ago. We have celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, births, deaths, successes, losses, walks, books, stories, family frustrations, and lots of fun on the job.
"Mary (and her husband Rob) are pulling up stakes and moving. They have sold their home in Minnetonka, and are moving to Duluth. Rob is working with H. T. Klatzky & Associates, Inc., a leading advertising agency in Duluth as Senior Account Executive. Though we tried to talk Mary into staying at PAR, she decided she needed to be with Rob near their "getaway cabin" north of Duluth.
"Mary has worked with clients and vendors like you, bringing a high level of care and concern for your projects. Even when the unforeseen occurs (errors, omissions, and stupid things), Mary always handles the details with common sense and a willing "can do" attitude.
"In addition to selling a home, moving into a new one, Mary and Rob's daughter, Angie, is getting married in May. Once the move, wedding, and settling is complete, Mary says she will look for a job in Duluth, hoping to find one as fun as working at PAR."
Notes for Robert Alvar & Mary Louise (Family)
Mary and Rob were married by brother-in-law Rev. Robert Page Garrett, Sr.
As of May, 2003-
Mary and Rob have lived in three states: Michigan (Kalamazoo: in apartments when first married, then three different houses), Illinois (Rockford: two locations), and Minnesota (Plymouth, Excelsior a.k.a. Shorewood (on Silver Lake), Minnetonka, and Duluth). While in Kalamazoo, they built their third house, an A-frame, with some family help from Mary's father Howard and nephew Bob Garrett, Jr., who was attending Western Michigan University and boarding with them, and also from Rob's father Alvar and brother John.
In latter February 1976, Wests moved from their newly built A-frame house in Kalamazoo Co., Michigan to a new house at Currytail Close in Rockford, Illinois, where Rob had been sent to open a branch for Gilmore Advertising. In December 1979 Wests moved up to a house on White Oak. This was shortly after Rob and others had purchased the Gilmore Advertising branch.
In mid-August 1985 the Wests moved from Rockford to the Minneapolis, Minnesota suburb of Plymouth. They moved to an area called Shorewood (Excelsior) in the mid-1990s. They bought a cabin on Barr Lake north of Duluth in latter 1999, and spent many hours over the next few years practically rebuilding it. Later they moved from Shorewood to a Cape Cod-style house in Minnetonka, which they kept from mid-2002 to mid-2003.
Their next move was to Duluth, where they are only a short drive from their cabin, and only a five-minute drive from where their daughter Betsy and her husband Mark live.
As of May, 2003-
Mary and Rob have lived in three states: Michigan (Kalamazoo: in apartments when first married, then three different houses), Illinois (Rockford: two locations), and Minnesota (Plymouth, Excelsior a.k.a. Shorewood (on Silver Lake), Minnetonka, and Duluth). While in Kalamazoo, they built their third house, an A-frame, with some family help from Mary's father Howard and nephew Bob Garrett, Jr., who was attending Western Michigan University and boarding with them, and also from Rob's father Alvar and brother John.
In latter February 1976, Wests moved from their newly built A-frame house in Kalamazoo Co., Michigan to a new house at Currytail Close in Rockford, Illinois, where Rob had been sent to open a branch for Gilmore Advertising. In December 1979 Wests moved up to a house on White Oak. This was shortly after Rob and others had purchased the Gilmore Advertising branch.
In mid-August 1985 the Wests moved from Rockford to the Minneapolis, Minnesota suburb of Plymouth. They moved to an area called Shorewood (Excelsior) in the mid-1990s. They bought a cabin on Barr Lake north of Duluth in latter 1999, and spent many hours over the next few years practically rebuilding it. Later they moved from Shorewood to a Cape Cod-style house in Minnetonka, which they kept from mid-2002 to mid-2003.
Their next move was to Duluth, where they are only a short drive from their cabin, and only a five-minute drive from where their daughter Betsy and her husband Mark live.